$950,000 loans, should we ever pay them off?

[Rocko20]

Originally Posted by City Guy997S

weird part for me: Who makes 440K a yr and specifically mentions the 50 hours a week worked? I have never heard of highly paid people speak about how many hours they work.

Cutting the gross wages in half (220K) and breaking it down weekly indicates a $84 an hour job (not specifically calculating overtime).

Originally Posted by Serious Conversation

$440k income is phenomenal. I'd knock out the unsecured, CC stuff, pay off the car, then throw everything at the student loans.

That's why I believe it to be a troll post. Maybe a high paid lawyer and those are his billable hours?

Either way, there's an income bracket where a person warrants no sympathy over their carelessness with money: $440K a year meets that criteria.

If you're smart and educated enough to earn a paycheck that big, then you should be smart enough to manage your money and pay back all your lenders. That's $36K a month, an astronomical amount.

[mysticaltyger]

Honestly, with that income, you should be able to knock out all your debt in 3-5 years if you are serious.

The real question is: Will you live only at the level of your true needs or will you live at the level you feel you're "supposed to" for people of your income level?

If you choose to live anywhere near the level of where you think you're "supposed to", then you'll be nothing but an indentured servant for the rest of your life (or for many decades). You probably won't look like one on the outside, but that's what you'll be.

If you choose to live at the level of "true needs", you'll not only knock off the debt in 3-5 years, but your lifestyle upgrades will be slow and gradual even after paying off the debt. If you go the "pay off debt quickly" route, you'll find you didn't need to live a high spending lifestyle to be happy. You'll also have lots of cash to save and invest, which will allow you to save / invest a fortune in another 10 years' time.

Get used to putting 1/2 or more of your income toward debt and it's paid off in 5 years.

Then do a lifestyle upgrade but still save / invest $100k per year for the next 10 years after that. At a pretty conservative 6% rate of return, that still gets you from being in a deep hole to $1.375M in savings/investments in 15 years.

http://www.finaid.org/calculators/sc...ingsgrowth.cgi

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by jackwhite99

Obviously the other alternative is pay off the loan. We could probably contribute 200,000 per year for 7 years. We would pay a total of $1,200,000. 7 years from now we would still have no house, meager 401k contributions.

So put 250k or 300k toward the loans and pay them off sooner. You won't have a house? So what? Neither do I. There are worse tragedies. You can have anything you want. You just can't have everything you want.

People who treat their debt like it's an emergency, like their hair's on fire...are the ones who have a lot less stress down the line...and they actually tend to get more of the other goodies of life as well (houses, cars, etc.) and they can actually afford them when they buy them.

People who treat not being able to buy a house as the emergency (instead of the debt) tend to live on the financial edge most of their lives. They tend to drastically underestimate the toll it will take on them over time.

You're a prime candidate for Mr. Money Mustache:

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/...one-blog-post/

[k7baixo]

Originally Posted by djohnslaw

who cares. he didn't borrow 1.5 mil from a person. he borrowed it from the gov't which does nothing but waste tax money. morals go out the window with them.

Seriously? Where does the government get the money they loaned to this guy?

[galaxyhi]

Originally Posted by jackwhite99

I disagree. He works 50-55 hours per week, pays high taxes and provides for 2 of his kids. He always pays his loan on time. Dead beat would be using food stamps, not working and making new kid every year to get more money from the government.



Over a period of 30 years at 7.5% interest you pay the loan back many times. With inflation not higher than 2.5% you give away 5% pure income to the lender. So yeah, any kind of interest above inflation is a free money given away to the bank.



Paying off minimum payments on your loan is hardly a fraud. You have to default on your loan to loose your license and then you still have to reside in a state that has that relevant law.




Nothing unfair or unethical. You can either pay off you entire loan in 4 years or pay it over 30 years and be forgiven the reminder. That's how loan forgiveness works.
My friend chose to invest into a house first and himself. He did that as he almost died at work few years back and wanted to enjoy hard earned money first then worry about loans. I guess his close call put things into perspective.




Actually loans do go away.
https://www.aamc.org/advocacy/meded/...repayment.html
https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/pu...n-forgiveness/

I dont know if this is a serious post or not, but I'll answer as though it is. I'm also going to assume you are a doctor ( if not you're a lawyer or vet).

I'll go you/,him one better.

I DID ACTUALLY DIE AT WORK. Anaphylactic shock allergic reaction to sulfa antibiotic. I dropped outside the mangers office, the asst.manager called 911, the emts were 6 mins away, got there, verified, then started CPR and shocked my heart 4 times. I was clinically dead for a registered 7 mins 40 secs. Had the 4th shock not worked, They were going to give up.

I still believe in paying bills you incurred.

So, dont give me crap about "almost dying at work and wanting to enjoy "hard earned money"...i was a damn dishwasher in a restaurant, talk about "hard earned money"!

Next you say " OUR income is LOW"...i got news buster, $440k/yr is NOT "low", no matter how much debt got you there. Oh. And poor you IF you work 50 hours a week. I once worked 2 full time jobs (80 hours) AND carried 12 credit hours of college for two semesters, and came out with 3 As a d a B each if the two semesters i did. And i only made $27k that year (1988-89). If you think $440k for income is low , you ARE in a dream world.

Next you took out the loans, now pay them back, bucko. Those taxes you complain about are where that money comes from. Suppose EVERYONE ELSE decided Not to pay taxes or adjusted income and THOSE LOANS WERE NOT AVAILABLE to you TO be able to borrow SO you CAN earn your ",LOW" income of $440k/ yr.????? THEN where would you be???

Next i agree with the poster..is he REALLY the first person you want to model yourself after??? I mean really, if you have advanced degrees, you should be able to THINK FOR YOURSELF. He IS a deadbeat, just a higher class of deadbeat. The money for those loans he wants to skate on ARE FROM THE GOVERNMENT. its just a higher amount of "foodstamps " to compare apples to apples. No one on 30 years of foodstamps will ever get 3/4 of a million dollars of food in those 30 years.

Next, pay what you have to over the time, and if the rest gets forgiven, THAT is fine. That IS how it works. That is because you put in the time as a PUBLIC SERVANT in order that your loans are forgiven, be it 2 years or 30 years. That is ethical, i/ we have no problem with doing that. That is ethical, as much as paying off your loans.

A other thing, oh, woe is you you cant have a house too. I was HOMELESS living under a bridge next to the RR tracks at one time due to not having insurance and paying doctors like you exorbitant rates to help fix my severe chronic medical issues. And you think i should have sympathy for you that you cant pay loans and have a house too??? For jeepers sake. It took SEVERAL DOCTORS 5 whole freaking years to decide my gall bladder had to come out to solve the medical issues i was having that resulting in constant vomiting, unable to keep food down, with dehydration and malnourishment set in. You THINK I have sympathy for you???? NOT.

You can live on $75 or $100k for 2-3 years, pay off your loans, another 2-3 years you can buy a house cash, another 2-3 years save $1m and be set in under a decade. It took me age 52 to be able to buy a house. And i will never have $1m. But then again i didnt take out ridiculous loans and not pay them back either.

I wont ever have had $1m in earnings, had college debt i PAID OFF, HAVe CURRENT DEBT including a MORTGAGE and i AM PAYING THEM OFF. i draw SSDI, get aroubd on a cane with a bad back hip and knee and my spouse has 2 jobs and i work part time.

IF I CAN DO IT WITH MY ALL MY CHALLENGES, SO CAN YOU/HIM.

get a life, pay what you owe/borrowed!!!!

Suck it up thats life.

Suppose you COULD NOT get a mortgage AT ALL unless your students loans were paid off??? What would your attitude be towards your loans be then?

Sheesh

Theres all different levels of deadbeats.

A person who does not pay their debts is just as much as a deadbeat as one who collects foodstamps and refuses to work.

Get a life.

[PriscillaVanilla]

Originally Posted by COJeff

If this is true this is why we need to get rid of bankruptcy.

And bring back debtor prisons.

[JONOV]

Originally Posted by COJeff

If this is true this is why we need to get rid of bankruptcy.

Originally Posted by PriscillaVanilla

And bring back debtor prisons.

You can't discharge the bulk of his loans in a BK. They're student loans. I don't think he could discharge the car and CC loans either. If he declared BK, they'd restructure the debt, but not discharge it.