Should student loans be treated like an investment loss?

Think about it… If education was supposed to be an investment, but we can’t make enough to pay it back in a reasonable time because of the job market, why isn’t it like a bad stock investment that we can write off on taxes? Just wondering if anyone else has thought about this.

  • Student loans keep you tied down and make it harder to move somewhere cheaper.
  • They make you feel like you owe everything to ‘society’ while literally getting a bill for it.
  • They force people into expensive schools just to access certain jobs.
  • Only a tiny part of what you pay even counts for tax purposes.

… Student loans are basically modern-day financial chains.

@Clare
I get the frustration, but acting like a degree isn’t worth it is just wrong.

The median salary for college grads compared to high school grads is nearly double from ages 23-27. Over a lifetime, college grads make about a million more. It’s even higher for STEM degrees.

Sure, student loans are rough at first. I had $80k in loans and graduated in 2010 into a destroyed economy. It was brutal. But now, 15 years later, it’s a different story. And my degree was in literature.

A degree is still a good investment in the long run.

@Rylan
I had a reply here before, but it got removed. I guess my frustration was too real. Anyway, I’ll just say—if your degree doesn’t pay off, it feels like a scam rather than an investment.

It’s different because a stock has a dollar value and can be bought and sold. When you sell a stock at a loss, it’s tax-deductible. Education isn’t an asset like that. You can’t sell your degree.

But honestly, these rules are made up anyway. Higher education should be free, and student loans shouldn’t be needed.

@Blane
So basically, it’s a bigger loss that we just have to eat?

Haven said:
@Blane
So basically, it’s a bigger loss that we just have to eat?

If that’s the case, does anyone want to buy my MFA?

I’d gladly return my degree for my money back. Too bad that’s not an option.

They told us this was an ‘investment’ but it turned out to be a ‘loss.’ While true, that lets the system off the hook too easily.

Student loans aren’t just a bad investment—they’re a rigged system meant to trap people in debt. That’s why you can’t declare bankruptcy, write them off, or get the protections that other loans have.

Students deserve relief. At the very least, these debts should be wiped out. And the people profiting from this system should be held accountable.

The worst part is that you can’t get rid of student loans in bankruptcy.

I went through bankruptcy after a divorce. Every other debt—car loans, credit cards—got wiped out. But my student loans? Still here a decade later.

@Nuri
Private student loans should be dischargeable just like any other private loan.

Bennie said:
@Nuri
Private student loans should be dischargeable just like any other private loan.

If that happened, interest rates would skyrocket.

Skyler said:

Bennie said:
@Nuri
Private student loans should be dischargeable just like any other private loan.

If that happened, interest rates would skyrocket.

They’re already high, though.

You can write off $3k in stock losses per year. You can only deduct $2k in student loan interest.

Hart said:
You can write off $3k in stock losses per year. You can only deduct $2k in student loan interest.

The student loan deduction is $2.5K but it’s limited by income. The stock loss deduction is way better.

People act like only rich kids have student loans. That’s not true. Most borrowers are middle-class folks trying to get by.

I was told my whole life that if I didn’t go to college, I’d end up homeless or addicted to drugs. So I took out student loans, thinking it was my only option.

Now I feel like I got scammed.

Biden should have been more creative with tax options for student loans. Raising the deduction cap would have made a huge difference.

Right now, only people in poverty can claim the deduction. Meanwhile, those same people aren’t even paying their loans because of SAVE. Does the government want the loans paid back or not?

If small business loans are tax-deductible, why not student loans? Education is professional development, isn’t it?

It’s hard to measure the return on a degree. Did you study hard? Did you pick the right major? Too many factors.