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Giving Up Paying Off $186,000 Student Loan Debt

businessinsider.com

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Re: Giving Up Paying Off $186,000 Student Loan Debt

#31

Post by yoloprocro »

Irregardless wrote: post #9

> She graduated in 1994 with more than $100,000 of debt. Within three years, she had one daughter, a surprise set of twins, and was earning less than $50,000 per year. 3 kids while earning $100k in debt? If that's not the embodiment of America's dire lack of financial and family planning skills, then I don't know what is. > "I’ve stressed to my daughter the importance of not borrowing any money." Maybe she should jus…

Your primary moral duty is to repay debt, eh?

Unimportant things like "giving your life meaning" are unimportant.

Re: Giving Up Paying Off $186,000 Student Loan Debt

#32

Post by rayiner »

I have seen a lot of these articles on student debt, and they use the most bizarrely unsympathetic subjects. The meat of this article is not that student loans are bad, but rather that you shouldn't go to law school (or any graduate program, in my opinion), without first deciding what you want to do and your priorities in life. It's way too common to see people watch a lot of Law & Order and go straight through from college (my wife calls them "K-JD's") and then realize that $200k of debt is a lot and they really don't like working 12-14 hours a day at the beck and call of clients. Your first 80 hour work week sleeping with your Blackberry under your pillow is a shock, and you should really get it out of the way and decide if you're okay with it before you're $200k in the hole.

Re: Giving Up Paying Off $186,000 Student Loan Debt

#33

Post by pestaa »

sliverstorm wrote: post #20
modarts wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly; how much of a "surprise" could the kids really have been?

Well, twins probably would have been a surprise. That's probably what the article was referring to; who expects twins?

Twins are unexpected, but surely they knew at least one child will be born? Even one extra is a huge commitment when you don't have the means.

Re: Giving Up Paying Off $186,000 Student Loan Debt

#34

Post by rayiner »

obviouslygreen wrote: post #5

To me, this is the flip side of the "predatory lending" coin: People who did it to themselves. I'm not even sure what the point of the article is supposed to be, if not a warning against financial irresponsibility. This person made mistakes. Yeah, we all do that, and some people's have worse consequences than others, but we're all pretty much stuck with them. In this case, someone went to law school, made some very c…

> Not very responsible, in my opinion, and certainly not a good lesson to pass on to your kids (along with your debt, because guess where that's going when you die, since you've decided not to pay it off?).

What? Loans don't pass to kids at death, that's absurd. They stay with the estate. If the estate doesn't have enough funds to cover the debt, tough shit for the lender. Though there are lenders who try to con kids into taking over their parents debt obligations. There is a special place in hell for them.

Re: Giving Up Paying Off $186,000 Student Loan Debt

#35

Post by ericcumbee »

dlf wrote: post #19
obviouslygreen wrote: post #5

To me, this is the flip side of the "predatory lending" coin: People who did it to themselves. I'm not even sure what the point of the article is supposed to be, if not a warning against financial irresponsibility. This person made mistakes. Yeah, we all do that, and some people's have worse consequences than others, but we're all pretty much stuck with them. In this case, someone went to law school, made some very c…

Public loans are discharged upon death, so there's that. Private loans are not though, and there can still be tax consequences for public loans. I think the most important theme to this article, aside from the individual story of debt and irresponsibility, is that this looks an awful lot like the way the housing bubble came about. Cheap debt that the borrowers are unable to afford long term. The difference here is th…

She had a 6 figure job, but quit because she was miserable. Not to sound Callous...but she should have kept that job and made paying down those loans the first priority.

Re: Giving Up Paying Off $186,000 Student Loan Debt

#36

Post by amalcon »

gangst wrote: post #2

Son of a bitch that is a lot of debt. It stresses me out just reading about it. I guess few people do the math correctly when they go get a degree. Can anyone here who opted to take a student loan for a technical degree speak to whether it is daunting to them or they are comfortable with the trade?

My student loans weren't quite $100k, but I was single-minded about paying them off. I got a (decent, but not spectacular pay) software job right out of school, and managed to get back to zero debt in about five years.

I'd say it worked out well for me, but my situation is very different from that of the woman in the article. First of all, I graduated in 2005. Interest rates were much lower, and dollars worth a little less, than in 1994. I also didn't have children, or any intention of having them in the near future -- children are very expensive. Finally, I did have to live frugally for that period. For example, I carried groceries about 3/4 mile so that I wouldn't need a car. It wasn't poverty by any means, but I skipped many things my peers considered "essential".

For that reason I'd say, while it worked out for me, it is certainly not for everyone.

Re: Giving Up Paying Off $186,000 Student Loan Debt

#37

Post by mc-lovin »

yoloprocro wrote: post #31
Irregardless wrote: post #9

> She graduated in 1994 with more than $100,000 of debt. Within three years, she had one daughter, a surprise set of twins, and was earning less than $50,000 per year. 3 kids while earning $100k in debt? If that's not the embodiment of America's dire lack of financial and family planning skills, then I don't know what is. > "I’ve stressed to my daughter the importance of not borrowing any money." Maybe she should jus…

Your primary moral duty is to repay debt, eh? Unimportant things like "giving your life meaning" are unimportant.

As a consumer your only duty is to obey they law.

However, moral duty is relevant when it comes to how society should think about debt. Everyone has things they would like to do if they had more money. Society should not be arranged to give people a free pass just because they want to do something that requires money.

Re: Giving Up Paying Off $186,000 Student Loan Debt

#38

Post by [deleted] »

warmwaffles wrote: post #30
Irregardless wrote: post #9

> She graduated in 1994 with more than $100,000 of debt. Within three years, she had one daughter, a surprise set of twins, and was earning less than $50,000 per year. 3 kids while earning $100k in debt? If that's not the embodiment of America's dire lack of financial and family planning skills, then I don't know what is. > "I’ve stressed to my daughter the importance of not borrowing any money." Maybe she should jus…

> Also, it would help not to have 3 kids when you're up to your ears in debt if she fails to pay it off in her lifetime, do her children pick up the debt?

[deleted]

Re: Giving Up Paying Off $186,000 Student Loan Debt

#39

Post by tjohns »

gangst wrote: post #2

Son of a bitch that is a lot of debt. It stresses me out just reading about it. I guess few people do the math correctly when they go get a degree. Can anyone here who opted to take a student loan for a technical degree speak to whether it is daunting to them or they are comfortable with the trade?

I graduated 5 years ago with a BS/CECS and a MS/CS from USC. It was the best decision I've made.

I finished my program with $60,000 in debt. $40k for undegrad, and and another $20k for graduate. As bad as that sounds, I had a pretty good financial aid package; the estimated cost of attendance was $60k per year, and most of it was paid for through a mix of work study, scholarships, and a very generous need-based grant from the university [1].

I've made enough since I've graduated to repay my debts a few times over, have a great job, learned valuable leadership skills, participated in a couple research projects, and learned things I never would have known how to even approach had I not gone.

--

[1]: Good schools will give need-based grants if your financial aid package doesn't cover the estimated cost of attendance (minus your EFC, as calculated by the FAFSA). They'll ask you to take out Stafford loans, but those are capped at about $12k/year for undergraduate study.

That said, my advice is to stay far away from any school that asks you take out private (non-federal) loans. Those are uncapped, and will easily bury you more debt than you can handle.

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