A student loan may seem like an obvious answer to your need to pay for school. Many will tell you that getting a student loan is a "wise" type of debt because it will increase your earning potential, therefore making it a wise investment. However, there are situations when getting a student loan is actually a bad idea. Before you sign up for a loan, make sure you can really afford it.

In most cases getting a degree will increase your earning potential. However, if you borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars, only to earn a degree that will allow you to earn just $35,000 a year, you are going to struggle to repay that debt. Many career fields have limited income growth potential, so try to estimate your future earnings before you get a loan. This will help you know how much you can afford. You can get a good idea of the average earnings for your potential future career by visiting the U.S. Department of Labor website and reading the Bureau of Labor Statistics pages.

Next, figure out how much the monthly payment for the proposed loan will be. This is where you can really tell whether or not you can afford to borrow the money. Remember, you will have many living expenses as a self-sufficient college graduate that you cannot imagine now. As a general rule, keep your monthly payment for college debt as less than 10 percent of your total monthly income. Of course, you do not know for sure what that monthly income is going to be, but you can make an educated guess.

If you are unsure how much the monthly payment on the loan is going to be, find a loan repayment calculator, input the interest rate and balance of the proposed loan, and input 120 months as the repayment term. This is the most common repayment period for a student loan.

What happens if you find that you cannot afford what you would need to borrow? In this case, you will need to find another way to pay for school or a way to lower the cost. Perhaps you could spread your education out over a few extra years in order to give yourself more time to work. Maybe you could get some of your credits out of the way at a local school. Do what you need to do, but do not borrow more than you can afford. If you do, you are setting yourself up to enter adult life already in financial difficulty.