Does anyone else owe a TON in student loans?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the OP of this thread. We're down from $400,000 in student loan debt to a little over $100,000!!! Just wanted to give hope to others out there - you can do it![/quote]

Just wanted to bold this for those who missed it. I'm the OP. We've been steadily paying down and will probably be done in a year or so. Surprised by a few of the comments above. Guess you missed my updated post, and again, I never mentioned anything about doing loan forgiveness or not paying. We've paid off several hundred thousand dollars in the last few years. It can be done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the OP of this thread. We're down from $400,000 in student loan debt to a little over $100,000!!! Just wanted to give hope to others out there - you can do it![/quote]

Just wanted to bold this for those who missed it. I'm the OP. We've been steadily paying down and will probably be done in a year or so. Surprised by a few of the comments above. Guess you missed my updated post, and again, I never mentioned anything about doing loan forgiveness or not paying. We've paid off several hundred thousand dollars in the last few years. It can be done.

That's really great. But just realize that it's not at all typical for a person to pay off 300K in student loans in 3 years (that's 100K/year). Wonderful that YOU could do that though. Congrats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the OP of this thread. We're down from $400,000 in student loan debt to a little over $100,000!!! Just wanted to give hope to others out there - you can do it![/quote]

Just wanted to bold this for those who missed it. I'm the OP. We've been steadily paying down and will probably be done in a year or so. Surprised by a few of the comments above. Guess you missed my updated post, and again, I never mentioned anything about doing loan forgiveness or not paying. We've paid off several hundred thousand dollars in the last few years. It can be done.

That's really great. But just realize that it's not at all typical for a person to pay off 300K in student loans in 3 years (that's 100K/year). Wonderful that YOU could do that though. Congrats.

I know it's not typical. I just wanted to give people hope. It can be incredibly depressing and overwhelming to have lots of debt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the OP of this thread. We're down from $400,000 in student loan debt to a little over $100,000!!! Just wanted to give hope to others out there - you can do it![/quote]

Just wanted to bold this for those who missed it. I'm the OP. We've been steadily paying down and will probably be done in a year or so. Surprised by a few of the comments above. Guess you missed my updated post, and again, I never mentioned anything about doing loan forgiveness or not paying. We've paid off several hundred thousand dollars in the last few years. It can be done.

That's really great. But just realize that it's not at all typical for a person to pay off 300K in student loans in 3 years (that's 100K/year). Wonderful that YOU could do that though. Congrats.

I know it's not typical. I just wanted to give people hope. It can be incredibly depressing and overwhelming to have lots of debt.

Yes, they can pay it off. But most people can't swing nearly 10K a month for student loans. It's important to be realistic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the OP of this thread. We're down from $400,000 in student loan debt to a little over $100,000!!! Just wanted to give hope to others out there - you can do it![/quote]

Just wanted to bold this for those who missed it. I'm the OP. We've been steadily paying down and will probably be done in a year or so. Surprised by a few of the comments above. Guess you missed my updated post, and again, I never mentioned anything about doing loan forgiveness or not paying. We've paid off several hundred thousand dollars in the last few years. It can be done.

That's really great. But just realize that it's not at all typical for a person to pay off 300K in student loans in 3 years (that's 100K/year). Wonderful that YOU could do that though. Congrats.

I know it's not typical. I just wanted to give people hope. It can be incredibly depressing and overwhelming to have lots of debt.

Yes, they can pay it off. But most people can't swing nearly 10K a month for student loans. It's important to be realistic.

Most people also don't have that much student loan debt to pay off.

[Anonymous]

Congrats OP and thanks for checking in! As someone with overwhelming loans (but much lower than yours on our salaries), who is making real progress but not there yet, these posts are really encouraging. Thanks for checking in despite the criticism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Congrats OP and thanks for checking in! As someone with overwhelming loans (but much lower than yours on our salaries), who is making real progress but not there yet, these posts are really encouraging. Thanks for checking in despite the criticism.

Recent PP here. I really wasn't criticizing the Op. I really do think it's amazing that the Op was able to pay off such a sizable chunk of their very large student load debt in such a short amount of time. My point was that while that is truly great that Op could that it is not typical for the average person to be able to pay such an enormous loan off so quickly. Most of us have to chip away at debt for a while until we start to make progress - like you have. Congrats to you for your progress, it must be a tremendous relief to have that loan down to a more manageable size. I'm sure that didn't happen overnight but it will be well worth it.

[Anonymous]

You paid off $300,000 in 3 months? Hard to believe given date of original post and your latest update.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Congrats OP and thanks for checking in! As someone with overwhelming loans (but much lower than yours on our salaries), who is making real progress but not there yet, these posts are really encouraging. Thanks for checking in despite the criticism.

+1

Biiiiig high five, OP. DH had $200k and it is 100% paid off. It took 7 years and some unusual circumstances to be able to do it, but they are GONE.



But it was a calculated risk. I thought about going back to school as well, and couldn't justify it, knowing our lifestyle makes it hard for me to maintain high earning employment because DH's job requires frequent moves. So not everyone who takes on massive debt is an idiot hoping to get out of paying off their debt. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it doesn't. And then luck really needs to be on your side. Luckily, it was on ours this time around. In other ways, we haven't been so lucky.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Congrats OP and thanks for checking in! As someone with overwhelming loans (but much lower than yours on our salaries), who is making real progress but not there yet, these posts are really encouraging. Thanks for checking in despite the criticism.

+1

Biiiiig high five, OP. DH had $200k and it is 100% paid off. It took 7 years and some unusual circumstances to be able to do it, but they are GONE.



But it was a calculated risk. I thought about going back to school as well, and couldn't justify it, knowing our lifestyle makes it hard for me to maintain high earning employment because DH's job requires frequent moves. So not everyone who takes on massive debt is an idiot hoping to get out of paying off their debt. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it doesn't. And then luck really needs to be on your side. Luckily, it was on ours this time around. In other ways, we haven't been so lucky.

I have also not been able to justify the cost of going back to school myself for lifestyle reasons and future earning potential. In my case, it just wasn't worth it for me to return to school.

It's the people that take on 300K, 400K worth of students loans and then act surprised that the debt takes time to pay down. What were they expecting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You paid off $300,000 in 3 months? Hard to believe given date of original post and your latest update.

Look again.
Original post was 8/23/2011

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[quote]I don't hate people who have student loans, but I do think they should repay them. That's a very, very large sum of money and I didn't need to take a loan out in that amount to go to school. I got a degree and went to a school I could afford. I also make a good salary and have not relied on the American taxpayer to foot my college tuition.

x100.

And merely working for the feds doesn't quite cut it. Being the sole doctor on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the poorest county in the US? sure. Ditto for being the only public defender somewhere in the Mississippi Delta who helps indigent folks who are in jail, for years on end.

But, forgiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans per person because that guy is a GS-14 lawyer telecommuting from Herndon for the HHS? Working 8:45 to 4:30? Really?!

Who can I call about this.

I'm a left-leaning Democrat and agree 100%.

Sheesh.

Umm. If you are making GS14 it is VERY VERY hard to get approved for the forgiveness program. It is not just about working for the government but rather working for the government and having a low salary in comparison to giant loans.

NP. Then they leave government, go consult, get more pay better retirement and double dip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:300k here. I have nightmares about it! It is the same amount as our home loan. We hope to pay for it during 10 years and then have it forgiven.

OP here. I have nightmares about it too! Sometimes I can't get to sleep because I feel so stressed about them. We're trying to pay them down, higher interest rate loans first. Neither one of us works for the govt. To answer other PP - one Dr. and one lawyer.

Sounds like being a dr and a lawyer is the wrong choice these days... I hope the selfish parents on another thread that said they won't help their kids pay for college read these posts..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

And, we are currently paying only interest because that's all we can afford (this will change after DH makes partner next year). And, my DH didn't graduate until 2006, BUT he was already 30 instead of 25.
. . .

Both of us took out these loans when we were young, and for various reasons neither of us had received a particularly good education in financial matters and didn't really know what we were getting into.

???

Ok, I was younger than he was! I went straight through. He took out the masters degree loans when he was young (22). Then he went to law school so he could pay off the masters degree ... because like a lot of prospective law students he was led to believe that job prospects and salaries were better than they actually turned out to be.

You are so full of excuses. I graduated from law school the same year as your DH and I'm sorry, the writing was on the wall for a long time about the legal field. I went in with my eyes open and am glad I am a lawyer, it's what I always wanted. But it really bugs me when contemporaries act as if they couldn't have known what the deal was and poor them. If you're foolish and make a mistake, own up to it. Don't blame everyone else, your youth, etc.

I agree. If you are bright enough to get into and graduate from law school, you are bright enough to figure out that you'll need to do some due diligence about job prospects, and consider the financial ramifications of taking out loans.

Gimme a break.

Seriously! This type of debt can't be bankrupt either. Idiots!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DH and I owe $300k+ combined. Both lawyers, plus a worthless but expensive masters degree thrown in for good measure (his). And, I am a SAHM. And, we have three kids and will probably have another. And, I hated being a lawyer and will never use my degree again. And, we are currently paying only interest because that's all we can afford (this will change after DH makes partner next year). And, my DH didn't graduate until 2006, BUT he was already 30 instead of 25. So we are way behind the curve on saving for retirement. I have to laugh when I see all those posts about people saving 20% of their income and putting $1000/mo in 529s for their kids. That is just so far outside the realm of possibility for us that it's like a whole other universe.

I try not to worry about it too much. Yes, we made mistakes in our lives. Yes, we will be paying for them for a LONG time. Yes, we will not be able to give our kids the material things, expensive vacations, and full ride educations that other people can. But, we decided not to stop living and enjoying our lives because of our prior mistakes, e.g. we decided to have a family even though by the standards of many people on this board, we "couldn't afford it", and we decided it was worth it to us for our kids to have a parent at home. Eventually the loans will be paid off. We are still very blessed in so many ways. (We do have plenty of life insurance, though, in part because of the student loans, and we are thinking about LTD for my DH as well). If something bad happened to us such that we had to default on our loans, we have wonderful families who would be there for us.

Both of us took out these loans when we were young, and for various reasons neither of us had received a particularly good education in financial matters and didn't really know what we were getting into. And then we got married, compounding the mistake (in a financial sense). Everyone I have ever encountered who mentions law school to me, I try to talk them out of it and really emphasize how the debt is a drag on your future income. At 22, I just had NO idea what real living expenses even were (my parents paid mine during college), much less the cost of raising children.

How is it possible that your husband as a 2006 grad is making partner next year????

Stop procreating. You can't afford them.