The difference between getting a higher pay or lesser for almost the same job is education.  The difference of having a better quality life from a miserable one is education.  Though education isn't a guarantee to happiness and huge economic success in life, it is lot easier to go through life with a good education than without one.  Higher education is expensive.  The average student today usually pays for his education through Student Loans. My daughter was just twenty when she told me she owed $23,000 in student loans.  I remembered when I was twenty.  The last thing I would have had the courage to do was go into debt for $23.00 let alone $23,000!  Private Student Loans are the way to go to get the much desired education.  I was so proud of my daughter for getting that loan.  I realized besides the education she was getting in school, she was getting another education about Private Student Loans and the value of good credit.