for a govt. bailout?
Posted on 04/01/2009 9:40:35 AM PDT by Arguendo
I’m about to talk about two little words that make most people cringe. The mere mention of these words usually incites the same reaction in everyone: a) fear b) denial c) a throbbing headache and d) the desire to run away screaming and crying and begging to go to a “happy place.” Yes, I am talking about STUDENT LOANS. If you don’t have one, you know someone who does and you sympathize with them. In the midst of the credit crisis, home foreclosures and bailout turmoil, the amount of debt that graduates are facing is overwhelming.
I am 23-years-old, two years out of college and I am sitting on $115,000 of student debt. And based on my lender’s loan terms, I only have roughly 12 years to pay it off. How much does that make my monthly payment, you ask? A whopping $1,200 a month. And let’s just say my lifelong dream career in television doesn’t lend itself to that. The only option my bank is giving me is to go on “graduated repayment plan.” That means that for four years I will only be paying off the interest every month. How much is that? Well, $115,000 with interest rates between 4-8%… that’s about $600 a month and that doesn’t even touch the principal amount. People don’t pay off houses in 12 years and I am expected to pay off this student loan in an entry level position?
Some might say, “Sam, you shouldn’t have gone to a private school in New York City if you wouldn’t be able to pay it off.” Well, I made a lot of mistakes when signing up for my loans, but I was uneducated on the process and on the repayment and now I’m stuck.
(Excerpt) Read more at ac360.blogs.cnn.com ...
What a disgusting, entitled attitude.
I'm going to graduate from law school with over $100,000 in student loans, and I made that decision knowing I would have to pay them back (and should have no problem doing so given the job I'll be able to get with my degree). I might benefit from a student loan bailout personally, but I strongly oppose one nonetheless and will be furious if taxpayer dollars go to bail out idiots like this.
next bubble
This is also a fraud perpetrated by Big University.
Student loans are patently dishonest. Why? Because they can not be extinguished in bankruptcy.
OH I thought this article was going to be about how the government, once again, screwed with something that worked well in the private sector, student loans, and how banks have dropped back and we’re having to beg to find new lenders. One of my daughter’s sorority sisters was all set for her graduate work in a medical field last year and learned her lender was dropping out - she had only a matter of months to find a new lender and start the entire process all over again.
Law School?
One good hot coffee spill and you’re in the clear. ;)
Do you think they should be included if you claim bankruptcy?
Being stupid can be expensive.
Get a job at a burger joint spend a percentage of your income on lotto tickets, if you don’t hit the jackpot, start drinking.
I chose a state school. I earned my degree in education knowing the pay rates in Ohio. My bro-in-law chose a private school and earned the exact same degree as I earned. I graduated debt free. I owed no money for my degree or my Cavalier. He graduated owing more than 100K, driving a car given to him by his parents. He actually made less money his first year of teaching than he borrowed for his first year at Hiram.
true statement...if you do not pay it back the dept of ed will look at options which include garnishing wages....liens on home...they will not sue you if they deem that you do not have the means to pay back the debt due to low income unemployed etc but they will not write the debt off it will always be there....i have researched this for a friend that had a 2500.00 loan that was paid off by her....this was 15 years ago...well they claim it is still outstanding and she can not prove where she paid it off due to a bad divorce and no papers....they now are trying to collect over 6000.00 from her....
“Well, I made a lot of mistakes when signing up for my loans, but I was uneducated on the process ...”
Well, you got an education then.
Looks like more than 50% of the CNN posters are on her side, and thinks she should get some free government cash.
sucker. A job in TV??? you need a degeree for that costing how much????
Better start living like a college student, TopRaman noodles, and the food bank for you, now get to work and pay your debt.
all while putting up with high interest rates and an amount of debt that brings me to tears?
Simple cost-benefit analysis would have kept a lot of these people from going into debt for their college degree.
Degrees in real things like engineering and medicine have a pretty good payback-ratio, but for degrees like psychology and communications, there is an inverse payback-ratio.
They shouldn’t be dichargeable, at least not under most conditions. You used the loan to get an education, and you still have that education (and presumably a correspondingly increased earning potential) after bankruptcy.
Further, if they were dischargeable people would just have all the more incentive to get expensive educations and then declare bankruptcy when their liberal arts degrees proved worthless in the marketplace. Overall it would make student loans far more expensive and difficult to obtain for people who are actually good candidates for them.
I am sitting on $115,000 of student debt. And based on my lender’s loan terms, I only have roughly 12 years to pay it off.Consolidate with a company like Academic Loan Group (no, I don't work for them), and you'll lock in the low interest rate over a 30-year term (no penalty for accelerated payoff). At 5% interest, that should get your monthly payments down to about $620/mo.
And note that a majority of the sympathetic ones are women...
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