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And do not spend $3500 on veterinary surgery for your adopted expiring mutt from the pound. That would pay down a lot of student loans and save a lot of interest. I am amazed at the thousands and thousands many people with heavy loan debt spend on veterinary services and pampered care for their pets each year.
In my past, I did some collections work as an attorney. We collected for a number of clients including a veterinary clinic. Time and time again, I pursued people who had run up a $1000 bill trying to get treatment for an expiring animal. Most of these people were of modest means. I hated doing it, but they were the ones who incurred the debt. People can be very emotional and illogical when it come to caring for a dog or cat. There comes a point when any animal simply needs to be put down. This seems very cold to some. However, things that are biological do not live forever. Better to face reality sooner rather than later.
I bought a house one time, and I signed a whole heap of papers. A mortgage was originated. The terms were between me and Company X (I don't remember actually what company it was) and that I would repay them the amount that I borrowed.
Then without asking me any sort of permission or a by-your-leave, they sold my loan to a different servicer.
I'd promised to pay THEM back. I was not asked if I would make a new promise to pay back this other company that was suddenly involved in my life.
And yet. We did make those payments.
And then later on, my husband and I divorced. We had both made promises to each other that were not being upheld, and we ended up having to dissolve the contract we'd created years prior. In the course of that, I did not want any part of the house, I just wanted to disentangle our finances and be on my way. He'd bought the house with his VA loan, he could not (without selling it) buy out my share of the equity, and I didn't really need or want him to anyhow. So we did a quit-claim to get me off the deed and a loan assumption to get me off the loan. And despite having personally signed on to a promise to make payments when we'd taken out the mortgage, right alongside my husband at the time...I was no longer responsible for those payments anymore.
Terms change on loans ALL THE TIME.
For that matter, my student loans have been sold to new servicing entities several times...I promised to make payments to Iowa Student Loan, but I have not paid them anything in ages. I had, since then, Aspire, Mohela, Great Lakes, and now apparently Nelnet! Never was I asked, "are you cool with the change in terms, or do you want the original company to fulfill their end of the deal in continuing to service your loans as they promised they would do when you took them out?"
But very probably it doesn't matter what I think about it, because I am actually wagering that the loan forgiveness that Biden wanted to do, won't go through anyways. And I won't be mad about it if I have to resume payments.
I can tell ya something though...if the government ended up absorbing the hit of my $15K in student loan debt, they'd be getting a bargain in a way. Because my education, even though I didn't even finish my degree (Accounting) was extremely valuable and gave me a solid foundation for upward mobility and a decent career path. Before I had that, my earning potential kept me in such a low tax bracket I had no tax burden whatsoever. Because I gained the ability to earn somewhat more, I've had to pay taxes, and I do so without complaint. And over the years, it's been more than $15K already, to say nothing of all the years to come.
A well educated population is an investment in the future of society, in a sense.
I just wish that we could disentangle the "pay a ton of money for a degree" from the "OK you deserve to make a high salary" thing... Because as we speak, all of the course materials from MIT are available online free to anyone. You could, were you inclined to put in the work, teach yourself everything you could get out of a very expensive education. The problem is...you cannot PROVE that you have the knowledge, to an employer, with a piece of paper, to justify getting the job that requires the knowledge. Which is a shame, I think.
Well, if you were looking for an accountant or a lawyer or a plumber, would you want to hire someone who taught himself using an online course? Or would you want some proof that they were competent? That's the thing, you'd need licensing bodies to agree to allow self-learners equal opportunity for certification, and if they do that every member of the professional organization that went through the schooling would rightly feel betrayed and sold out.
Well, if you were looking for an accountant or a lawyer or a plumber, would you want to hire someone who taught himself using an online course? Or would you want some proof that they were competent? That's the thing, you'd need licensing bodies to agree to allow self-learners equal opportunity for certification, and if they do that every member of the professional organization that went through the schooling would rightly feel betrayed and sold out.
Not if there is value in actually paying for an education, versus self-learning, beyond that piece of paper. And for the price of it, there SHOULD BE. If you are motivated and capable enough to just use the materials to teach yourself...there should be a way to pay a much lower amount to test out of at least classes, if not the whole program. The value in paying more, would be in having professional instruction. People who presumably are more useful than an audio-tape to read book content at you in a lecture setting. They can guide you through it, if that is what you need.
I don't believe that gatekeeping a class structure (also pointing at the thing of alumni getting their kids into schools) has value if we're really trying to have anything like a meritocracy here.
My husband's great grandfather never went to college to study law. He was working in mines, in Mexico, and studied law in his spare time, and took the exam and passed it. He ended up as a lawyer for some of the most powerful figures in Mexico City including a President. Later he passed the bar in Arizona and California and practiced law there as well, all without going to college for it. We just inherited considerable money that began with him teaching himself, without even the benefit of an online course.
So yeah, if someone self-studies and truly gains the knowledge enough to successfully retain and use it, I think that IS good enough. Also, I have been to college and the sheer number of kids just going through the motions, memorizing stuff long enough to take a test in a class and not taking any of it seriously...
As for accountants, I did not even finish my degree and I have learned a great deal more from various things I've pushed my way through in practical application. I've tackled some very complex tax matters and come out on top. I've recently educated myself in how trusts work, and how the accounting must be done for a moderately complicated estate. I don't really trust anyone else to handle my books, so long as I've got the time to do it, more than I do myself.
A plumber? I won't know how he learned his trade most likely. The reviews of other clientele are what I'll be looking at, I've never had a plumber offer to show me his certifications or proof of any schooling.
I just don't get the rage at seeing other people, especially those in hardship, catch a break even if one does not benefit from it. My brother has three small kids, so when that child tax credit money was coming, he was really benefiting from that. He is a teacher, he doesn't make much, I was happy for him. I wasn't mad that my kids are grown and I didn't get it. I would, as I've said in other posts here, actually prefer that the loan relief concept were aimed more specifically at those who are in greater hardship than I am, a more targeted approach that offered greater possible relief would have made more sense to me.
But if the government is gonna wipe my loans (doubt it) I will let them. Hell, maybe if this Biden plan gets well and truly shut down, and if he ends up doing a second term, perhaps he'll come up with a different, better plan, one that really can help people who need it.
I'm 57 and I can not even imagine having to pay on a student loan at this age. Good grief, you take those out when you are in your teens and early 20's and you are still paying on them in your 50's because the "interest is low"? The interest on my mortgage is low and that only means to me that it gets paid off faster with more money going towards principal as opposed to interest. Ditto the (now) paid off cars sitting in our driveway.
I would be hating life if I was still paying on student loans that I had taken out decades ago. Just get it paid off and be done with it already.
I have a friend who's 71 paying off college debt he borrowed to send his kids to college. Simple to collect, the government takes 15% of his SS every month cuz he never paid any of it back. That's always that option for people who don't want to pay them back while they're working.
It’s here! My loans have been officially zeroed out, thanks to Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Only took 12 years and 1 pandemic! I borrowed $59,000, paid about $30,000, and they just zeroed out the remaining $73,000.
Yes, you read that correct. I paid a little more than half of my original principal, but still owed significantly more than my original principle. Crazy.
Does anyone think it would be a better idea to cancel Medical Debt rather than Student Loan Debt?
If Equality and diversity were the goal, wouldn't Medical Debt cancellation fit the bill better?
Medical debt is bankruptable, student loans are not.
Personally, I think a better way would be to have a means-dependent repayment plan for both kinds of debt. But if someone is truly abusing the system (for instance, making a high income and refusing to pay anything), the creditors are fully justified in using the force of law to compel payment.
It’s here! My loans have been officially zeroed out, thanks to Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Only took 12 years and 1 pandemic! I borrowed $59,000, paid about $30,000, and they just zeroed out the remaining $73,000.
Yes, you read that correct. I paid a little more than half of my original principal, but still owed significantly more than my original principle. Crazy.
Anyway, I’m finally free.
Congrats! My daughter is in the PSLF program as well, hoping her balance will also be forgiven when the time comes.
Congrats! My daughter is in the PSLF program as well, hoping her balance will also be forgiven when the time comes.
I honestly wondered if it would ever arrive. The changes that the Biden admin has made in the past two years has really made it possible to reach forgiveness after 120 payments.
Medical debt is bankruptable, student loans are not.
Personally, I think a better way would be to have a means-dependent repayment plan for both kinds of debt. But if someone is truly abusing the system (for instance, making a high income and refusing to pay anything), the creditors are fully justified in using the force of law to compel payment.
With a good accountant - how do you plan to prove someone is not abusing the system? Who is supposed to pay for the new system for the poor students who cannot or do not want to pay back what they borrowed?
Please - I love my house but I cannot pay it. Will you please let me have it as I love it?
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