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 ...
90% of kids, high school grads, go to college because it perpetuates the party life. Except, now it's kids with no chaperone. They're all on their own at 18.
They'll commit to anything for an environment like that.
One of his favorite jobs is to separate a fool from his money.
I don’t believe in taking out loans for anything except a home and maybe first couple of cars. It’s just a matter of saving money and setting it aside. Parents have like 18 years to set aside money for their children’s college.
I don’t think parents should pay for college. Kids who pay for their own higher education party less and study more.
Lest you think it’s not possible, that’s what my neighbor did - paid her kids’ loans with credit cards and went bankrupt.
Still lives above her means with disability checks and a part-time job under the table.
Goes to the casino as often as possible.
It seems no one in Government seems concerned with addressing bloated tuition costs, and also turning off the spigot of cheap Fed.gov money as debt.
Only the likes of Sanders and Warren simply want to forgive it all.
It seems a home-run issue for conservatives. WHY does no one address it???
Well I put my children through school and they made A’s and B’s so that is not necessarily the case.
“What parent would say, ‘No, I’m not going to provide this opportunity for my child to go to college, even if it’s to my own financial detriment?’”
_____________________________________________
Omgosh.
You are correct, comebacknewt.
I am one such parent who would have no problem telling a child I would not co-sign for a loan. I let my sons know right up front from an early age that I would not be able to step in as co-signer for any student loan.
Not because of lack of love, mind you. I just couldn’t see it. If the child wanted college back enough he would have to put forth the effort.
Now, my ex promised our son (the eldest) that if he worked for him in his business, instead of paying him the money right up front he’d put it in a bank account for him. Mind you, this kid was working from the freaking 8th grade for his father.
Yup. You can guess what happened. Sigh.
My eldest, instead of crying mentioned to my father one day that he’d just have to work a few more years before he went to college. My dad, without my knowing about this met with my ex’s father and between the two of them they paid for the college. My son graduated with 2 degrees. To this day he has honored my father and his father’s father who recently passed away. At the time, I had no knowledge of what was happening. My eldest simply told me that he knew I wasn’t in any shape to help and didn’t want to even seem like pressuring me. The fact that at that time I couldn’t even begin to help was correct. Still, I felt badly and wanted to ring his father’s neck. Thank God and distance because murder has so many bad connotations to it.
Anyway, my advice is still the same to parents. Don’t sign for College Loans. Vocational School, is another story. I would cover that loan, easily because a person who can work with his or her hands is a valuable person even if society doesn’t recognize it as so.
Off my soapbox. LOL
If your kid wants to go to an expensive college, and wants to go into debt, tell him about cheaper alternatives: Community college, military/ROTC, working part time and getting your degree over 5 or six years.
Most people don’t “need” advanced degrees, but I know in medicine the schools are expensive and a lot of my friends went into debt. Some of the debt could be paid off by working in a poor area however.
the problem is that if you go to an “expensive” school, you can get a high status job. Your education might not be any better, but you know people to help you get ahead.
College is very simply a racket now it really has nothing to do with education the only education it does is indoctrination into Marxist anger
Highly unethical! Hope everyone does it.
I kinda agree that the community college path is the best choice for kids. Maybe if the kid was at the top of the school group and into electrical engineering or some science field....that might be a reason to go strictly public college. The bulk of kids around today don’t fit into that scenario though.
Part of this problem as well....kids who decide they want a out-of-state university, and end up paying an extra $50,000 over four years because of the tuition difference.
Ya can’t fix stupid. I wanted to date a girl once but when she told me she was more then $100K in student loan debt, i stopped.
Never take on the responsibility to pay someone elses debt.
JoMa
They sign on the line because if they aren’t in school it is expected they’d work full-time. After they start borrowing, the payments are due when they graduate - so the only way to delay them is to continue school - with even more borrowing. A vicious cycle...
I’ve never understood why parents sign for children’s school debt; you could always voluntarily help when (and if) able, but to be on the hook legally makes no sense. I’ve heard too many stories of the children simply refusing to address the debt, putting a real hardship on parents who are nearing retirement.
While I think you made the right call by walking away from her debt, understand it is her debt - if things don’t work out, you didn’t take it on by marrying her (though you’d probably be helping pay it down while together).
I worked full-time while attending college full-time (and finished in four years); I believe I understand why they can’t pay as they go: My working children attending college are earning the same hourly rate I earned 30 years ago. Not adjusted for inflation, nothing like that; they simply earn the same pay I did (or even a little less), are offered less hours, while school costs have shot up over those same years.
I wore 30 year old clothes all my life and never once worried about it. Didn't do the mac & cheese part, but was never real big on eating out either. Which is why I have no debt, my kids are through school with no debt and because I paid myself first in saving for retirement I am now retired with few worries.
In 35 years of working I bought used cars and drove them into the ground, lived below my means and took very few vacations. They don't teach those values any longer and it shows.
“Don’t let the credit card companies/IRS/student loan folks trick you into thinking you have to pay off your debt....”
Those commercials torque my jaws...
Sure. But I worked full-time to pay my way through school. Took me over 8 years to earn my Bachelors degree as I was working 40-60 hours a week. That option is available to today's kids as well. Not easy, but it CAN be done by those who choose to.
Given that seniors are involved, wonder if Medicaid eligibility figures into the willingness to co-sign those lunatic loans...
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