323. Do Teens Really Need College? Rethinking the Path After High School | Hannah of Degree Free

Simple Farmhouse Life

Lisa Bass

Leisure, Home & Garden

4.9 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2026

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As teens near the end of high school, many families feel the sudden pressure of answering the question, what’s next? In this episode, Hannah and I dive into how the modern college system developed, why it often no longer fits the realities of work and opportunity, and what can be lost when college becomes the default without a clear end goal. Hannah lays out her practical framework for helping teens think through future work based on real-life needs—not just passion—and why slowing the process down matters more than ever. If you’re looking for insight into guiding your teen through this important transition in life, don’t miss this episode!

In this episode, we cover:

- Navigating the sudden pressure of everyone asking “what’s next?” when teens near the end of high school

- How the modern college system developed and why today’s default path no longer matches the realities of work, debt, or opportunity

- The surprising data behind how few jobs actually require a college degree and why degree inflation persists anyway

- What gets lost when young adults are pushed into college without clarity– time, confidence, flexibility, and momentum

- Reframing career conversations away from passion-first thinking and toward identifying real-life needs and long-term goals

- A practical framework for helping teens evaluate their desired future work based on income, schedule, location, and work environment

- Why exposure and exploration matter more than credentials, and how simply shadowing careers of interest can prevent costly missteps

- How student loan debt quietly limits future options like family life, entrepreneurship, and location flexibility

- Why parents play a critical role in slowing the process down, asking better questions, and refusing to co-sign unclear decisions

- Encouragement for families who feel unsure how to guide teens without a clear roadmap and why building an individualized plan together is worth the effort

View full show notes on the blog + watch this episode on YouTube.

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RESOURCES MENTIONED

Listen to the 1000 Hours Outside interview with Hannah

Grab a copy of Hannah’s book, The Degree Free Way: How to Help Your 16-20 Year Old Build the Life They Want

Master the rhythm of sourdough with confidence in my Simple Sourdough course

Gain the sewing knowledge and skills every homemaker needs in my Simple Sewing series

Keep all my favorite sourdough recipes at your fingertips in my Daily Sourdough cookbook

CONNECT

Hannah of Degree Free | Website | Instagram | YouTube | X

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Transcript

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0:37.9	I really want to frame this up for parents. If you let your child and you're co-signing these loans and you're doing this or you're just going to send them and there's no clear goal, it is very likely that the purchase that you are making right now is the largest purchase or the purchase they're making. If it's them taking out the loans, it's the largest one they'll ever make because they will not be able to buy homes. They are not going to be able to start businesses. And a lot of them will push off having kids and families because of the financial burden that they're under. And this is a very serious thing that I think, like, again, just desperately needs to be said. My name is Lisa, mother of nine and creator of the blog and YouTube channel Farmhouse on Boone. On this podcast, I like to talk about simplifying your life so you can live out your priorities. I help you learn how to cook from scratch and decorate on a budget through this podcast
0:42.5	and my courses simple sourdough in the simple sewing series. I will leave links to these resources
0:47.6	in the show notes and description box below. Now let's get into the show.
1:01.4	Welcome back to the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast. Today, we are going to be chatting with Hannah from Degree Free. This is an amazing conversation, basically talking about how to coach
1:09.4	our 16 to 20 year olds on what to do with their life that doesn't
1:13.7	always involve college. Now, if you have kids in that age range, obviously this is a fabulous
1:17.7	discussion for you, but also if you like me have kind of been questioning the whole narrative
1:21.9	of, you know, the traditional thing that we do with college for so many years now, I think you'll find
1:27.8	this discussion fascinating either way or just even for your future, for entertainment, whatever
1:32.3	it might be.
1:33.3	We were chatting after the show.
1:35.3	And I didn't realize, so they have their books degree free.
1:39.1	They have the, you know, that's a fabulous place to start.
1:41.6	There's one for the parent, one for the children.
1:43.9	But then also, if you want to have some one-on-one coaching type, like helping kids figure out, taking them from, I have no clue what I want to do to, oh, I know what I'm going to do now, they also offer that, which is so cool. It's one-on-one help. So I'm looking at their website. I'm like, this is such a
2:01.3	neat idea. Because I think that we say these things, we talk about, oh, I think there might be a
2:06.9	better way for most kids than what we are currently doing. But then, like, this has been something
2:13.1	that we've done for so long. How do we actually go from point A to point B? So let's jump into this
2:18.7	inspiring conversation. All right, Hannah, welcome to the show. I think this is an important
2:24.1	topic we're going to discuss. For me, I have, well, only really one child in the age range of
2:29.8	16 to 20, but then several, like right behind that. And it's amazing to me, never before my life
2:37.2	have I gotten so many questions about like the next step for her, which is so interesting.
	...

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