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Retired, or Hoping to Be, and Saddled With Student Loans
NY Times ^ | 2/28/20 | Tammy La Gorce

Posted on 03/02/2020 6:37:58 PM PST by Libloather

**SNIP**

It’s a dilemma more American retirees can relate to: While most borrowers are 18 to 39 years old, people over 60 are the fastest-growing segment of the population with student loan debt, according to a report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

In all, more than 2.8 million Americans over 60 are contending with student debt, a number that has quadrupled from 700,000 in 2005, according to the bureau. The cost is swelling, too: Between 2012 and 2017, for those age 60 and older, the average amount of student loan debt almost doubled, ballooning to $23,500 from $12,100.

The Donohues’ situation is typical. According to that 2017 report, which uses the most recently available figures, 73 percent of borrowers over 60 are paying off student loans they either took out or co-signed to help children and grandchildren through college. Only 27 percent are chipping away at their own or their spouse’s education.

**SNIP**

The kind of issues Kimberly Weihl, 55, of Midland, Mich., is facing, for instance. When Ms. Weihl took out a loan for her daughter to attend Saginaw Valley State University in 2007, she was already paying down $60,000 of her own student debt. Now she owes $77,000. Her daughter, who dropped out after two years at Saginaw State and is living at home, is working as a waitress and not yet able to help with payments, which come to $500 a month.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat; Education; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: college; loan; retired; student
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Don't colleges offer Loan Management 101?
1 posted on 03/02/2020 6:37:58 PM PST by Libloather
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To: Libloather

Absolute stupidity.


2 posted on 03/02/2020 6:39:30 PM PST by comebacknewt (Trump trumps Hate)
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To: Libloather

Have college cosign on the loans.


3 posted on 03/02/2020 6:40:21 PM PST by Darteaus94025 (Can't have a Liberal without a Lie)
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To: Libloather

“73 percent of borrowers over 60 are paying off student loans they either took out or co-signed to help children and grandchildren through college.”


4 posted on 03/02/2020 6:40:57 PM PST by plain talk
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To: Libloather

Go bankrupt! Oh wait...


5 posted on 03/02/2020 6:41:35 PM PST by Dogbert41 (Jerusalem is the city of the Great King!!!)
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To: Libloather

These 2.8 million over 60 with student loan debt have to be some of the most stupid people in the whole US if not the world. They probably work at McDonalds too.


6 posted on 03/02/2020 6:41:47 PM PST by caver
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To: Libloather

Stuff like this is why I have no sympathy for the folks who suffer from the debt. They were stupid. Stupid is supposed to hurt.


7 posted on 03/02/2020 6:42:19 PM PST by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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To: Libloather
Here's what I don't get about the whole student loan thing.

Most Americans carry a mortgage. The average mortgage is $309,000. Way more than the average student loan. Yet you never hear any big fuss about that. People with mortgages are just expected to shut up and pay them down.

8 posted on 03/02/2020 6:43:50 PM PST by SamAdams76 (Trump (86); Commie (60); Slow Joe (40); Butt (26); Fake Indian (8); Crazy Amy (7); Drunken Weld (1))
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To: caver

McDonald’s pays $2500 a year toward tuition if one works 15 hours a week. Community college is about $4500 a year.

I think your average McDonald’s worker is a lot smarter than these people.


9 posted on 03/02/2020 6:43:53 PM PST by CheshireTheCat ("Forgetting pain is convenient.Remembering it agonizing.But recovering truth is worth the suffering")
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To: Libloather

My younger brother (61 y/o) and his wife are both PHD’s, they still owe north of $300K.

I went to school on the GI Bill. Of course, I’m no PHD.


10 posted on 03/02/2020 6:47:35 PM PST by umgud
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To: Libloather

I attended the School of Hard Knocks. There was no tuition, but it wasn’t free.


11 posted on 03/02/2020 6:47:50 PM PST by dainbramaged (That information is classified. Request denied.)
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To: Libloather

So what? They owe money for a loan. This is news why, NYT?


12 posted on 03/02/2020 6:49:31 PM PST by oldplayer
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To: umgud

A person should not pursue a Ph.D. unless they have secured some sort of assistantship that covers tuition and pays a stipend.


13 posted on 03/02/2020 6:50:40 PM PST by CheshireTheCat ("Forgetting pain is convenient.Remembering it agonizing.But recovering truth is worth the suffering")
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To: Libloather
I DON'T CARE, PAY THEM!!!
14 posted on 03/02/2020 6:51:13 PM PST by Chode (Send bachelors and come heavily armed.)
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To: umgud

If they acquired such high student loans, they must have figured they will earn big bucks with the PhD’s, right?
What happened?


15 posted on 03/02/2020 6:57:51 PM PST by entropy12 (You are either for free enterprise or want gov't to interfere with corporate issues.)
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To: Libloather

A waitress living at home can make some or all of that loan payment
Sorry not buying it


16 posted on 03/02/2020 6:58:42 PM PST by silverleaf (Remember kids: You can vote your way into communism, but you have to shoot your way out!)
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Comment #17 Removed by Moderator

To: umgud

Holy crap. Do they make a bunch of money?


18 posted on 03/02/2020 6:59:58 PM PST by Vermont Lt
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To: entropy12

They didn’t earn big bucks with a PhD.


19 posted on 03/02/2020 7:02:17 PM PST by 17th Miss Regt
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To: Libloather

I was lucky. I used my contacts to help my children get decent-paying part time jobs. They made more than enough money to go to a good community college and at the same time save cash.

When they graduated community college with their Associates degrees they had enough cash saved up to pay for their final two years at very good state universities. My wife and I let them stay at home and gave them free room and board as well as the use of a car.


20 posted on 03/02/2020 7:02:27 PM PST by OldMissileer (Atlas, Titan, Minuteman, PK. Winners of the Cold War)
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