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 ...
Very good comments, PJT! I agree.
When the government guaranteed the student loans, the colleges realized they had the “Golden Goose” and began raising the tuition fees.
In the early ‘70s in Texas, after 89 hours and an AAS degree at Jr. College (all part time), I enrolled at a State Univ. The tuition cost then was $121 for 15 hours and more hours were free. ....This was at NTSU (now UNT) in Denton. It was before Mean Joe Green attended.
At age 32, I took a leave of absence from my full time job as an Eng. Tech. at TI to finish my last 12 months of college. I knocked out 59 hours that year, with 21 hours in the last semester.
Did that while married and raising two little girls. Worked at the apt. complex where I lived to reduce the rent by $5/hr. .............I could never have afforded to go to college with tuition rates like they are today.
I’ve blathered enough...
I told my kids we could give them a share of our savings. They took out loans. My wife and I never co-signed their loans.
We knew parents that took loans on their homes to pay for their kids. Then the kid drops out....that was ugly.
Dave Ramsey could devise a financial roadmap that would guide these people to a debt free utopia. He could do it in about 30 minutes per person. They would have to make some major sacrifices for the short term to achieve financial peace.
Take the nurse mom and the waitress daughter. Does the nurse work seven days a week? If not, why not. Where I live, many hospitals pay bonus wages to nurses willing to work on weekends. If she had done so in the past, her debt would have been paid by now.
What does the waitress daughter do with the money that mom doesn’t charge her for rent? Do they both have car notes? If so why? Drive an older car and pay more on the loan. How often do they eat out? Do they do their own nails? How much do they spend on entertainment? My guess is that their lifestyle ignores the fact that they owe student debt, and yet they do not make any changes. Mom must enjoy her sleepless nights.
They get no sympathy from me, and I certainly should not be expected to assist them in any way. We hear so much about the pain and suffering caused by student loans. So why does congress perpetuate this mess? They should stop it.
Exactly.
You are exactly right.
I went to college in the late 70s, and left with about $3,500 in debt. My payment was $30/month. I had barely enough to get by each quarter, even having to wait a week or two into the quarter to buy books because of the timing of loan distributions.
For that, I got a STEM degree and a career.
Today, kids are leaving universities with unusable degrees and a lifetime of student debt. The universities should go out of business for selling an unwanted product, but they are being subsidized up by the government student loan industry.
-PJ
I’m glad it worked out well for you.
It is a legal risk parents shouldn’t take; I know a couple forced to sell their home because of it. Help if you can, but don’t push your retirement back to 85 because you signed for it.
I work with a couple of people nearing retirement that are voluntarily helping their children with school debt; it won’t take away their option to retire.
retired or want to be and don’t want to be saddled with your loans
“paying it down together” is the taking on her debt.
JoMa
Yes, but legally it is hers - so if things don’t work out, it leaves the marriage with her (it existed before your contract).
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