Obama expected to promise student loan relief (Student Loan Debt discussion)

[Grey Jorildyn]

Yes I know it's per week. Rough man..

[Aksannyi]

It's adequate here for an entry level job (essentially a stop-gap job while I work on my BS). I couldn't come anywhere close to making ends meet in different parts of the country, but cost of living here sustains it just fine.

[kuronosan]

Lol 10% of my income is exactly what I have to pay now anyway.

What a useless piece of shit legislation.

[hey]

Lol 10% of my income is exactly what I have to pay now anyway.

What a useless piece of shit legislation.

10% of a borrower's discretionary income.

.

[Aksannyi]

So you pay 10% of your discretionary income and you basically never pay your loans off.

[Meresgi]

The unemployment rate for someone with a bachelor's degree over the age of 25 last year was only 4%, and they made on average $1100/wk.

http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_chart_001.gif

Strive for the median, and "drowning in debt" kinda solves itself, right?

Apparently my job with an associates pays between no high school and high school. And it's full time. Like others have said, I would love to see the chart of how many people with degrees even work full time. Chart also makes no reference it seems to people who just GAVE UP and said fuck it after too long of not being able to find work, or people who went back to school because it was the only option.

http://www.slate.com/content/dam/sla...ediumlarge.png

http://www.slate.com/content/dam/sla...ediumlarge.png

http://www.slate.com/content/dam/sla...ediumlarge.png

[Meresgi]

So you pay 10% of your discretionary income and you basically never pay your loans off.

Technically after 25years they go away, 10 years if you work for a non-profit that qualifies!

[Aksannyi]

Technically after 25years they go away, 10 years if you work for a non-profit that qualifies!

Well that's something, but if they're just going to write them off anyway, why not just charge less to begin with? They'll end up with the same amount of money in the end.

[Meresgi]

Well that's something, but if they're just going to write them off anyway, why not just charge less to begin with? They'll end up with the same amount of money in the end.

Because it's the American dream to get a degree for the price of a house!

I love people who went to college and paid for it working partime who still think that it's even possible, unless you spend forever getting the degree.

[Aksannyi]

Yeah basically my education has been a house.

Same people who say, "Go door to door looking for a job, someone will give you the time of day and reward your initiative!" The way we job hunt has changed. How dare you call someone in search of a job, lol.

[hey]

Well that's something, but if they're just going to write them off anyway, why not just charge less to begin with? They'll end up with the same amount of money in the end.

I think the idea is that people may be unable to pay anything for a few years after they graduate, until they find a better job. Once they do, they'll have to pay more. If they haven't paid it off within 25 years, then presumably they never will.

[archibaldcrane]

I just want to be able to refinance my loans to an interest rate comparable to what students now can take out.

You can't find anyone who will refi your loans, or just not for a good rate? All my loans were from grad school and I refi'd most of them down to 1.875%. With interest rates as low as they are right now, I'm surprised that you can't beat a 6.8% rate.

[kuronosan]

You can't find anyone who will refi your loans, or just not for a good rate? All my loans were from grad school and I refi'd most of them down to 1.875%. With interest rates as low as they are right now, I'm surprised that you can't beat a 6.8% rate.

This. My problem isn't that I don't have a good rate it's that 10% of anyone's income is still a lot of money. It isn't that I don't want to pay it back, because I borrowed the money. It's that it does nothing to alleviate the PROBLEM.

It's basically saying "yea don't worry about the cost of education or anything, making the payments is the real problem". If a job doesn't pay a reasonable income in some places (we'll set $1100 as a reasonable average per week), depending on where you got your education can impact that 10% from a fraction of your income (110/mo) to the full 10% (440/mo).

Considering the minimum term for repayment is 10 years, this helps nobody.

[Psion]

Yeah basically my education has been a house.

Same people who say, "Go door to door looking for a job, someone will give you the time of day and reward your initiative!" The way we job hunt has changed. How dare you call someone in search of a job, lol.

oh man, my own dad has whined at me to go out there and hunt for jobs by asking for applications. I actually tried his advice and went to over 80 stores one day, trying just that. 6 of them had applications to give. <_< the rest were entirely online only.
I don't think he realizes just how much the world has changed since he grew up.

[Tyche]

This. My problem isn't that I don't have a good rate it's that 10% of anyone's income is still a lot of money. It isn't that I don't want to pay it back, because I borrowed the money. It's that it does nothing to alleviate the PROBLEM.

It's basically saying "yea don't worry about the cost of education or anything, making the payments is the real problem". If a job doesn't pay a reasonable income in some places (we'll set $1100 as a reasonable average per week), depending on where you got your education can impact that 10% from a fraction of your income (110/mo) to the full 10% (440/mo).

Considering the minimum term for repayment is 10 years, this helps nobody.

Did I read it wrong? I thought it said 10% of your discretionary income. So if you make $1100 a week (man, that seems like a good damn wage, at least here in KY where the standard of living is shit), you're not necessarily paying $110 unless 100% of your income is discretionary.

Edit: I read it wrong!

[Meresgi]

You can't find anyone who will refi your loans, or just not for a good rate? All my loans were from grad school and I refi'd most of them down to 1.875%. With interest rates as low as they are right now, I'm surprised that you can't beat a 6.8% rate.

I couldn't lock any of my rates below that when I consolidated. When did you refi them and are your loans from private lenders or federal? And how long ago?

Sallie Mae, ACS and Nelnet would only drop mine to 6.8% other then the loans I already had from years ago when the rate was a little more reasonable and around 3-5%.

oh man, my own dad has whined at me to go out there and hunt for jobs by asking for applications. I actually tried his advice and went to over 80 stores one day, trying just that. 6 of them had applications to give. <_< the rest were entirely online only.
I don't think he realizes just how much the world has changed since he grew up.

I think we've all had this from our parents lol. I remember them telling me to just go to stores and being "Everything is online now, no one wants to talk to you and NO ONE is just going to give you a job unless it's a mom and pop store..which usually only employ family anyways".

In recent years i've had to help stepfather and mom look for jobs by coaching them on how to submit online resumes, how to type all the shit out and what not. They finally understand where I was coming from before now haha.

[archibaldcrane]

I couldn't lock any of my rates below that when I consolidated. When did you refi them and are your loans from private lenders or federal? And how long ago?

All federal loans. I was able to consolidate my subsidised and unsubsidized Stafford loans (which was like 38k - most of my debt). The Perkins loan wasn't eligible for consolidation. This was a refi back in 2005 I think? I'm just surprised similar opportunities aren't available now, given that the US prime rate is even lower now than it was then.

http://www.fedprimerate.com/prime-rate-chart.htm

Maybe all you sucka ass millennials are just risky investments.

[Meresgi]

All federal loans. I was able to consolidate my subsidised and unsubsidized Stafford loans (which was like 38k - most of my debt). The Perkins loan wasn't eligible for consolidation. This was a refi back in 2005 I think? I'm just surprised similar opportunities aren't available now, given that the US prime rate is even lower now than it was then.

http://www.fedprimerate.com/prime-rate-chart.htm

Maybe all you sucka ass millennials are just risky investments.

Yeah shit has gotten FUCKED since 2005. I think my mother graduated in 2008 or 2009 and could still lock in at like 3% or something. Not anymore and probably like you said we're all risky investments now, because of how many are in fucking debt and unwilling to even pay on it because fuck it.

[Ksandra]

i wish it were possible for me to believe that the obama administration were capable of doing anything to meaningfully assist debtors of any kind

unfortunately it is not, because this administration has, at every possible opportunity over the course of its terms, shown negative interest in doing so. the best case scenario is that whatever program they're planning to detail will be so narrow in scope that the net effect will be effectively zero. just pray this isn't some convoluted ploy to feed federal student loans to the private banking industry.

How do people constantly forget the CC laws Obama put into place? That shit was pretty awesome in helping people with debt.

[archibaldcrane]

And remember, for state schools, it's not so much that the "cost of education" has been rising as much as it's been that "the amount of the cost born by the student" has risen.

Take my home state of Wisconsin (from 2010):

While Wisconsin’s flagship university maintains the second cheapest in-state tuition in the Big Ten, published in-state tuition and fees have increased from $3,791 in 2000-01 to $8,314 this academic year, according to the UW 2009-10 Data Digest.

...

“It used to be that students about 10 years ago paid a little more than a third of their own educational costs and the state subsidized the other two-thirds … today, students are paying about 60 percent of the cost,” UW System spokesperson Dave Giroux said.