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35-year-old was 29 months away from getting her $247,804 student debt forgiven. Now she’s stuck
CNBC ^ | April 2, 2025 | by Annie Nova

Posted on 04/02/2025 7:04:15 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer

Aubrey Bertram was starting to imagine her life without student debt.

Bertram, a staff attorney at Wild Montana, a nonprofit that works on land conservation in the state, had just around two and a half years left of payments before her $247,804 federal student loan balance would be excused under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

Bertram took out her loans in law school knowing that she’d work in public service and pursue PSLF.

“That was the only way taking on this debt made any sense,” Bertram said.

Millions of other student loan holders are in the same frustrating limbo now. After Republican-led legal challenges blocked the Biden administration’s new repayment plan in the summer of 2024, the borrowers who enrolled in the program, like Bertram, have found themselves stuck.

Many of those borrowers remain in a forbearance that doesn’t bring them closer to debt forgiveness, while the Trump administration recently revised other student loan repayment plans to no longer conclude in debt cancellation.

For now, Bertram has decided to stay put in the SAVE forbearance, even though she’s not moving any closer to debt forgiveness. She’s worried she’ll switch into a new repayment plan only to find that program has also been halted or amended.

“You’re constantly being jerked around by political rhetoric,” Bertram said. “I just hope I’m student-debt free before I’m 40.”

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: biden; election2024; freeloaders; freemoney; redistribution; studentloans
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1 posted on 04/02/2025 7:04:15 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Forbearance just means the interest on the same principal keeps racking up.


2 posted on 04/02/2025 7:06:23 AM PDT by circlecity
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

GOOD!
You take the loan, you pay it back!


3 posted on 04/02/2025 7:08:26 AM PDT by SmokingJoe
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

99% of the time I have found myself in the situation I’m in I’m there because I put myself there.....and I’ll leave it at that.


4 posted on 04/02/2025 7:09:47 AM PDT by V_TWIN (America...so great even the people that hate it refuse to leave!)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

She must have been living the high life to run up that much student debt.

I can’t image spending that much money while in school.

When I graduated from college I actually had about $400 saved from working as a janitor. Full disclosure: my parents did help a lot spending maybe four or five thousand dollars. Then I did the same, adjusted for inflation, for my child.


5 posted on 04/02/2025 7:10:49 AM PDT by jeffersondem
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
Why should anybody expect lawfully incurred debt to be forgiven?

Let the endowed University forgive it, if that's so damned important to the left.

Fire the non-value added administrators if you want tuition to come down!

6 posted on 04/02/2025 7:11:06 AM PDT by G Larry (Its RACIST to impose slave wages on LEGAL immigrants and minorities by importing cheap ILLEGAL labor)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
her $247,804 federal student loan balance

A quarter million in student loan debt? Damn, did she ever get ripped off.

7 posted on 04/02/2025 7:11:20 AM PDT by Ditto
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I used to day dream about paying off my mortgage and student loan.
Then I would go back to work.


8 posted on 04/02/2025 7:12:41 AM PDT by jmaroneps37 (Freedom is never free. It must be won rewon and jealously guarded.)
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To: G Larry

9 posted on 04/02/2025 7:13:23 AM PDT by T.B. Yoits
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

“Aubrey Bertram was starting to imagine her life without student debt. Bertram, a staff attorney at Wild Montana, a nonprofit ... Bertram took out her loans in law school knowing that she’d work in public service and pursue PSLF [Public Service Loan Forgiveness]” ...

she imagined wrong: her grift failed when a new Sheriff was elected ...


10 posted on 04/02/2025 7:13:45 AM PDT by catnipman ((A Vote For The Lesser Of Two Evils Still Counts As A Vote For Evil))
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To: SmokingJoe

35 year old should have a job making 6 figures unless she is still in school for a lifetime taking all sorts of bull### social justice, white priviledged classes


11 posted on 04/02/2025 7:14:10 AM PDT by ronnie raygun
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I can’t imagine what the total is if we added up all the money that people got from gaming the Dem system. I’d guess many billions.


12 posted on 04/02/2025 7:14:53 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: G Larry

Exactly !

The over-endowed, tax free universities should pay back these loans.

NBC can write these sob stories weekly. It won’t change the script.


13 posted on 04/02/2025 7:15:13 AM PDT by BrexitBen
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Perhaps they should start teaching students the difference between a “loan” and a “handout” while they’re still in high school.

If you take out a loan, you are expected to pay it back.


14 posted on 04/02/2025 7:15:58 AM PDT by Allegra (🍈🍈🍈🍈🍈🍈🍈🍈🍈🍈🍈🍈🍈🍈🍈)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
Bertram took out her loans in law school knowing that she’d work in public service and pursue PSLF. “That was the only way taking on this debt made any sense,” Bertram said.

The grifter train wasn't supposed to derail.

15 posted on 04/02/2025 7:16:50 AM PDT by Ezekiel (🆘️ "Come fly with US". 🔴 Ingenuity -- because the Son of David begins with MARS ♂️, aka every man)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

We just visited an historic town in Va that had the old “Debtors Prison” to visit. Bring them back.


16 posted on 04/02/2025 7:17:09 AM PDT by albie (U)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
A grifter's gotta grift...

Living off taxpayer-funded B.S., and wants a quarter million dollar debt payoff, that she "earned"?

17 posted on 04/02/2025 7:17:14 AM PDT by traditional2 ("Is it them, again, Yogi?")
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To: circlecity

Why would you expect to get $247,804 worth of law school for free? Who else should pay for it? Doesn’t she get paid as a lawyer at her “non-profit”...


18 posted on 04/02/2025 7:17:23 AM PDT by runfree
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To: V_TWIN

“Bertram, a staff attorney at Wild Montana, a nonprofit”

The schools raised tuition way above the rate of inflation at the same time the student loan ‘industry’ went to the government

Schools get government money

The students are in the middle of this s show

Parents walk around in a zombie state not mentioning this to their kids. They are way too busy with work, extramarital BS, sports, sports betting, Yellowstone to pay attention and advise…at least point out the situation

Any kid paying 250k to go to law school is screwed working for a non profit or for the government

It is an unwise and likely in advised career path


19 posted on 04/02/2025 7:17:50 AM PDT by stanne (Because they were mesmerized by Obama, the man for whom this was named, whose name they left out of )
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To: circlecity

Get a job at Walmart or, because you’re a skilled worker, hang out a shingle.

It doesn’t take much extra-payments before it your regular payment will amount to an extra payment every few payments.


20 posted on 04/02/2025 7:18:56 AM PDT by Jonty30 (I can promise I can land any plane that is in the air, because gravity only moves in one direction.)
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