You’ll Never Guess the Latest Victims of the Student Loan Crisis

Money ^ | June 30,2015 | Michaela Ross

[Hojczyk]

A fast-growing number of seniors are hitting retirement with a student debt burden. Even their Social Security is at risk

Most debt you can get out of—painful as it might be. Credit card debt can be cleared in bankruptcy. A mortgage can end in foreclosure. But student debt is more sticky, and it turns out it can have big consequences in retirement.

Last year, Richard Minuti’s Social Security payments were cut by 10%.

The Philadelphia native was already earning only a bit over $10,000 a year, including some part-time work as a tutor. “I was desperate,” says Minuti. “Taking 10% of a person’s pay who’s trying to live with bills, that’s the cruelty of it.”

The Treasury Department was taking the money to pay for federal student loans he had taken out years before. Just before age 50, Minuti had gone back to college to get a second bachelor’s degree and a better job in social work and counseling. But the non-profit jobs he landed afterwards were lower paying, and he defaulted on the debt.

Student debt’s painful new twist

The number of seniors whose Social Security checks were garnished rose by roughly six times over the past decade, from about 6,000 to 36,000 people, says the GAO. Legislation from the mid-1990s ensured recipients could still get a minimum of $750 a month. At the time, this was enough to keep them from sliding below the poverty threshold. But to meet the current threshold, Congress would need to increase this to above $1,000 a month.

[MUDDOG]

It’s the only way to go!

[Bigg Red]

Thank you for your service.

[AppyPappy]

My daughter is an Art major. Her undergrad is paid by grandparents who left the money but she is on her own after college.
Every day closer to graduation, she sees the handwriting on the wall a little clearer.

[MUDDOG]

I think unless you’re going for a marketable skill (engineering, accounting, etc.), it’s better to pass on college.

Even engineering is iffy now. There are a lot of unemployed engineers.

Back in the day, college was cheap, so you didn’t end up owing your soul to the company store.

But as with healthcare, gov’t intervention to make it affordable had the opposite effect.

[spodefly]

I payed my way thru college, with some help here and there from my parents. This was before the “College Degree/Student Loans” racket came into existence fortunately.

[AppyPappy]

Our Computer Science department has a 100% placement rate. Every grad has a job waiting on them. Granted it is hard and a lot of students have to change majors. Engineering is nearly the same.
My son is a Finance/Accounting major with a minor in Turf Grass. He works as a researcher in the Turf Grass department, going to golf courses and doing tests plus cutting the research fairways. Pretty sweet deal.
Of course, my lawn looks like crap.

[MUDDOG]

LOL! Mine too. But I do edge the curbs.

[buckalfa]

Air medical flight nurse is his current profession. Like any other business, the pressure for more revenue and cutting costs is ever present. The pressure to fly in marginal weather is making him re-think career choices. The trade off is cost of additional education versus reduced income. The risk is IFITG:inadvertent flight into the ground.

[buckalfa]

Air medical flight nurse is his current profession. Like any other business, the pressure for more revenue and cutting costs is ever present. The pressure to fly in marginal weather is making him re-think career choices. The trade off is cost of additional education versus reduced income. The risk is IFITG:inadvertent flight into the ground.