400K? 300K? Damn!

I'm starting to aggressively pay back my student loans. If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have taken out the amount I did, but at 19, I really didn't fully understand how much this was really going to cost - the interest my private loan has accrued is almost criminal. My auto loan is far more reasonable than my educational loans.

Luckily, I have a great job and paying has never been an issue, but I just don't see how education can continue to cost this much. The bubble has to burst at some point. This graphic was a real eye-opener:




Student loans have NONE of the consumer protections offered to those with credit cards or other types of loans. It really is a total free-for-all out there. And as the graphic points out, student loans are one of the very few non-dischargable debts out there.

Anonymous wrote:^^^^ EXACTLY i studied English. I KNEW i would NEVER be able to pay back any loans - so I never took them out. Maybe it's because my mother was raised during the depression. I hope that now, that my son is being raised during a depression, he will be instilled with similar values.

If your mother was raised during the depression, school was a lot cheaper when you attended.

[b]OP here. I'm not a sahm and we don't have 3 children. That's a different poster in this thread. To PP, neither of us makes close to 400k per year but we've been steadily paying our loans down and owe around 250k now. We're paying them off ourselves and are not relying on any loan forgiveness programs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DH is a military doctor so his med school was paid for by the government. Many of his doctor friends have several hundreds of thousands of debt. It is not uncommon. DH is in a high paid specialty so it would have been better financially to have the $250,000 debt vs no debt working for the military. At the same time, we have a more modest lifestyle than his colleagues who were civilian doctor pay with debt.

OP, if your DH is a doctor and you are a lawyer, you guys should be ok in the long run. I do agree it is financially very irresponsible if your DH Is a low paid physicial specialty but if he is making $400k+, you will be fine. One of DH's closest friends from med school's doctor wife decided to be a SAHM. The groom comes from $ and has no student loans. The wife has about $200k or so. They made the decision that she would stay home and he is paying off her student loans. I think it would have been a different story if they both have a lot of student loans.

Just curious, how low of pay are you talking about as the point that you would consider it to be financially irresponsible?

There are many factors but I think if you are a family medicine doc or a pediatrician making $150k or less, I would think it would be difficult if you have to support your SAHM wife plus 3 kids while trying to pay off $400k of collective student loans, save up for your children's college and save up for retirement.

DH is a surgeon in a very specialized field. Most all of his colleagues from residency and fellowship started off at about $400k. Many general surgeons start at around $200k. Location is key as well assuming your family wants to live in a decent home with good public schools.

DH earns less than $200k but much of it is tax free because of housing allowance. We live a much more modest lifestyle than any of DH's colleagues in the same field. Our kids are still young and we do not live in a good school district for now. As soon as DH's military commitment is over and he joins a civilian hospital or private practice, we will move to a better neighborhood. I know the military gives generous signing bonuses for doctors who want to join the military. I believe the bonuses are similar to the total cost of med school. DH had 4 yrs of med school paid for and he owed the military 4 years of service.

Might as well skip the whole expensive school- loan forgiveness dance and go directly to welfare! It is the same thing if taxpayers end up paying.

I gradulated law school with $108K of debt making $80K. That was 12 years ago. My debt is down to $32K and I am now in a position to pay $2k a month. I will be debt free in September 2014. In October 2013 I will be treating myself to the best dinner DC has to offer, then I will start saving for my DCs' colleges.

Somebody has to pay for these expensive educations eventually. How are tax payers going to be able too keep picking up the bill.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, the IBR program is not specifically for government attorneys. The program is for public interest work. It would be impossible to review every public sector job to determine whether it is worthy of loan forgiveness. Pres Obama definitely supports public interest work. This includes teachers and nonprofits.

FYI, some senators believe the forgiveness should occur after 5 years instead of ten. The county is moving towards more support for indebted students, not less.

At least the IBR program helps grads who are working. How many government dollars go towards those who never work?

Most fed attorneys make too much for IBR. Calm yourself

New students fresh out of college qualify. GS-11 Step 1 starts at $63K/year. Two married lawyers, each just of law school with GS-11 jobs, $150K in student loans each, IBR would be a good program for them. When my spouse and I first started out, our payments on a ten-year repayment plan would've been $2,700/month together. With IBR, they were $1,200.

Anonymous wrote:DH is a military doctor so his med school was paid for by the government. Many of his doctor friends have several hundreds of thousands of debt. It is not uncommon. DH is in a high paid specialty so it would have been better financially to have the $250,000 debt vs no debt working for the military. At the same time, we have a more modest lifestyle than his colleagues who were civilian doctor pay with debt.

OP, if your DH is a doctor and you are a lawyer, you guys should be ok in the long run. I do agree it is financially very irresponsible if your DH Is a low paid physicial specialty but if he is making $400k+, you will be fine. One of DH's closest friends from med school's doctor wife decided to be a SAHM. The groom comes from $ and has no student loans. The wife has about $200k or so. They made the decision that she would stay home and he is paying off her student loans. I think it would have been a different story if they both have a lot of student loans.

Just curious, how low of pay are you talking about as the point that you would consider it to be financially irresponsible?

Anonymous



I just read an article in the WSJ that the government wants to make it even easier to forgive student loan debt. That means colleges will just continue to raise prices and the tax payers will keep paying. It is a vicious unrealistic cycle.

If the gov does this people would be stupid to actually pay for college. Just borrow and let the taxpayers pick up the tab. Then tuition will increase and the taxpayers will pay even more. Asinine.

I just read an article in the WSJ that the government wants to make it even easier to forgive student loan debt. That means colleges will just continue to raise prices and the tax payers will keep paying. It is a vicious unrealistic cycle.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DH and I have about $210K collectively- have a 3 year old and in our late 30s...probably never going to own a house in this area since we don't pull down big bucks. It's ok though. I like knowing how much my brain actually costs

I have $150k in student loans debt, about 7k in cc debts and a $276/mo car payment . I only make 75k, and was able to purchase a house for about $250k (cheap but still I did it). I used my VA loan so no down payment which of course helped, but just saying that it can be done. BTW...single mom with 1 child.

PP here: That is awesome. Did you buy in VA? Maybe once we can get our 3 year old in public school, we'll be able to buy something. Daycare costs are our highest expense. I work in architecture and my husband went to law school, but graduated in 2011 (remember the recession after 9/11?) so he never landed a plum law job. He has now switched to another field, and makes about $70K. I actually make a bit more at $75K. My field is always one of the first hard hit if an economic downturn happens, so I get nervous about having housing costs that one salary could not support. Last year DH was unemployed for 6 months. It was super tough.

Anonymous wrote:PP, the IBR program is not specifically for government attorneys. The program is for public interest work. It would be impossible to review every public sector job to determine whether it is worthy of loan forgiveness. Pres Obama definitely supports public interest work. This includes teachers and nonprofits.

FYI, some senators believe the forgiveness should occur after 5 years instead of ten. The county is moving towards more support for indebted students, not less.

At least the IBR program helps grads who are working. How many government dollars go towards those who never work?

Most fed attorneys make too much for IBR. Calm yourself

Anonymous wrote:DH is a military doctor so his med school was paid for by the government. Many of his doctor friends have several hundreds of thousands of debt. It is not uncommon. DH is in a high paid specialty so it would have been better financially to have the $250,000 debt vs no debt working for the military. At the same time, we have a more modest lifestyle than his colleagues who were civilian doctor pay with debt.

OP, if your DH is a doctor and you are a lawyer, you guys should be ok in the long run. I do agree it is financially very irresponsible if your DH Is a low paid physicial specialty but if he is making $400k+, you will be fine. One of DH's closest friends from med school's doctor wife decided to be a SAHM. The groom comes from $ and has no student loans. The wife has about $200k or so. They made the decision that she would stay home and he is paying off her student loans. I think it would have been a different story if they both have a lot of student loans.

Apologies for the grammatical errors.