Facing bad trial (student debt) don't know wut2do - Page 3

Catholic90 · #31 Feb 25, '12, 4:00 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmcrae

You have $270.00 a month after living expenses, including rent? That seems like quite a lot, to me.

Most people don't have anything left after they've paid the rent, food, and utilities.

If I were you, I'd put it in a savings account and let it grow.

Have you checked into the interest you can earn on those savings accounts lately? 0.84% at Ally. Much less at your local bank. When the interest rate on the loans is anywhere from 3-6%, it makes zero sense to invest it in a savings account. Pay down the loan instead. Much smarter investment.

Schieffelin · #32 Feb 25, '12, 4:04 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Allegra

This is apparantly a common situation. I know that a young person is going to do what they're going to do regardless of parents, but some people's parents actually ADVISED them to do this! These are adults who have managed to run households and raise children! What went wrong? Surely, they must know that a person can't start into life with 100 grand floating ominously over their head!! My fiance took out an insane amount of student loans as well and his mother actually signed for one of the loans! (Which makes it impossible for him to defer, by the way.) Now, I'll grant you, my mother isn't perfect and she definately has some room to improve in the parental advice catagory. However, she did at least have the sense to tell me to never borrow money from anyone. Some parents are downright negligent in their advice about college loans. "Oh, just take out a loan, Junior. Don't work a job during college! That's too much stress. Besides, college is about finding yourself!" You know what is stress? Trying to make a rent payment for this month as well as a rent payment from four years ago on the salary of a first year teacher!

Way to go on the awsome advice, mother and dad!

You're not wrong but it is a little more complicated than that. The parents think they are doing the best thing. They too are fed the lie that you can't go anywhere without a college degree and if they don't have the money to help you with it then they feel very guilty and think they must at least help you with loans. It's really a society-wide problem.
Also, at least for my generation, we all went to school when the economy was booming and there were lots of job options. Now not so much. DH and I learned the hard way and we certainly won't sign our kids of up for the same indentured servitude.

TheRealJuliane · #33 Feb 25, '12, 4:15 pm

Do people really not understand that all degrees are not worth the same in the real world? If one is not going to be a doctor or a lawyer, there is absolutely no reason to go 100K into debt. Without a good prospect of a high-paying job straight out of college, NO ONE should get into that kind of student loan debt. The college advisers and high school guidance counselors should have more responsibility that this!

The Occupy Wall Street crowd evidently believed that their 4 year degree in Women's Studies would net them some kind of CEO job or something, that they would waltz right into a job paying six figures. That's what I heard many of them saying anyway.

People didn't use to be this stupid.

Allegra · #34 Feb 25, '12, 4:21 pm

[quote=Schieffelin;9005122]You're not wrong but it is a little more complicated than that. The parents think they are doing the best thing. QUOTE]

They aren't thinking very hard then, are they? I mean, it isn't as if the information isn't there. They know that loans have to be paid back. Right? They know roughly the amount of the loan their child would need. Right? They know how to divide the amount of the loan by the length of the loan. Right? They know average salary of a person starting out in the position their son or daughter is attempting to get. Right? They realize that their child will have current living expenses once they are out of school? Right? They know that most people would like to get married and start a family within a decade of graduating from university. Right? This isn't calculus here. An adult knows what paying off that kind of loan entails. A teenager doesn't. Besides that, there are other options. There are scholarships. There is saving up. There is employment. Who came up with the idea that college students shouldn't be troubled with paying their rent? Yeah, working and going to school is challenging. Better to work day and night when you're twenty and spry than when you're pushing thirty-five and think you kinda might like to get married and have a life someday but can't because you're buried in debt.

ebonykawai · #35 Feb 25, '12, 4:50 pm

Did you know there is an income-based repayment plan? This might be a much better way to go, rather than a traditional payment plan. If your debt is not paid off in 25 years, the remainder is cancelled.

http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebA...sh/IBRPlan.jsp

I put in just basic info, one person making $40,000/yr. trying to pay $100,000 student loan. Your monthly payment would be $295.

RastaPasta · #36 Feb 25, '12, 4:53 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nimzovik

You and 19 million other college students. Not to mention America itself. File bankruptcy.

Student loans can't be discharged in a bankruptcy proceeding.

Nimzovik · #37 Feb 25, '12, 4:59 pm

Ahhhhh yessssssss ........... So much money borrowed just to be socially engineered into all too often to become an Atheist. Hmmmmmmm.......

Of course there is then the indentured servitude for perhaps 20 years after afterwards.... Was not Usury the sin that St. Anthony railed against?

Really..... Why does school cost soooo much? Seems flakey to me. Especially so given the student to teacher ratios...

Waiting for Superman regards.....
Nimzovik

Nimzovik · #38 Feb 25, '12, 5:03 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by RastaPasta

Student loans can't be discharged in a bankruptcy proceeding.

No. But via bankruptcy other debts can be more manageable to facilitate the Student Loan pay off.
Behold AIG. Behold every American car company (but Ford.) It is the Liberal way! Print more money! Wheeeeee!! Why fund colleges when we can give tax monies to Solyndra, Planned Parenhood and corporations that are just 'too big to fail' ? Behold America itself! Ahmmmmmm? Why bankruptcy is the American way! Our 'Christian President'

seems to support such.

If one tells me that rabid profiteering is not occuring at the common man's student expense, then I am certainly going to disagree with you.

Behold the 'School requisite text book' Scam(!) for just one example!

Schieffelin · #39 Feb 25, '12, 6:09 pm

[quote=Allegra;9005162]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schieffelin

You're not wrong but it is a little more complicated than that. The parents think they are doing the best thing. QUOTE]

They aren't thinking very hard then, are they? I mean, it isn't as if the information isn't there. They know that loans have to be paid back. Right? They know roughly the amount of the loan their child would need. Right? They know how to divide the amount of the loan by the length of the loan. Right? They know average salary of a person starting out in the position their son or daughter is attempting to get. Right? They realize that their child will have current living expenses once they are out of school? Right? They know that most people would like to get married and start a family within a decade of graduating from university. Right? This isn't calculus here. An adult knows what paying off that kind of loan entails. A teenager doesn't. Besides that, there are other options. There are scholarships. There is saving up. There is employment. Who came up with the idea that college students shouldn't be troubled with paying their rent? Yeah, working and going to school is challenging. Better to work day and night when you're twenty and spry than when you're pushing thirty-five and think you kinda might like to get married and have a life someday but can't because you're buried in debt.

Again, it's a little more complicated than that. My parents were certainly not idiots and they did not take financial obligations lightly, but ultimately they thought they were doing the best thing by me. They had been convinced by me, my teachers, my school counselors, the world, etc. etc. that it was the only way. I did have scholarships. I did work part time during college. And you know what? It wasn't even close to being nearly enough. And no, I did not go to an expensive private school. I went to an in-state private school. And my parents, being good Catholics, had six children so there weren't any other ways for them to help me financially.

Allegra · #40 Feb 25, '12, 6:30 pm

[quote=Schieffelin;9005514]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Allegra

Again, it's a little more complicated than that. My parents were certainly not idiots and they did not take financial obligations lightly, but ultimately they thought they were doing the best thing by me. They had been convinced by me, my teachers, my school counselors, the world, etc. etc. that it was the only way. I did have scholarships. I did work part time during college. And you know what? It wasn't even close to being nearly enough. And no, I did not go to an expensive private school. I went to an in-state private school. And my parents, being good Catholics, had six children so there weren't any other ways for them to help me financially.

I can understand that. My parents had seven other children, five of them still at home. My mother drove me and my stuff to my college. (300 miles away) When we got there, we found out that the cafeteria didn't open for three days, so she gave me $20 to buy food. That was her sole financial contribution to my college education. Lots of people have to pay their own way and yes, it is difficult, but not nearly as difficult as what happens when a student takes out loans they won't be able to pay off for over a decade of poverty.

Nimzovik · #41 Feb 25, '12, 10:03 pm

Methinks what was then is not now.....

Katie966 · #42 Feb 26, '12, 6:20 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Allegra

Now, I'll grant you, my mother isn't perfect and she definately has some room to improve in the parental advice catagory. However, she did at least have the sense to tell me to never borrow money from anyone. Some parents are downright negligent in their advice about college loans. "Oh, just take out a loan, Junior. Don't work a job during college! That's too much stress. Besides, college is about finding yourself!" You know what is stress? Trying to make a rent payment for this month as well as a rent payment from four years ago on the salary of a first year teacher!

Way to go on the awsome advice, mother and dad!

A lot of parents are just trying to do the best thing for their kids. Many of them did not go to college themselves, and know that it will be difficult for their kids to find a career they can make a living from without going to college. I (and my parents) were led to believe that I'd be able to find a job right after graduation, because I had a degree, and everything would be fine. They didn't know enough about student loans OR college to be able to advise me against taking out so much, especially when counselors and college representatives made it so easy and sound like the wise thing to do.

And, besides, I have a lot of debt still but I'm doing just fine. You learn to budget and do what you have to do- and I would not have a degree today if my parents had "the sense to tell me never to borrow money from anyone". That's ridiculous. Will you never take out a mortgage, never take out a car loan? I don't know anyone who can fork over enough money for a house or a car all at once. Same with education. You have to be smart about it, and understand what you are getting into, but going into "good debt" doesn't have to be a bad thing.

Schieffelin · #43 Feb 26, '12, 7:04 am

[quote=Allegra;9005564]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schieffelin

I can understand that. My parents had seven other children, five of them still at home. My mother drove me and my stuff to my college. (300 miles away) When we got there, we found out that the cafeteria didn't open for three days, so she gave me $20 to buy food. That was her sole financial contribution to my college education. Lots of people have to pay their own way and yes, it is difficult, but not nearly as difficult as what happens when a student takes out loans they won't be able to pay off for over a decade of poverty.

Well that's very fortunate for you if you were able to pay for college without any outside help. I'm just asking you show a little charity when judging someone else's situation since you can't possible know everything that went into it.

As for the OP, what's done is done and there's no sense in beating him up over it and contributing to his depression. I pray that God will help him correct any past mistakes and help him to get a fresh start.

TheRealJuliane · #44 Feb 26, '12, 7:08 am

Makes me rather glad that I didn't go to college at age 18, but started when I was already an adult making my own way in the world. It took me 10 years to finally earn my Bachelors degree, because I started with one class at a time, at night, at a community college, while working full time. And there were several breaks where I stopped and just worked. But I finished with ZERO debt because I paid my bills as I went. I did get one grant and a slight tuition break from one university, but other than that, it was full tuition paid by ME.

It would be difficult to do this now, though. Costs have skyrocketed even since I graduated in 1993.

Castello · #45 Feb 26, '12, 7:31 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katie966

. You learn to budget and do what you have to do- and I would not have a degree today if my parents had "the sense to tell me never to borrow money from anyone". That's ridiculous. Will you never take out a mortgage, never take out a car loan? I don't know anyone who can fork over enough money for a house or a car all at once. Same with education. You have to be smart about it, and understand what you are getting into, but going into "good debt" doesn't have to be a bad thing.

Yes, it is possible to save money for a house or a car and to always pay cash. It is hard work and sacrifice, seems no one wants to do that these days.

Mortgage interest is insane. The bank gets you to pay for that house many times over before you have a clear title. A mortgage that is more than 15 years is simply not a smart thing.