Kjerstin Laine has been making tiny monthly payments on her student loan, and she doesn’t understand why her balance has been getting bigger instead of smaller. People who are this dumb should not be allowed to borrow money. Oh, and try drinking some water.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
October 31, 2022
Kjerstin Laine is yet another example of how it’s too easy to get admitted to college. Since she finished graduate school with $98,000 in debt, she’s only been paying $300 a month toward her debt. And she doesn’t understand why her balance has been going up instead of down.
It should be illegal for people this stupid to borrow money.
Also, she needs to learn to drink some water.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/meet-30-old-110-000-123000305.html
Meet a 30-year-old with $110,000 in student debt who chose her job in hopes of public-service loan forgiveness — but her balance just keeps growing
By Juliana Kaplan
October 30, 2022
Kjerstin Laine. Courtesy of Kjerstin Laine
Like millions of student-loan borrowers, Kjerstin Laine is in loan-relief limbo.
For Laine, a 30-year-old who has over $110,000 in student debt, the $20,000 in forgiveness she’s set to get from President Joe Biden’s plan is just a drop in the bucket. As a first-generation college student whose debt has shaped the trajectory of her career, she fears her balance will balloon even more after pandemic-era payment pauses end and interest starts accruing again.
“I never miss a payment, always on time, and yet my balances never go down,” Laine told Insider. “I don’t understand how people can’t see that there is something wrong with that picture.”
Despite working through college and taking measures to cut down on the cost, Laine completed her degree in 2014 with a grand total of $98,000 in debt from her undergraduate and graduate studies. In the eight years since, accruing interest has brought her balance to today’s amount, despite her consistent repayment.
Laine chose her job in communications for an education-advocacy nonprofit because it was a good fit for her skills — and because it could set her up for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which forgives student debt for government and nonprofit workers after 10 years of qualifying payments.
But that program has historically been riddled with flaws, and she recently paused that strategy to take a marketing-agency job with a salary that brings her much closer to the $90,000 the federal government estimated she needed to make a year to afford to pay back her debt. She’s also paying off medical debt.
“I also had to leave the nonprofit sector to get anywhere near that, obviously,” she said. “So it’s like that Catch-22.”
Laine is one of many millions of US borrowers stuck in an untenable situation. She’s grateful for the relief she’s set to get — though the legality of Biden’s forgiveness is still under scrutiny — but she’s not sure she’ll be able to afford monthly payments when they restart in January.
Her situation points to the larger structural issues underpinning the student debt crisis, where first-generation and lower-income students take on huge debt burdens to get ahead and up their earnings but still find themselves buried under ever-growing balances. Many, like Laine, have shaped their lives around the hope of assistance — now that it’s here in some form, it may not be enough.
“The hardest thing is that I trusted in this system that I was told from a very young age was going to be my path to prosperity or a decent — not anything exorbitant — but a decent middle-class life where I could give back to the community that helped raise me and supported me through education programs, meal programs, things like that,” Laine said. “And it feels like that’s a big broken promise now.”
Interest on student loans can balloon, meaning balances don’t go down — and could go up
As a college student in California, Laine worked at several jobs in places like restaurants and grocery stores. She took classes at her local community college and at her university in the summer and winter to try and reduce her expenses. She graduated in 2012, a semester early to cut down on costs, racking up nearly $18,000 in debt total for her undergraduate degree in journalism.
She went on to a “dream school” for a master’s in journalism, still working part time and leaving with an additional $80,000 in debt in 2014. At the end of her time in school, she was hospitalized for dehydration after she said she ran herself ragged.
Despite consistent payments, the years since graduation have seen Laine’s debt grow. It comes down to the issue of interest capitalization, which is when accrued interest tacks on to a borrower’s principal balance and can lead to debt loads being much larger than what was initially borrowed.
Biden’s administration has taken steps to prevent interest capitalization. In July, it released a proposal to end the practice in every instance that isn’t required under the Higher Education Act, like forbearance periods, but those changes won’t be implemented until next year. And borrowers are still struggling to stay on top of their payments.
For borrowers like Laine, within a few years, interest could cancel out any of Biden’s relief she received.
“I was paying $300 until the pandemic hit. I was paying $300 a month, I think, for three to four years, and my balances never went down,” she said. “They always went up.”
Public servants like Laine can get their debts forgiven — but many can’t even get in touch with their loan servicer
While Laine is a big proponent of public-service loan forgiveness, she said it “has been plagued by its own issues.”
The company that manages the entire Public Service Loan Forgiveness portfolio — MOHELA — isn’t making matters any easier. After a number of loan companies ended their federal contracts last year, all borrowers enrolled in PSLF were transferred over to MOHELA, and the process hasn’t been seamless.
Insider previously spoke with two borrowers who wanted to get simple questions on their PSLF payments answered but ended up spending hours on the phone and never even got connected to a representative who could answer their questions.
“I’m really concerned about MOHELA as a servicer in total,” Laine said.
While MOHELA never commented on the hours-long hold times, Scott Buchanan, the executive director of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance — a group that represents federal loan servicers — previously told Insider that the Education Department decided how many resources it gave loan companies, which affects how many customer-support staff they can hire.
But with the PSLF waiver expiring on Monday, which allows past payments, including those previously deemed ineligible, to count toward forgiveness progress, borrowers are in a time crunch to access the expanded relief. The department recently introduced permanent PSLF fixes for after the waiver’s expiration, but that doesn’t eliminate confusion some borrowers may be experiencing with their payment history.
“I’d love nothing more than to be able to dedicate my entire career to serving this sector,” Laine said. “All of my career choices are kind of centered around this debt, and that’s a really tough, not fun place to be in.”
Gender Studies Grad Demands Blue-Collar Worker Pay Off Her Loans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIZd4x0mD0I
I wish that Democrats would answer my question: Why are Democrats funding student debt forgiveness with money from innocent taxpayers, instead of with money from the fraudulent colleges that sold worthless degrees?
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
September 5, 2022
I’m against student debt forgiveness.
But since it is happening, I have one question:
Why are Democrats funding student debt forgiveness with money from innocent taxpayers, instead of with money from the fraudulent colleges that sold worthless degrees?
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 1980 and 2020, regular inflation has caused average prices to increase by 228%.
However, during that same time period, college tuition has increased by 1,184%.
The student debt bailout is paying for hot tubs, spas, rock climbing walls, steaks, and movie theaters.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/caranewlon/2014/07/31/the-college-amenities-arms-race/
Another area where colleges waste money is in the worthless policy known as “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
The Federalist wrote:
“Some universities had strikingly large numbers of people with DEI responsibilities in their job titles. At the University of Michigan, for example, 163 people have formal responsibility for providing DEI programming and services. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has more than 13 times as many people devoted to promoting DEI as providing services to people with disabilities. Georgia Tech has 3.2 times as many DEI staff as it does history professors. The University of Virginia boasts 6.5 DEI staff for every 100 professors.”
The Center Square wrote:
“UC Berkeley employs 150 professionals and 250 additional students dedicated to addressing “systemic inequities,” according to a document obtained this week by The College Fix. The public research institution’s Division of Equity and Inclusion spends $25 million annually to support the 400 full and part-time staff to run diversity and inclusion-related programs, according to the document, an eight-page job description for a new Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion.”
So the real problem isn’t a lack of bailout money.
The real problem is that colleges are spending money on frivolous luxuries that have nothing to do with education, such as hot tubs, spas, rock climbing walls, steaks, and movie theaters, as well as on left wing brainwashing known as “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” with its overbloated budgets to pay huge numbers of employees who job duties have nothing to do with education.
Bailing out student loans doesn’t address these huge wastes of money.
On the contrary.
The bailout only gives colleges an incentive to raise their tuition even more.
I wish that Democrats would answer my question: Why are Democrats funding student debt forgiveness with money from innocent taxpayers, instead of with money from the fraudulent colleges that sold worthless degrees?
An alternative to debt forgiveness: This writer says eating peanut butter and jelly for lunch instead of going to a restaurant made them feel happy and in control of their life.
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/m-18k-debt-went-no-143039541.html
I’m $18k in debt, so I went on a no-spend month. Here’s what I learned.
By Chegg Life
August 31, 2022
Standing in my kitchen on a recent morning, making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch later that day, it occurred to me that what would appear to be a fairly mundane (albeit delicious) task was actually so much more.
Maybe that’s because, during the previous month, I spent close to $700 on restaurants alone. That’s like a million peanut butter and jellies.
It was that revelation that inspired a month-long no-restaurants-or-shopping challenge I assigned to myself in July. I could not continue to ignore my mounting bills, and I could not go on living with the constant reminder and anxiety of my $18,000 of credit card debt.
Since getting laid off in March 2021, I’ve been funding my life on a freelance salary in one of the most expensive cities in the world. I was living beyond my means, swiftly approaching my credit limit, and I felt completely out of control. Something had to change. And fast.
I was lucky to have a supportive (and much more knowledgeable friend) in my corner. We (she) quickly went on the offensive and introduced me to Tiller, a budgeting software she uses. She showed me how to calculate my expenses for the past three months and make a budget for the long term. Fun, I thought, but begrudgingly obliged. It was like watching a scary movie. But much like seeing Scream 5 in theaters after years of convincing myself I would be too scared, confronting my spending head-on made me realize that, like the Scream franchise, this isn’t that scary at all.
Looking at my expenses, I made the difficult-to-me decision to cut restaurants and shopping out completely for a full month. No shopping for non-necessities. No takeout. No dinners out with friends. No “Let’s grab a drink!” Could I actually do it? It was an off-putting prospect for a person who has been known to refresh Resy in hopes of scoring a last-minute, hard-to-get reservation for sport. But it felt worth trying.
Along with my shopping and food restrictions and newfound budgeting habit, I knew I needed to take action to feel like I was getting things a bit more in control; it was abundantly clear during this deep dive into my credit card statements that I was not in control at all. So, I began to make a few painful decisions, canceling a laundry list of plans that I simply could not afford: a dinner plan that very evening, a trip to Seattle later in the month to celebrate a friend’s wedding. I even called a beloved bathing suit brand to cancel an order I’d placed just days earlier. As I mentally crossed out things I’d been eagerly anticipating, I returned to a saying someone shared with me that I’ve found applicable in so many situations:
Just because something feels bad doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
I expected some change as a result — like, perhaps, a little extra literal change in my account at the end of the month. And that certainly happened. But there were so many other unexpected lessons, too.
I felt so much gratitude
When I first took shopping and restaurants out of the equation, I worried about how I’d fare without the dopamine hit that comes only from clicking “buy now” or the excitement of that initial sip of an overpriced cocktail — would I feel like I was missing out?
That notion was tested a few times during the month. I went to a concert at a baseball stadium (tickets purchased pre-challenge) mid month, where, under normal circumstances, I would have typically bought, at the very least, chicken fingers and french fries and merch and, at the most, all of the above plus a $20 beer in a souvenir cup.
But I packed a sandwich and some wine in a thermos and tried to put fried food out of my mind. In line with a friend who wanted to get a drink, I felt the temptation creeping in. I’m not sure if it was the concert or the spending gods, but as we approached the front of the line, a very generous (and intoxicated) man turned around, announced he’d be buying drinks for everyone in the line and pulled out his credit card.
With the exception of the gifted tequila, I was mostly surprised to find myself not feeling deprived. I actually more grateful for not only the things I already have but for the people in my life that make it so special and sweet. Every time I shared my challenge with someone and they suggested going for a walk or having a picnic, it felt like my heart swelled three sizes.
I got more creative
That same friend who first sat me down in front of the computer to face my spending demons also helped me realize something that never occurred to me in all my life living in New York where your social life revolves around paying other people to cook for you. Meeting for dinner is so…easy.
Removing it as an option would mean getting more creative, finding more fun. I went on walks, on picnics, to the beach and to see free movies in the park that we always talk about seeing in the summer but never do. I snuck grocery store snacks into the movies. I went to Philadelphia to visit friends who planned an entire weekend of free or affordable activities — a pizza night and a bike ride. Another friend decided to host a potluck for her birthday dinner instead of going out. I found myself looking forward to finding new activities to do that didn’t involve spending money, and looking even more forward to checking my bank account and keeping tabs on my budget each day.
Who is she? I could barely recognize myself.
I tried my hand at new cuisines
Aside from the ubiquitous PB&J, I found myself trying out new recipes, like this miso-glazed salmon and a kale Caesar salad I cannot stop making. And, as an unexpected bonus, I feel… really good. It may not be sustainable to make myself every meal for the rest of forever, but having a basic idea of everything I was consuming for a month really made me feel like I was taking care of myself.
I connected with so many people
When I reached out to friends I’d made plans to spend the weekend with prior to starting this challenge, I was plagued with anxiety about how they would react. I wrote to them explaining what was going on and assured them that they were still welcome to go out to eat, that I would meet up with them when they were done. But they were more than happy to stay in and cook. Trying new restaurants is always exciting, but when it comes down to it, we make plans with people to connect and spend quality time together. And you don’t need to spend money to do that.
I started posting daily video diaries on my TikTok, mostly as a way of holding myself accountable and to keep a record of the experience. But soon, it grew into a community. I heard from so many different people who were either at some point in their debt payoff journey or looking for some inspo. I was happy to share both.
And I realized that, when given the chance, everyone has a debt story they’re eager to share.
I was initially scared to share publicly the actual amount of credit card debt I had. I was afraid of my mom seeing it, my family members on Facebook judging me. I was afraid of being made fun of, ridiculed for not knowing how to handle my money. What happened was quite the opposite.
I was on a walk with my friend (the one who helped me with the budget) one morning, agonizing over my finances when I just sort of…blurted it out, I told her I had $18,000 in debt — saying that number aloud for the first time. I waited for the shock, the disapproval. Bless her, it never came.
Once it was out there, my DMs almost immediately filled up with other people going through a similar situation, some offering tips on how to crawl out of it, some sharing personal anecdotes and even some comforting solidarity. It was not only refreshing; it was eye-opening, too. It made me realize that talking about finances openly and without judgment is something many of us are craving, and not necessarily getting.
I’m not sure what comes next. But as this month comes to an end, I have spent over $2,000 less than the month prior. I paid $1,000 off my credit card balance, put money away for taxes, and felt no anxiety about what my balance was while handing my debit card over to pay for some essentials. I didn’t get sick of peanut butter and jelly, and I have yet to miss a restaurant.
Mostly, I’m excited about the prospect of finally being in control of my finances — and my life — for what feels like the first time.
Los Angeles high school principal Richelle Brooks says she shouldn’t have to pay back her $230,000 in student debt. Schools should teach their students about personal responsibility. Principal Brooks is teaching her students the exact opposite.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
August 25, 2022
This essay was written by a Los Angeles high school principal named Richelle Brooks. She thinks that she should not have to pay back her $230,000 in student debt. She is setting a bad role model for her students. Schools should teach personal responsibility. Principal Brooks is teaching her students the exact opposite.
Here are some of the rules of personal responsibility that Principal Brooks is teaching her students to break:
1) Keep your promises. If you borrow money and sign a contract where you promise to pay it back, keep your promise.
2) Don’t borrow money if you can’t afford to pay it back.
3) Live within your means.
4) Take responsibility for your actions.
Here is the essay by Principal Brooks:
https://therealnews.com/opinion-i-am-not-asking-for-debt-forgiveness-i-am-demanding-justice
Opinion | I am not asking for ‘debt forgiveness.’ I am demanding justice
President Biden has the power to cancel all student loan debt with a stroke of his pen, a move that will ensure Black women like me have, for perhaps the first time, a real shot at prosperity
By Dr. Richelle Brooks
March 31, 2022
When I graduated from college, I knew my purpose was to serve this country’s most vulnerable. For the last eight years, I have served as an educator and high school principal in Los Angeles, California, and in 2021 I founded ReTHINK It, a nonprofit that addresses the material needs of marginalized communities. I have dedicated myself to empowering and educating young people and advocating for folks victimized by systemic and systematic oppression.
But I drastically underestimated the cost of this work—both personal and financial.
At present, I owe $230,000 dollars in student loan debt. Like countless borrowers, I owe more than I did when I first graduated college. I am but one example of the stark racial disparity governing the student debt-loan crisis: After 12 years of payments, the typical white male in the US has paid off 44% of his student loan balance, while the typical balance for Black women borrowers grows by 13%.
On April 4, debtors and our allies from around the country will head to the doorsteps of the Department of Education in Washington, DC, to demonstrate our collective strength and send a clear message that Joe Biden must do more than simply extend the payment moratorium. He has the power to cancel all student loan debt with a stroke of his pen, a move that will ensure Black women have, for perhaps the first time, a real shot at prosperity.
For years, I believed my student loan debt was the result of my personal failings—a lie that countless borrowers, particularly those who are Black or from poor and working-class families, come to internalize. Then, in September of 2020, I joined the Debt Collective, an organization fighting for the abolition of all forms of debt through the creation of a debtor’s union. Soon, I became one of the Biden Jubilee 100; we declared ourselves on strike from ever repaying our student loan balance, and demanded the full cancellation of student loan debt within President Biden’s first 100 days in office.
Joining the Debt Collective allowed me to finally politicize my experience. More importantly, it showed me that I was not alone: All student loan debt is the result of the systemic failures in this country. And the policy decisions and economic arrangements that created this system, which has buried generations under mountains of un-repayable student loan debt, comprise a catastrophic societal failure that can and must be rectified.
Growing up, I was told that achieving the American Dream would require going to college so I could secure a career. Home ownership, one of the most important ways that families build intergenerational wealth, is comically beyond reach. In my hometown of Carson, California, the median home price has increased over the past year by 19.7% to over $700,000.
Racist banking practices have also made the prospect of home ownership increasingly infeasible for Black borrowers. Wells Fargo has faced renewed public scrutiny in recent weeks, following a bombshell Bloomberg report that found the bank had denied home loans to 53% of its Black applicants in 2020, at the height of the pandemic-induced crisis and the ensuing economic hardship. The highest-earning Black families, or those earning over $168,000 a year, were approved for home loans at a rate nearly identical to the lowest-earning white families, or those earning less than $63,000 a year. The blatant discrimation was infuriating, yet hardly surprising.
For my generation, the American Dream feels like just that, a dream—it is never going to become reality. With my student loan debt, owning a house of my own is a hopeless fantasy.
The same goes for most millennials. According to one recent survey, student loan debt has kept some 35% of millennial borrowers from buying a home—nearly double the amount of baby boomers. It is especially hopeless for those of us from poor and working-class communities. Student loan debt decimates our credit-worthiness, barring many from ever owning a home.
For millions of us, wage discrimination makes the dream even more illusory. Although Black women make up a substantial share of the workforce, they earn just 63% of what white men are paid. Overall, women across nearly all races and ethnicities experience higher rates of poverty than men, a disparity due largely to single motherhood and the gender pay gap. But Black women are disproportionately represented among all women living in poverty: In the US, they constitute 22.3% of women living in poverty, but only 12.8% of the population.
As women aim to “pull themselves” and their families out of poverty, low and stagnant wages fail to allow them to make a living. Debt piles up. Women graduate college owing, on average, about $22,000—for men, it’s $18,880. Black women graduate college owing nearly twice the debt of men, an average of $37,558. Thanks to astounding interest rates, these balances grow over time.
Without assertive action from the Biden administration, many families will be unable to free themselves from the shackles of debt. Between 1989 and 2019, the national household net worth for white families grew from $462,000 to a whopping $953,000; meanwhile, the national household net worth for Black families only moved slightly, from $82,000 to $141,000.
Evidence shows that the racial wealth gap is growing wider, decade after decade. Student loan debt will exacerbate this as the indebtedness of Black families continues to grow. While white families can and tend to pass on their wealth and net worth to succeeding generations, Black families pass on debt and use their resources to support family members who also lack wealth and net worth. On average and in the aggregate, wealth compounds with each generation for white families, while indebtedness compounds with each generation for Black families. We are fighting now for the survival of our children and their children.
As I came to be more involved with the Debt Collective, I watched Black women suffer under their growing loan balances, even as they continued to show up for their families, communities, and this nation. But I also realized that, together, we had power beyond anything I could have imagined.
Black women have been outspoken about the perverse systems barring us from any form of upward mobility. We are doing everything “right” to ensure our future generations aren’t forced into the same dire situations: going to college, graduating, pursuing well-paying careers, attempting to purchase homes and build savings and resources so we can pass them on to future generations. But we cannot dismantle entire systems without the help of those who most benefit from our marginalization.
Specifically, this means white men, the most privileged demographic in this country—they must use their power, wealth, and social capital, to repair the harm endured by people who are categorically oppressed by the very system that empowers them. The longer Joe Biden fails to act, the longer he perpetuates the violence of a white supremacist system that further traps us in debt.
By canceling student loan debt, Joe Biden could create jobs, stimulate the economy, and narrow the racial wealth gap. Doing so would keep trillions of dollars in the hands of people and communities. Families would have less debt and more money to spend, providing immediate and direct economic stimulus to those impacted most by the pandemic: Black families and other families of color. Debt cancellation would provide Black families, especially millennial-parent households, a chance at home ownership, immediately increasing the possibility of building up one’s net worth and having intergenerational wealth to pass on. It’s that simple.
As countless pundits have noted, Black women voters saved the country from a second Trump term, all without adequate recognition or compensation. Empty praise and calls to “thank Black women” are not enough. We need material redistribution and economic transformation. We are owed nothing less.
We have paid enough—and I say no more. I am not asking for “debt forgiveness.” I am demanding justice.
Here’s yet another news article about the “struggles” of a “low income,” “single mom,” where the article makes exactly zero mention of the father of the children
Insider just published this article about the “struggles” of a “low income” “single mom.” The article makes exactly zero mention of the father of the children.
The mainstream media has been doing everything it can to try to normalize the idea that children don’t need a father. I’ve previously written about this kind of thing here, here, here, here, here, and here.
In this particular case, the mother wants the government to give her $187,000 in taxpayers’ money. That’s the amount of money that the mother borrowed under her own name to pay for her children to go to college so they could become “successful.”
So here’s my question: If these children are “successful,” why aren’t they willing to use their own money to pay back the loans?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/single-mom-took-187-000-101500206.html
A single mom who took on $187,000 in student debt for her kids wishes Biden would consider parents in his loan-forgiveness plans: ‘I just don’t feel like it’s fair that we’re overlooked’
By Ayelet Sheffey
June 18, 2022
* Biden’s reported debt-forgiveness plan likely won’t include parents who took out loans for their kids.
* Adria Mansfield, 43, has $187,000 in parent PLUS student loans she took out for her kids’ college.
* It was the only way she could give her kids a higher education, and she can’t afford to pay it off.
Adria Mansfield will do whatever it takes to give her children the best futures — even if it involves a six-figure student-debt load.
The problem for her lies in President Joe Biden’s broad student-loan-forgiveness plans, and the fact that parents haven’t been included in that conversation.
“Half of our children would not be able to go to school and become successful if it weren’t for the parents,” said Mansfield, 43. “And I just don’t feel like it’s fair that we’re overlooked.”
Mansfield’s $187,300 student-debt load comes from parent PLUS loans that she took out for two of her kids, which allowed her to borrow the full cost of attendance minus any financial aid the child already received. About 3.7 million families hold parent PLUS loans that total $104 billion. Those types of federal loans have the highest interest rate at 6.28%, and they’re set to increase to 7.54% in July.
Working in a school as a behavior facilitator and being the sole provider for her kids, Mansfield didn’t make enough to pay out-of-pocket tuition at one public and one private university for her kids. She took out the maximum amount of PLUS loans for two of her children and plans to do the same for her daughter who is graduating high school this year. She says it was the only way she could ensure her kids would get a higher education.
While Biden is considering $10,000 in student-loan forgiveness for undergraduate borrowers making under $150,000, parents and graduate students haven’t been included in those plans, and Mansfield said she’s looking at payments for the foreseeable future without options for relief.
“Society pressures our kids so much into needing college because you have to get a degree to have a better job, so I felt it was important because that’s what my kids wanted to do,” Mansfield said. “But now we’re being punished for taking out loans so our children will be successful.”
‘Feeding my children and taking care of our necessities is my first choice’
After her children graduated college in 2017 and 2019, Mansfield was placed on an income-driven repayment plan that allowed her to temporarily make $0 monthly payments because of her low income. While she said not having to make those payments was helpful, the interest continued to build, making it almost impossible for her to get ahead of her debt — and she said that element has affected her “tremendously.”
“I had this debt on my credit, and it was restricting me from getting a house because my student-loan amount was so high that the lenders didn’t even want to lend me money to buy a house,” Mansfield said. “And I certainly don’t make enough money to pay off the loan, and feeding my children and taking care of our necessities is my first choice.”
Mansfield isn’t alone in her struggles — many other parents have taken out student loans under their own names to provide for their kids, and they’re left paying off debt that gets higher and higher because of surging interest. A recent report from The Century Foundation, a left-leaning think tank, said the average PLUS-loan borrower still has 55% of the initial balance remaining after 10 years of repayment — and 38% after 20 years, which means most parents spend more time paying off student loans than they did raising their kids.
Kristin Blagg, a researcher at the Urban Institute, previously told Insider that the idea of giving loans to a student is so they’ll earn enough money with a degree to pay the debt back, but that’s not the case for parents.
“The math for parents, particularly if they’re really unable to pay the college tuition and other costs at the moment their child is going to school, that math doesn’t quite work out because the parents aren’t necessarily receiving that benefit of a college education,” Blagg said.
‘We need to be considered in the loan forgiveness’
Biden hasn’t yet confirmed an amount of student-loan relief he’s considering, and the only definitive statement he’s made so far on the topic is that $50,000 in relief — an amount progressives were pushing for — is off the table. But it’s likely the relief will focus on undergraduates, which would leave those with PLUS loans in the dark.
Peter Granville, a senior policy associate at The Century Foundation, recently told Politico the reason parents haven’t been included in the loan-forgiveness conversation might be because when it comes to parent PLUS loans “there’s very little data on these parents themselves,” and there’s “much less known about actual parents and their outcomes when it comes to taking on these loans.”
Either way, Mansfield hopes whatever decision Biden makes won’t exclude the borrowers who did what they needed to do to help their children succeed.
“I just want us parents that have put our name on the dotted line so that our children can be successful to be considered in the fact that we, too, have struggles,” Mansfield said. “We took the loans out for our children to be successful. We need to be considered in the loan forgiveness as well.”
This person is “so confused” by the concept of compound interest
‘I’m so confused.’ I’m a school nurse who took out about $30K in student loans — but over the years they have ballooned up to $96K. How could this even happen and what can I do about it?
March 9, 2022
Question: I’d like to obtain advice on tackling student loan debt. I do not have private loans, and I owe approximately $96,000. I’m so confused because initially my loans were less than $30,000, but I think the rest of it comes from interest. I’m not sure what I am looking at with my loans. My loans have been in forbearance, and I want to investigate loan forgiveness options. I am a school nurse and support my family, so my income is limited. Can you provide direction? It would be greatly appreciated.
Student debt forgiveness should be funded by fraudulent colleges that sold worthless degrees, instead of by innocent taxpayers
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
January 17, 2022
Democrats think that innocent taxpayers should be forced to pay off student debt.
I think this is a horrible idea.
I’m a Libertarian, which means that I am against punishing innocent taxpayers.
It also means that I, unlike Democrats, understand the horrible incentives that would be created if innocent taxpayers were forced to pay off student debt. Such a policy would encourage colleges to raise their tuitions even more than they already have, and would also encourage future students to borrow even more money than what had been borrowed by past students. This would make the problem of student debt worse, not better.
By comparison, my proposal would not do these harmful things. On the contrary, my proposal would cause colleges to think very hard before they encourage their students and potential students to borrow money. It would also encourage colleges to reconsider their current policy of offering worthless majors that cause their graduates to end up working at Starbucks.
What an idiot: “I have $131K in student loans and can’t afford my life, despite making $110K a year…. I didn’t care what the cost was – I didn’t even look at what I was signing”
‘It doesn’t seem fair’: I have $131K in student loans and can’t afford my life, despite making $110K a year. How to get out of student-loan debt faster
By Brienne Walsh
December 29, 2021
Question: I’m now 39, and in a better place in my life than I was roughly 10 years ago, when I decided to take out over $100,000 in student loans to attend a food policy and nutrition master’s program. The program was the only master’s program I got into, and I didn’t care what the cost was — I didn’t even look at what I was signing.
Now, in total, between my undergrad and grad loans, I owe $131,000. Some of the loans are federal and some of them private; one of those companies charges an interest rate of 6%. Though most of my loans are on pause now (thanks to the federal government), I’m worried about what will happen when that stops. The loan payments are too expensive, even though I’m now a nutrition and public health consultant who works on a contractual basis, and I make a good salary — $110,000 a year.
But our mortgage costs $1,100 a month; daycare is about the same, and car payments are $400. Otherwise, I feel we live very frugally: We even bathe our son in a Tupperware tub because our bathroom needs to be renovated, but we don’t have the money for it! We can’t even afford, as it is, to contribute to retirement or pay for some much-needed dental work. I honestly don’t know what we are going to do when my loans become unfrozen. How can I get out of debt faster? — Erin
Answer: First up, you’re not alone in feeling overwhelmed by student loan debt, and you’re doing some things right, like “limiting the mortgage and the car loan,” which are both “well within your range for your income level,” says Mitchell C. Hockenbury, a certified financial planner at 1440 Financial Partners in Kansas City. But, Hockenbury says, with your low mortgage and other seemingly reasonable expenses, you should see if there is more money to put towards debt payments. Even if there’s not, once the daycare stops, you will have that money to more aggressively pay down debts.
The next question is whether to refinance loans to save money. But first, consider that right now your federal loan payments are on pause through May 2022, and that you should be careful about refinancing a federal loan into a private loan as you will lose some of the federal loan protections, such as income-based repayment and forgiveness options. (You can get details on how much a refinance could save you here). But Ethan Miller, the founder of Washington, D.C.-based financial planning firm Planning for Progress, says Erin should likely refinance some of her private loans, as rates are pretty low right now (see the lowest fixed student loan refinance rates you can qualify for here). “If you feel confident in your income, and you know you’ll have a job for many years, this is the best option,” says Miller.
There are other options as well, says Hockenbury: “Is there a possibility to take a cash-out refi? Interest rates are low, housing prices have soared. Perhaps she could use the cash to pay down some debt,” he says. Though, of course, she needs to be sure she can repay that or she risks losing her house.
Though for some borrowers, student loan forgiveness may be an option, it does not sound like Erin would qualify for a loan forgiveness program like the Public Student Loan Forgiveness Program, as she’s a contractor at a government agency, not a full-time employee, explains Miller. (See details on loan forgiveness, cancellation and discharge here to see if you might qualify.) But if she looks at her budget, she may find extra money to pay down her debt faster; refinancing at least some of her loans at today’s low rates could make the payments more manageable, and a cash-out refi on her home may be another option. Best of luck, Erin!
A Simple Plan To Address The ‘Student Loan Crisis’
A Simple Plan To Address The ‘Student Loan Crisis’
By Derek Hunter
April 25, 2019
It’s the greatest crisis facing the country today and threatens not only the present, but the future as well. It’s not the national debt, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, climate change, health care, or any of the other issues Democratic candidates for president routinely ramble about, no. This is something far more serious – people making informed, really bad choices. And the Democratic Party is rallying to their defense.
Out of pure self-loathing, I watched most of the 5-hour lovefest on CNN Monday with Democratic candidates for president. One hour each for Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg. These back-to-back town halls featured pre-selected questions from a screened audience of college students looking to government to solve their problems. Of course, government can’t solve your problems, especially when your biggest problem is looking to government to solve your problems.
Still, it was a look not only into the minds of the candidates, it was a look into the minds of people who, someday, will be in elected office themselves. It was scary.
A day after more than 300 people were killed in a terrorist attack because of their faith, I don’t remember a single question or statement from anyone about it. There were, however, a lot of questions about student loans.
Judging by the amount of coverage student loan debt has gotten this year, you’d think there were loan officers hiding in bushes outside of high schools waiting to jump out and force college bound seniors to sign their lives away to big banks.
That’s not happening, of course, students are signing those documents willingly after actively seeking out loans for college. But you’d never know it by the way the candidates talk about student loans.
The issue isn’t so much an issue as it is an opportunity to pander. Candidates dangle varying versions of loan forgiveness and “free” college to students with more debt than many companies as a way to buy votes. It’s also a way for Democrats to advance an idea that is at the core of progressive politics: no personal responsibility.
So much of what Democrats are pushing this year is designed to insulate people from the bad choices they make – don’t worry about consequences, government is here to “fix” it. It’s the “let mommy kiss your booboo” of 2020.
Nothing captures this attitude like student loan forgiveness. Fully informed people making bad choices to borrow more money than their education will ever be worth, flocking to politicians promising to make it all better.
Rather than stealing from taxpayers to absolve people of their bad decisions, here’s an alternative that will serve the much more important purpose of teaching future generations about responsibility: tell the truth.
One questioner at Monday’s CNN event asked what can be done for her. According to her question, she’d amassed $25,000 in loans for just her freshman year of undergraduate studies at Saint Anselm College, which cost $38,000 per year in 2017. Rather than pander to someone like this girl, all candidates, and all Americans, should ask her why in the hell she chose to attend such an expensive school. Ask what undergraduate degree she thought could justify such a move. These people need to be taught that a degree in interpretive dance or 1940s bisexual polar bear studies might make you super-woke in your Young Socialists of America drum circle, but they aren’t viable for future employment.
Additionally, every student with a complaint about student debt should be asked the following:
1. Why go to an expensive school if you can’t afford it without taking on massive debt?
2. Why would your parents allow you to choose a school if you have to take on upwards of $100,000 in loans?
3. Do you understand the concept of a loan?
Knowing those questions had to have gone through their heads at some point, they should then be asked why they should be absolved of their debts when they willingly and knowingly made bad decisions?
They won’t have an answer, at least not a good one.
Candidates should pat them on the back, tell them they’re sorry but there’s nothing they can do for them. Not everyone is meant to lead a life of example, some people serve as cautionary tales – so let it be with these people.
Future generations can learn from the high self-esteem, snowflake generation whose parents should have but didn’t tell them “no,” so they can avoid their mistakes. Unless you’re going to be roommates with the next Mark Zuckerberg, no undergraduate education is worth $100,000 or more in debt. If you can’t pay for it with savings, scholarships, grants, and some moderate amount of loans, don’t go to that school. There are other options.
There should be no student loan forgiveness. It’ll be a tough lesson for kids to learn, but it’s one they need. Their parents failed them, their guidance counselors failed them, and they failed themselves. Let a group of liberal billionaires step-up, put their money where their mouths are and help, but don’t force an autoworker in Michigan or farmer in Wisconsin who’s helping their kid work their way through a state school or commuter college do it.
Choices have consequences, especially bad ones. At least they should. Government is supposed to protect people’s rights, not from themselves. And certainly not at the expense of everyone else. Let these people serve as an example of what not to do. It won’t help them, but it’ll do wonders for the next generation.
Student debt forgiveness is a horrible idea
Responsible adults pay off their debts.
If student debt does get forgiven, that will just give colleges one more reason to raise their tuition. Students will then borrow even more money, knowing that they won’t have to pay it back. The more money the government spends on college aid, the more the colleges raise their tuition. College tuition has already risen many times faster than the rate of inflation, and the last thing we need is to make this problem even worse than it already is.
Student debt forgiveness is unfair to the students who already paid off their debt.
Student debt forgiveness is also unfair to students who worked their way through college.
Student debt forgiveness is also unfair to people who never go to college.
Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog 