*Cries in 6 figures of refinanced loans*
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“Paralegals have about a 3-year shelf life”
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Chief
My wife managed to make it through the PSLF gauntlet two months ago and had a mortgage-worth of private law school loans forgiven. And the Trump/Biden pause in payments actually counted as qualified monthly payments, so her last 12 month were essentially free.
The feeling of getting that formal loan forgiveness letter was on par with the birth of our first child. One of the few times we’ve “lucked out” with the government.
Lmao @ this post
So basically this year:
Don’t want to work? No worries, government will pay extra unemployment benefits.
Don’t want to pay rent? Don’t worry about it!
Pesky loans tripping you up? Don’t worry about them, just don’t pay!
Been working 12 hour days all year and shelling out a third of your income to taxes? You SOB, pay your fair share.
I’m trying to figure out why folks ( who more likely than not had school paid for) are so upset about this? Even I’m ok with the pause. It’s a pause.
I doubt they are any smarter than me. It’s really just common sense. Why take on more debt to pay off debt that people can pay themselves by working. The economy is super hot and the jobs are there and many of these people as you can see by reading the post don’t need a postponement or forgiveness. It’s simply shifting their burden to future generations who already have substantial burden
Rising Star
Why are there so many haters on FB? Just because you manage to swim ashore, it doesn't mean we need to stop throwing lifeline to those still in the water.
No it’s more like there was an option to stay on the beach and you knew the risks of swimming away from land but decided to do it anyway. Now other people including those who made it back to shore or decided to stay on land have to put themselves at risk to save the idiots who decided to swim out. No one is coming to save you. Figure it out.
Reading some of the replies in this thread made me realize why I really dont like any of y’all that I work with and I keep everything purely work related. People really be hating on others wins even when it costs $0 to mins your own business if it doesn’t affect you
Correct. Federal loans mean the government has already distributed the money and is now holding the debt, most of which won’t be repaid for decades if ever. All the current discussion is around forgiving federal student loan debt since that is at least theoretically under Biden’s control. Amnesty for private loans would likely require the federal government buying up the debt (which would be far cheaper than the actual total amount of debt) and would require quite a bit of government spending.
The problem with America is that if you give handoffs and bailouts to rich / big corporations, Americans are ok with it and call it shining capitalism.
But the moment you make a concession to an individual, it is socialism…
Gov made a profit on the last major corporate bailouts so I'm marginally more OK with it. We're not even getting a positive return on the student loans.
If they just keep pushing that deadline back, surely the wave of people defaulting on their loans will never come
People should pay the balance, but interest rates should be 0%, 2% max. Not 6%- That’s ridiculous. I’ve paid my balance but still owe more than I borrowed.
D6 I’m against student loan forgiveness, but a reduction in rate or only requiring the principal be paid back seems like a good compromise.
My final loan has been sitting for months at $10k on the penny. I have the money in my savings account. Just waiting to see if the forbearance eventually become forgiveness... otherwise I'll pay it off before the pause ends.
Yea, I'm going to take advantage of what's available to me regardless of my personal policy opinions. I don't actually think the pause needs to continue, nor do I believe in blanket forgiveness of student debt fwiw. I would have been fine paying the loan off in Sep (or earlier), but it would be kind of silly to do it now given the possibility of forgiveness floating around, with interest currently paused... just playing the hand I've been dealt
This is just a tax on the working class and those who never went to college and forcing them to subsidize the middle and upper middle classes. You can try and spin it anyway you want but this forcing the poor to pay for everyone else.
Upper middle class people don’t qualify for federal student loans and poor people pay a tiny fraction of the country’s taxes. What are you talking about?
Why is this even a question? Reasonably rich countries like Australia, Canada, Switzerland, and Northern Europe have similar or higher living standards than the United States and minimal debt burden from higher education. The argument against wiping student loans and subsidizing public higher education is dumb. Highly subsidized higher education works. The data is there. Opinions on data are…pointless. Also, freedom is increased in such societies because people take more risks when they have more choices.
@D13 what kind brain-rot is that, small populations aren't correlated with high GDP per capita.
Large countries have large markets, which generate innovation and specialization (complements to education), driving greater growth. There are plenty of small poor counties and the US/Germany/France/UK are all large and much richer than most.
Spain is 25% richer than Portugal and has a lot more people. The US is 50% richer than Canada. UK is richer than Ireland. Germany is richer than Belgium, even though half of Germany was ruled by communists for 50 years.
Pro
The do nothing Democrats won’t even cancel student debt. It’s ridiculous. Just cancel it already. I guess I’m fine with delaying it indefinitely but like cmon already. Let’s fulfill some campaign promises
PWC5 you miss the point entirely and ascribe a point of view to me without any basis whatsoever. Let me help make it clearer for you. Trump sucked, I don’t want him back in EVER. I was articulating a risk not a preference. The f35 program which I didn’t even comment on is way too expensive and makes a strategic choice at the exclusion of other choices that is frankly risky and I also believe stupid. But this has nothing to do with my point.
In general I don’t like the idea of giving away free money. It takes away the will of making a life for yourself. Surely there are some advantages and some families could use it but there are several others who have been abusing such policies. Like - because of so much unemployment benefits- people don’t want to go back to work because they would get same compensation for not working. Now there are talks of paying of student debt. If they need support they should get indirect support in lower interest rates in first home investments or tax benefits if their salary is lower etc..
Bots are blocking me from responding to this with real world feedback.
Not sure why we need to pause with unemployment as low as it is and plenty of jobs that need filling. This sounds more like a policy for when the opposite is true?
1. We will give 2.3 trillion dollars tax cut to corporations, we will also give 800 billion dollars for defence budget for wars we are not even supposed to be fighting but how dare you delay payments for people who were 16-18 while making a decision to take loans for education.
2. I am all in for capitalism because that's the only system that works (well) but let's be honest here, the problem is not because people are getting loans which they cannot pay but the problem is the grown ups or the government are not suggesting or not providing guidance to these kids who want to take 60k in loans to get an arts degree which might not land them a dignified job.
3. For profit institutions are increasing fees every year and there are no limitations on that as well. Studies show that only 38% of the fee is actually administrative, rest is all profit.
4. Lastly, there should be appropriate financial education for people of all ages. People should understand that if they have a loan of $40k and they get a job with a starting salary of under 130k then the first thing shouldn't be to buy a Tesla or a fancy car but to pay off the debt.
Loan forbearance is not loan forgiveness. Principal balances have not changed (and loan forgiveness has almost no chance of becoming real legislation). The number of remaining payments remains the same. It's just a pause. The govt already hold the debt. It's likely not being paid for by tax payers and likely just adding to the deficit. Total annual revenue from fed loan interest was ~$70b precovid... Total fed revenue was over $3T.. this seems like an affordable measure to help people stay afloat or get ahead during a global crisis... We have bigger issues to deal with
C3 - thanks for pointing this out. You are correct in that for income based loans, those currently in forbearance will not need to make up the last year or 2 of payments over the course of the 20-25 year repayment plan. I would add that all income based repayment plans include loan forgiveness at the end of the term which is taxable. And it's common that the balance may have grown beyond the initial borrowed amount.
Regarding who pays for the deficit... No, it is not fairies... For most of my adult life (post Clinton), the US has not "paid" for it's deficit. We've "grown" out of it, inflated the dollar, and have maintained an excellent credit rating allowing us to borrow at near zeros interest rates
What's the next step towards preventing a loan crisis from perpetuating itself
I think EY8 has it right. The institution and degree should be considered before authorizing a loan. Engineering at a state flagship? Sure. Want to major in gender identity studies at a school with a direction in the name? God speed. You’re paying out of pocket.
I went to high school with a girl that wanted to be a school teacher, noble profession. She chose to go to GWU full freight, she’s now got $250k in student loans debt and works as a teacher in our hometown. That’s a loan that should have never been approved. No way she ever pays that back.
Why?
Did you read further? They said that this will be the last pause.
“Two more weeks to flatten the curve.” 😆😆😆
Rising Star
Fwiw OP - I think we should cancel private loans along with the government ones.
FWIW C4, I think that makes no sense