A client sent me this link. He claims that he’s paying $100 per month for the next 20 years instead of $800 per month for ten years, and his student loan debt is somehow discharged. I asked him if he went to a for-profit college (Phoenix), and he said “Yes.”
I didn’t go to a hacksaw university. I went to the finest (albeit public) university that money can buy, and I set up a 30-year payment period. Right now, my loan balance is ~$55k (I think).
Anybody have any experience with American Financial Benefit Center? Sounds like a chop shop, but maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Everybody knows the cool thing to do is run up a 6 figure loan bill, then go work in something that qualifies as “public service”, get on the income based repayment program, and then your balance is forgiven after 10 years of payments. Poof!
Just because your payments get reduced and your obligation lowers, doesn’t mean it reflects as Paid as Agreed on your credit report. I believe his new payments. But given how my self esteem fluctuates with my FICO score, I would not be willing to suffer depression over it. But to each their own – your married, so you don’t need a high FICO to get the ladies at the bar all excited.
How much does your typical public cost down there? Why do folks have such big tabs after so long? How do you get on with life having that debt hanging over you for decades?
Those number are startling. Assuming the guy had $55k in loans like Greenman, he was paying a 12.5% interest rate. After the refinance, he is paying almost nothing. How much of the loan was written off? And how? Why?
I don’t know what averages are like b/c it varies state to state, but tuition at UT Austin is $5k a semester for Texas residents. Of course that doesn’t include room/board. https://admissions.utexas.edu/tuition/cost-of-attendance
When I started at a private college in 2006, rack rate tuition was $10k a semester and I, ok my parents, paid $6k. The difference was due to a scholarship from the school. Tuition today at that same school is now $19k per semester for students starting in 2015. It’s insane.
The numbers were actually his wife’s, and I think she had $80k or so. Hard to imagine running up that kind of bill for a University of Phoenix undergrad.
For me, I was in grad school, so I had to pay for my own apartment, car, food, etc. The 55k was for two years, so I don’t think it was all that bad.
It sounds like a lot of debt, and it is, but remember what my career paths looked like. Pre-MBA, I was making a whopping $32k/yr working in Shittybank’s call center, informing customers of what the 6 month CD rate was in their IRA. At the time, that was right in the middle of the fairway for me, given my education and experience.
I ended up with around 50k from state school. It increased a bit due to differment from a period of unemployment. Finally under the original amount due and making progress now, payment is about 700/month. Still on the 10 year for most of my loans, but 2 roll off in 2 and 4 years respectively that I plan to then pay down the others faster with. After struggling a bit for a few years, it finally seems like I have some room to breathe now finally which is nice.
I was veteran status when I went to college so I had Pell Grants, some other handouts, and academic scholarships. I had no idea I even qualified for some of them until sophomore year.
You really need to refinance, and do it immediately. I cut my wife’s loan repayment time in half just by refinancing and she had about the same amount of debt that you do. We started off with a 10-year plan, refinanced to 5-year and now only have a little over 30 months left until we’re free.
i will forbid my kids from taking on the kind of burdens you guys are talking about. i’m starting to think it’s far more efficient to get a cheap associates degree, find a field you like, start from the bottom and pick up the experience and knowledge you need to go where you want through self-directed learning. If you’re smart/work hard enough, I’m willing to bet you’ll come out ahead compared to 4 years of binge drinking, tail chasing, and a six figure bill to show for it.
I have HS friends who went this route and now are doing extremely well. We’re talking bank teller to trader at Fidelity-well. Goes to show you that talent rises to the top if the person posessing the talent is willing to work for it.
Id be all for hiring someone with an associates in sccounting, a few years in a low level job, progress in CFA program. Says you only need a BS or 4 years experience (in no specific field) to take the CFA L1 exam. TBH if you get past L1 you basically know as much as someone straight out of college anyway.
Agree with this 100%, especially if you can find work in your job field.
If I knew then what I know now, I’d have taken a full-time job in an accounting firm, even if it was as a back-office monkey. By the time I graduated (at 26), I would have zero debt, eight years of experience, and the same accounting degree as the 21 year-old who doesn’t know shit from shineola.
At the rate things are going I would say it may be possible. Too much debt and with sooooo much specialization going on in the economy generic BS degrees seem more useless than they did even 20 years ago.