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Exactly this. Living in a tiny subsidized apartment or shopping at thrift shops or taking the bus because I can't afford better is not much of a "retirement" IMO. I'd rather work until I drop dead than consign myself to being so constrained by poverty that I have to use food stamps and Medicaid at the very start of my retirement. If I live for another 25 or 30 years, it may very well be that inflation will force me into taking welfare, but I sure don't want to start out that poor.
Except...except...it does represent financial freedom. Knowing that the two biggest expenses - housing and medical - do not threaten to throw you into bankruptcy or onto the street. With those two worries removed, I could envision quite a long time where I would make an adventure of thrift shops and taking the bus!
...
Yeah, I know I don't qualify. Always instructive to daydream, though!
Didn't have any money, paid 73% of my net income (after taxes and student loan) to rent a room in a house that got foreclosed, this was literally the only place I was able to afford moving into. Guess the foreclosure was my fault too.
So you've been paying on a student loan for 37 years.
So you've been paying on a student loan for 37 years.
No, I stayed in school part-time for quite a while, so repayment was delayed, then there's a standard time allowance for forbearance, then I was paying on and off for years as finances allowed (max yearly income $17K, average below $15K). Once you default, the accrued interest and penalties are 'capitalized' which means they become part of the principal, which causes the monthly interest and fees to necessarily skyrocket
To date I have paid more interest, and also more penalties/fees, than the amount I borrowed.
The inconvenient truth is that student loan defaulters are HUGE money makers for government.
Because of the incessant fees, a recent calculation suggests my student loans will be paid off in 41 years. Unfortunately I will be dead by then.
nothing is your fault , you see everything as someone else destroying your life.
the answer is it is all your fault for letting yourself get in the situation you are.
you didn't find away , you were the one who found the excuse.
The unfortunate reality is that lack of liquid resources is often a major constraint on a person's options. If the only place you can afford to move into turns out to be run by a live-in tyrannical angry drunk with no job and no life, what are you going to do about it?
He was a happy laid-off drunk when I moved in; within a month he picked up at a bar a drunk chick who had just gotten out of drug rehab...she needed a roof over her head so she moved in with the drunk and then their dysfunctional violent relationship ruined the house for everyone.
No, I stayed in school part-time for quite a while, so repayment was delayed, then there's a standard time allowance for forbearance, then I was paying on and off for years as finances allowed (max yearly income $17K, average below $15K). Once you default, the accrued interest and penalties are 'capitalized' which means they become part of the principal, which causes the monthly interest and fees to necessarily skyrocket
To date I have paid more interest, and also more penalties/fees, than the amount I borrowed.
The inconvenient truth is that student loan defaulters are HUGE money makers for government.
Because of the incessant fees, a recent calculation suggests my student loans will be paid off in 41 years. Unfortunately I will be dead by then.
Given your career choice as a fast food worker (and has been that for the past 37 years) why didn't you just declare bankruptcy and avoid further payments which you could have done back then? It sure as he11 wouldn't have affected your credit rating as you essentially don't have one anyway.
BTW, I went to college a few years before you, DO NOT BELIEVE THIS STORY (OR ANY OTHER OF YOURS FOR THAT MATTER). As cheap as universities were in those days, you could easily work your way thru with no student loans. I know lots of people who did just that.
Given your career choice as a fast food worker (and has been that for the past 37 years) why didn't you just declare bankruptcy and avoid further payments which you could have done back then? It sure as he11 wouldn't have affected your credit rating as you essentially don't have one anyway.
BTW, I went to college a few years before you, DO NOT BELIEVE THIS STORY (OR ANY OTHER OF YOURS FOR THAT MATTER). As cheap as universities were in those days, you could easily work your way thru with no student loans. I know lots of people who did just that.
I paid exorbitant non-resident tuition. I was academically recruited on the basis of a National Merit Commendation, but my dysfunctional family disqualified me from financial aid. My understanding at the time was that a Commendation means you would have qualified as a Semifinalist in some other state, but you did not qualify in your own state.
That's right, I could have BK'd my way out of it but it seemed shady and disreputable. Yes, I was dumb and misguided.
The unfortunate reality is that lack of liquid resources is often a major constraint on a person's options. If the only place you can afford to move into turns out to be run by a live-in tyrannical angry drunk with no job and no life, what are you going to do about it?
He was a happy laid-off drunk when I moved in; within a month he picked up at a bar a drunk chick who had just gotten out of drug rehab...she needed a roof over her head so she moved in with the drunk and then their dysfunctional violent relationship ruined the house for everyone.
it all boils down to you let yourself get or remain in that position . all roads leadback to you , your choices ,reactions and actions.
I'd like to hear some alternatives in which taxpayers do not pay.
Mandated and universal retirement savings. In Australia, employers and employees contribute 15% (each contributes half) to private retirement accounts. The investments could be index based in "target-retirement" type accounts where they start off aggressive and get more conservative as people age. There's no reason we couldn't do this in the U.S. right now. If you save 15% over your working lifetime in a mix of stocks and bonds, retirement security is assured for the vast majority of people. Our current mish-mash of skimpy (and not financially stable) Social Security and voluntary 401Ks & IRAs just doesn't work because somewhere between 2/3 and 3/4 of people won't save anywhere near enough.
The unfortunate reality is that lack of liquid resources is often a major constraint on a person's options. If the only place you can afford to move into turns out to be run by a live-in tyrannical angry drunk with no job and no life, what are you going to do about it?
He was a happy laid-off drunk when I moved in; within a month he picked up at a bar a drunk chick who had just gotten out of drug rehab...she needed a roof over her head so she moved in with the drunk and then their dysfunctional violent relationship ruined the house for everyone.
Seems to me you're just repeating your childhood. Did you not say that your parents were alcoholics? A person who didn't grow up with alcoholic parents would simply never move in with a drunk in the first place--no matter what. You accepted this situation because on some level it's your comfort zone.
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