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Giving Up Paying Off $186,000 Student Loan Debt

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

#41

Post by chopsueyar »

elmuchoprez wrote: post #11

This story is mostly about TERRIBLE money management, not the cost of education. Her parents paid for her undergrad in full and she got a full scholarship to law school. So really, none of this money went directly to education. Apparently she couldn't work and focus on school at the same time, so she started taking out loans to cover living expenses. She took out $26k in federal loans each year (starting in 1994) to…

Please read the article.

Law degrees take 3 years to complete.

Her father, a doctor, paid for a year of her undergraduate studies, leaving her free to dodge student loans for a while.

Not full, just one year.

"My intention was to go back to work after my first year of law school," she said. "[But] I did so poorly that I didn't think I could [keep a job at the same time]. So that’s when I started borrowing money."

I seriously doubt she had a 3 year scholarship to law school, especially after doing poorly the first year.

Also, she graduated in 1994, so either that year, or 1993 was the last year she took out student loans.

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

#42

Post by jack-r-abbit »

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.

Hey... give your life all the meaning you want... just don't come crying when people start coming around looking to collect all the debt you rack up while doing it.

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

#43

Post by dkrich »

qdog wrote: post #7

This is a pretty fluffy article. It says she borrowed $26k/year during law school, even though she was on a scholarship with tuition paid, and took out another $20k in private loans. Hard to judge anything just based on this article, but I'd have to say that if you have a full tuition scholarship and still need to take on 100k in debt you might want to rethink it. Also she had 3 children within 3 years of graduating,…

If you want to raise a family and work for the state, don't take on the debt, your life will be easier.

If you have Federal Loans and hold a public service job for ten years (and make your payments of I believe 10% of your gross income), your remaining debt is forgiven. The same is true after 25 years if you aren't in public service I believe and I think Obama just railroaded a change to make that 15 years using Executive Order. This is the reason why if you are struggling with Federal Loans DO NOT consolidate them through a private lender. Their terms will suck for you if you think you will struggle to pay them off.

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

#44

Post by sp332 »

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?

Public loans at least are cancelled when you die.

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

#45

Post by ambiate »

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 started at a community college (and wish I had transferred in the full 60 hours). I went to a private university with 1/4th paid tuition. The other half (~12.5k/yr) was in my pockets. I stayed for 2.5 years. I achieved 100 hours of my bioinformatics/data science degree. I dropped out and went full-time at one of my internships with 40k in debt. I can comfortably pay back the $550/mo (over 10 years) to cover the loans. In fact, 80% will be paid off in the first 2 years if I am careful.

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

#46

Post by aasarava »

[deleted] wrote: post #38
warmwaffles wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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]

Uh, no, in the US, debt does not pass on to children (unless the children co-signed the loan as adults.)

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

#47

Post by kefka »

Wow. She can cry me a damn river.

She HAS a degree. She HAD a 6 figure job that she quit because it was "too hard" She still HAS debt.

Me? That's right. Injured, under Voc rehab. I'm going to a 2 bit state school (drafting, cad). Right now, I can't afford the GAS to get to and from school. Voc rehab (state agency) will pay for it, only after a 6 week wait. And I don't have the money.

What I'd need is a few hundred to get to and fro school. Food would he nice, but soup kitchens provide that. I can sleep in my car to reduce trips.

Where's the help for people like me?

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

#48

Post by manas2004 »

One of the great advantages of third world countries - good education is cheap. A student at a top rated engineering school (iit/nit) in India pays less than ~$2k/year in tution, and about ~$200/month in other expenses. Sure, even this is not affordable to everyone without loans, but the salaries these people draw make the ROI tremendous. No wonder these schools are so hard to get into.

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

#49

Post by sp332 »

dkrich wrote: post #43
qdog wrote: post #7

This is a pretty fluffy article. It says she borrowed $26k/year during law school, even though she was on a scholarship with tuition paid, and took out another $20k in private loans. Hard to judge anything just based on this article, but I'd have to say that if you have a full tuition scholarship and still need to take on 100k in debt you might want to rethink it. Also she had 3 children within 3 years of graduating,…

If you want to raise a family and work for the state, don't take on the debt, your life will be easier. If you have Federal Loans and hold a public service job for ten years (and make your payments of I believe 10% of your gross income), your remaining debt is forgiven. The same is true after 25 years if you aren't in public service I believe and I think Obama just railroaded a change to make that 15 years using Exec…

More details http://finance.yahoo.com/news/student-loans-killing-heres-li...

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

#50

Post by dagw »

modarts wrote: post #18
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…

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

Contraceptives sometimes fail. Sometimes you make a really bad judgement call. Sometimes the guy might be an asshole intentionally break/remove the condom. Sometimes bad things happen.

Not everybody is comfortable with using abortions to deal with unplanned pregnancies even if it is the financially expedient thing to do.

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