US Household Debt Surpasses 2008 High

Post by pmiller2 » Fri, May 19, 2017, 12:18 AM UTC

lr4444lr wrote: post #324

pmiller2 wrote: post #247

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No, not at all. There are three players in the student loan game: lender, servicer, and guarantor. The lender is pretty much what it sounds like. The servicer is the agency that handles the repayment process (and any deferment or forbearance) as long as the loan is not in default. The guarantor is where the loan is transferred if it goes into default. The guarantor will add collection fees of up to 20% of the default…

Given that explanation, I find it hard to understand why Navient should provoke a moral outrage over activities which seem to fall under what you describing as servicing: isn't their incentive to keep the debtor to the original terms of the loan? It could be argued that these debtors should have never signed on to begin with, but that would be on the lender's shoulders. Thanks for the explanation.

Post by rlanday » Fri, May 19, 2017, 6:13 AM UTC

stillhere wrote: post #368

crdb wrote: post #182

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> not told to "just go to the best college no matter what" > majoring in Underwater Basket Weaving was not a great idea from a financial point of view I've met many people in places like McKinsey or Goldman Sachs (i.e. "elite" high paying jobs) with degrees from Oxford or Cambridge in Philosophy, English, Arch & Ant or Theology (in "decreasing usefulness"). Many more than, say, graduates in accounting or business adm…

I know someone who went to NYU who now makes $15/hr and is $90k in debt because they majored in media studies. I am not trying to make fun of them as I love them but they believed and still legitimately believe the lie that going to an Ivy League should have been enough for them to live comfortably. Problem is that doesn't matter when your thesis is literally based on playing Second Life. Not that there's no value in…

Post by thatwebdude » Fri, May 19, 2017, 3:15 PM UTC

themagician wrote: post #416

thatwebdude wrote: post #399

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This is only possible in certain situations for certain borrowers who borrowed a certain kind of loan. Too many people think there's forgiveness light at the end of the tunnel. I feel really bad when they realize there isn't. Except death, maybe. I bet we'll see some of that, too. https://studentloanhero.com/featured/federal-student-loan-fo...

It's possible in most situations. Most people have federal student loans—which are the ones that aren't easily discharged—and as long as you are on an income-based repayment program, the loans are forgiven after 25 years. You are basically given two choices as an average person after you hit over $150k debt: 1) Spend 5-10 years throwing your life away to a job to try and grind away your debt; or 2) Work a low-income…

Post by toomuchtodo » Fri, May 19, 2017, 10:15 PM UTC

user5994461 wrote: post #316

crdb wrote: post #217

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Ah, but I'm not saying that Ivy/Oxbridge grads make better employees all else being equal (in particular salary). I'm specifically saying that on a financial/job hunting basis, it makes more sense to pick a prestigious university and "useless" degree than a "useful" degree at a non-prestigious university, in aggregate. When you are on the other side, other variables come into play. For example, elite grads might be g…

>>> This is something that comes up a lot in the Valley and the last team I've personally hired was about half no-degree and half not-famous-degree, so you can guess my position (we hired based on technical capability and more or less ignored CVs). I'll say it: You just hired for cheap.

Post by themagician » Fri, May 19, 2017, 11:40 PM UTC

thatwebdude wrote: post #425

themagician wrote: post #416

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It's possible in most situations. Most people have federal student loans—which are the ones that aren't easily discharged—and as long as you are on an income-based repayment program, the loans are forgiven after 25 years. You are basically given two choices as an average person after you hit over $150k debt: 1) Spend 5-10 years throwing your life away to a job to try and grind away your debt; or 2) Work a low-income…

For those with private student loans, the options are much less; usually deferment or forbearance, usually short-term. Most people who have/had private loans did so because they didn't qualify for FAFSA to determine that their federal loans covered room and board, but also didn't have enough saved to offset this cost. I think a lot of people are forgetting that, and a large group of people fall into that category.