Cancelling student debt

[Hines57]

The argument that these kids aren't old enough to understand what they are signing when they take out loans for college is pretty flimsy when the Dims want to lower the voting age. So taking out a college loan that could be over 6 figures at 18 means they are immature but they are mature enough to understand politics and vote in elections. GTFOOH with that nonsense.

If you signed for a loan, you should have to repay the debt. My only note to add here is that the interest rates should be lowered and the universities jacking up tuitions annually should receive zero federal dollars if they are going to **** over the next generation.

 

[Yinzerlyn]

I paid off my first student loan. I am taking one out now to pay for me to actually get a college degree and follow my passion. I know what I have to do to pay it back and I will. I don’t expect anyone to help me pay it back, either.

 

[Superman]

I have a student loan. I'm indifferent on the cutting of $10k off it.
I do agree that the government has gone about this all wrong.

For instance, the government allows anyone to obtain a student loan. Most people will get a student loan and go to a state-run college, be it a community college or 4-year university. The borrower is then giving the government its money back to allow them to obtain a piece of paper from the government stating the borrower/student has met educational objectives. During this time, the borrower then must pay taxes on books and supplies they purchase from government run bookstores at these government ran institutions.

The class costs vary depending on degree. As do the book prices (as they always have) and number of books (again, which has always been the case). The books may deviate from semester to semester marginally, but the cost of the book can increase by as much as $5-75 or more. There are only selected numbers of books available. Surprisingly, the number of books is near or close to the number of students registering for class.

Now, books can either be rented or purchased out-right. Renting a book is the cheaper option, but it also serves as a bit of a kick in that "you won't need this book after the semester, anyway." So the student rents a book for $50. Or they can find a PDF of the book for cheaper. The PDF can be downloaded and saved forever. Yet, if a person purchases a book, and considers this an investment in their education and that they might need to review something at a later date, that costs a LOT more. Though by buying the book, they can also re-sell it after the semester/class - either back to the bookstore and receive a percent for what they paid for it ... or to another student taking the class.

Therein lies the problems. IMO, if a person acquires a student loan ---- FEDERAL student loan, not a personal loan from a bank ---- and enrolls in a state-funded college, the tuition, books, etc should be at a lesser cost.

I know of people who had to return to college later in life to educate themselves to find a better job. Due to technology pushing jobs out of the market or even whole industries overseas. As such, these people who never had a student loan before are then shouldering an enormous amount of student loans while also nearing retirement age. If these people had been working since they were able to - age 16 - and have paid taxes on their wages, on purchases, on just about everything the government can tax someone on, then when they most need assistance they turn to educating themselves rather than becoming dependent on the government to help cover their rent, utilities, food, etc, they should receive a cut in costs. the vast majority of these people are already working a full-time job, will then acquire a higher-paying job and thus pay more via taxes by simply working and purchasing **** than they would otherwise

Just my opinion.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

I wouldn't forgive the student loans but the government could make them interest-free so people could actually pay them off. Also make them a little harder to get, which won't happen under President Biden/Harris. There is a huge pot of money for the colleges to tap into which is why they've gotten to where they accept anyone and for whatever crazy major they want. The colleges get THEIR money, whether or not you can be gainfully employed at anything more than barista at Starbucks with your gender studies degree and pay it back, they really don't care.

 

[Djfan]

I wouldn't forgive the student loans but the government could make them interest-free so people could actually pay them off. Also make them a little harder to get, which won't happen under President Biden/Harris. There is a huge pot of money for the colleges to tap into which is why they've gotten to where they accept anyone and for whatever crazy major they want. The colleges get THEIR money, whether or not you can be gainfully employed at anything more than barista at Starbucks with your gender studies degree and pay it back, they really don't care.

It's clear that the higher education crowd donates much to the democrats. That's why they want it to be a cash cow. Screw the little guy, his debt, and those who don't ever finish or use their education.

 

[Stoney]

The universities should be forced to give the money back to the lenders. Taxpayers didn't have anything to do with the nonsense that went on between university/student/lender, why should we have to foot the bill? One of those three entities should be on the hook for that debt.

 

[Supersteeler]

I wouldn't forgive the student loans but the government could make them interest-free so people could actually pay them off.

Yeah I agree wholeheartedly. I have been out of college and paying on my student loans for 20 years now. Never missed a payment. Wanna know the exact point when the overall balance on my loans actually started going down instead of going up due to the tacked on interest? 2 months ago. That's right....it took me 19 years and 10 months of paying every month in order to get over the hump and stop the balance from going up any more.....let alone starting to go down. Overall I now owe $9,000 more now than I originally owed in the year 2000 when I finished grad school.....due to the interest compiling faster than I was paying it. Since I have started to make a dent in the principal balance 2 months ago, I've officially paid off about $100 of the $64,000 I currently owe for undergrad and graduate school. And it's not like I have been paying $50 a month or something for 20 years, it's been between $300 and $400 a month for that entire period. It's a ******* racket. At least I will be dead long before I ever have to worry about paying it off, even if I live another 40 years.

 

[Stoney]

Yeah I agree wholeheartedly. I have been out of college and paying on my student loans for 20 years now. Never missed a payment. Wanna know the exact point when the overall balance on my loans actually started going down instead of going up due to the tacked on interest? 2 months ago. That's right....it took me 19 years and 10 months of paying every month in order to get over the hump and stop the balance from going up any more.....let alone starting to go down. Overall I now owe $9,000 more now than I originally owed in the year 2000 when I finished grad school.....due to the interest compiling faster than I was paying it. Since I have started to make a dent in the principal balance 2 months ago, I've officially paid off about $100 of the $64,000 I currently owe for undergrad and graduate school. And it's not like I have been paying $50 a month or something for 20 years, it's been between $300 and $400 a month for that entire period. It's a ******* racket. At least I will be dead long before I ever have to worry about paying it off, even if I live another 40 years.

So what is the rate they were charging? And did you ever look to refinance that loan?

 

[Djfan]

Yeah I agree wholeheartedly. I have been out of college and paying on my student loans for 20 years now. Never missed a payment. Wanna know the exact point when the overall balance on my loans actually started going down instead of going up due to the tacked on interest? 2 months ago. That's right....it took me 19 years and 10 months of paying every month in order to get over the hump and stop the balance from going up any more.....let alone starting to go down. Overall I now owe $9,000 more now than I originally owed in the year 2000 when I finished grad school.....due to the interest compiling faster than I was paying it. Since I have started to make a dent in the principal balance 2 months ago, I've officially paid off about $100 of the $64,000 I currently owe for undergrad and graduate school. And it's not like I have been paying $50 a month or something for 20 years, it's been between $300 and $400 a month for that entire period. It's a ******* racket. At least I will be dead long before I ever have to worry about paying it off, even if I live another 40 years.

We are 100% sure that we will never pay ours off either. We simply don't factor it in when planning for retirement.

 

[Supersteeler]

So what is the rate they were charging? And did you ever look to refinance that loan?

I guess it wasn't so much the interest rate because I just checked and it's 4.3%. The main problem stems form the payment plan you have to get on to make the payments. They have income based repayment which allows you to pay at the percentage of income that you earn. Each year your payment goes up a little bit in accordance with your salary increasing, but you still aren't paying anywhere near the full payment amount. To pay the full payment I would have had to been paying over $800 a month for the past 20 years which is a complete joke and not at all economically feasible right now, let alone 20 years ago when I was making $21,000 a year salary.

Also factor in my wife's loans which are also on income based repayment. We pay $350 a month on hers and would have to pay over $700 on them to pay the full amount. So now with mine being $800 a month, you would be talking $1500 a month just on college loans if you want to pay the full amount. I don't know anyone who could pay that plus all the other bills and still support a household, so you really don't have a choice other than the income based. And the interest keeps compiling on the remaining balance of the loans that you aren't paying every month. That's what happens when two poor kids from Appalachia decide go to college lol. They get you by the balls. My parents could only afford to pay the bare minimum payments while I was in school and the same for my wife's folks and I'm sure it was a hell of a struggle for both. Now admittedly we went to a pricier college which was our mistake but neither of us knew any better at the time and our parents certainly didn't. But am I going to say it was a bad choice? I found a wife by going to that particular college, which resulted in 2 awesome kids and a very good life, so I can't say that. But I will definitely make sure my own kids have all the facts financially if that is the route they choose to go .

I talked to a loan rep about 8 years ago and asked if if I can start sending in a little extra money every month on top of the given amount we are paying. His response was "Don't bother." He basically said I might as well flush the extra money down the toilet because I had $8,000 in interest built up at that time and the principal balance wouldn't be touched until that was paid through. Fast forward 8 years, it looks like we have gotten through the excess interest thankfully and are now getting into the balance a little bit. Hell, it only took 2 decades.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

Overall I now owe $9,000 more now than I originally owed in the year 2000 when I finished grad school.....due to the interest compiling faster than I was paying it.

That's f'd up. I thought that kind of thing was illegal.

 

[ZonaBurgh]

That's f'd up. I thought that kind of thing was illegal.

Should be, sounds like they're a level with title loans.

 

[Supersteeler]

That's f'd up. I thought that kind of thing was illegal.

I'm sure they would just come back and say, "You weren't paying the full $800 a month".

Now that we have cut through the interest, we have started sending $400 a month instead of the required $375 or whatever it is up to now. Not that it will make much of a dent either way.

 

[Stainless]

My school was cheap enough that I didn't need a loan. I went to an in state school, and as a result primarily had access to poor, in state poon, but I think it was a wise choice. That was also a long time ago, when education was somewhat affordable.

 

[Booted]

My school was cheap enough that I didn't need a loan. I went to an in state school, and as a result primarily had access to poor, in state poon, but I think it was a wise choice. That was also a long time ago, when education was somewhat affordable.

What made school unaffordable? Hint: The government got involved .

 

[Stainless]

What made school unaffordable? Hint: The government got involved .

Like most things, I'm not educated on the topic, so I can't really say what's going on, what happened etc. When I was living in Nashville in the late 90's, I played golf with two guys that were going to Vanderbilt. I want to say they told me that their tuition was around 30K per semester. I suspect the cost of attending Vanderbilt was well above average, but I was still kinda shocked and that was 20+ years ago. I doubt it's gotten cheaper.