How to Money · Friday, July 31, 2026
The hosts challenge the blanket advice that college is always a 'no-brainer,' citing the significant debt many students incur and the evolving value of degrees. They suggest that while college can be beneficial, cost-effectiveness, degree relevance, and the time to completion are crucial factors, as it was not the guaranteed path to success it once was.
“Let's talk about some more something else in the vein of career and earnings oriented advice that people here on the rag Matt and that is just that college is a no brainer, right, And so not many of our listeners are college age, you know, a small handful, but some of our listeners are getting to the point where they've got kids who are considering going to college. They've got those those teenagers now at home. And so every time we talk about this, I feel like we get unhappy listener emails because they say, listen, why are you talking crap about college?”
“But we just don't think that the vast majority of high school seniors should be mortgaging their futures by taking on astronomical amounts of debt, which which is in many cases leading to I don't know the most expensive piece of wal art till ever, hang right that a college degree that goes behind their desk that some couple hundred. K do you even know where your college degree, like your actual diploma is no, I have no idea.”
“But the thing is, college truly was a no brainer thirty to forty years ago, but it's it's much more of a specific value proposition that young adults have to consider beforehand these days, before they start applying to schools. The reality of debt that can linger for decades, especially if that degree isn't landing you the lucrative career that you hoped is just too much of a downside to give some sort of blanket advice that college makes sense for most people.”