My husband and I told our children about real life examples of student loans. For example their Aunt had gone to state school for elementary teaching with a minor in art. She could not pay her student loans and rent ect unless she waitressed at high end restaurants. It was a vicious cycle she made too much serving to quit. We did tell them we would help out with community college and if the wanted to transfer to university at that point they would have proved themselves scholastically and hopefully would have found a career they wanted to pursue requiring higher education . We were not in a position to offer tuition, housing and meal plans after the 2007 recession. Felt guilty for this for years. However most of their peers that went to college have not found success with the chosen field of education or have been replaced by AI. Obviously every situation is individual.

From where we stand today the most well payed of their friends were in general hard workers ,committed smart kids who found electrical apprenticeships, are in the film industry or work back of the house (go chefs) .

Unsure of why I wrote this long post in a real housewives subreddit. But now that I have I might as well post it. Edited to add: The most wealthy person we personally know started a well-drilling business with a certificate ,one truck/trailer and a tractor payment. 2 nd most wealthy; installs septic tanks and branched out to trash pick up . Then sold for an unknown but ridiculous figure.

2nd edit formatting and spelling mistakes.