Student Debt Crisis

[THOT CATALOG]

I started at 50k in student loans..Mostly from my masters
I'm beginning a PhD this fall, but it's financed. Hubby has $200k in student loans, so right now we're paying about 2,000/month. We just recently lost our second income since I'm returning to school, but we'll request lower payments in the coming months. Hopefully we can get it down to $1,000/month. The payments suck, but neither hubby or I would've been able to work in our jobs had we not went to school. I'm pretty happy with where I'm at now.

note to kids who don't have loans yet:
If you contributed $2000/month for ten years into any investment, compounded at 6.5% monthly, then never put another penny in there for the next twenty years... it would turn into $1.2M, enough to retire in a low-cost part of the country. if you started saving at age 25/30/35, you could be retired at 55/60/65 while most of our generation will be grinding it out till their mid 70s. The couple above will most likely be paying off their student loans into their 30s or 40s (they won't be able to catch up).

 

[SheWantTheD]

note to kids who don't have loans yet:
If you contributed $2000/month for ten years into any investment, compounded at 6.5% monthly, then never put another penny in there for the next twenty years... it would turn into $1.2M, enough to retire in a low-cost part of the country. if you started saving at age 25/30/35, you could be retired at 55/60/65 while most of our generation will be grinding it out till their mid 70s. The couple above will most likely be paying off their student loans into their 30s or 40s (they won't be able to catch up).

I'm telling you bruh.. I'm gonna stay at home and live frugally for like two years.. save nearly my ENTIRE income and pay off them student loans ASAP!

 

[mamba]

Mike Pence borrowed upwards of $280,000 to pay for college

My kids better get scholarships. fukk that.

 

[Hijo de luna]

I started at 50k in student loans..Mostly from my masters
I'm beginning a PhD this fall, but it's financed. Hubby has $200k in student loans, so right now we're paying about 2,000/month. We just recently lost our second income since I'm returning to school, but we'll request lower payments in the coming months. Hopefully we can get it down to $1,000/month. The payments suck, but neither hubby or I would've been able to work in our jobs had we not went to school. I'm pretty happy with where I'm at now.

I would highly recommend you read 'Millionaire Next Door' and 'Dave Ramsey TMM'. Sounds like your headed towards a high income-low net worth type of situation as a couple. Y'all should be living in a tent, driving 92' Honda Accords until this debt is paid. Don't sell your future for the illusion of status.

 

[mamba]

I would highly recommend you read 'Millionaire Next Door' and 'Dave Ramsey TMM'. Sounds like your headed towards a high income-low net worth type of situation as a couple. Y'all should be living in a tent, driving 92' Honda Accords until this debt is paid. Don't sell your future for the illusion of status.

That's where we are in Black America right now. A lot of people makin' money, but with low or negative net worths.

 

[THOT CATALOG]

I'm telling you bruh.. I'm gonna stay at home and live frugally for like two years.. save nearly my ENTIRE income and pay off them student loans ASAP!

you won't have to worry about money in a couple decades, not like spending 10k a week on random luxuries, but you'll be able to tell your boss to fukk off, quit, and live life on your own terms without having to worry about slaving for a paycheque.

always play the long game.

 

[Truefan31]

@itsyoung!! and @Truefan31 , I wish you all would have started another thread to have your tax rate debate.

Derailing a good discussion about student loan debt with all that back and forth.

My bad. Was just clarifying scenarios of being able to pay back debt.

But yeah if you makin 400+ a year you should have no problem paying more than 36k in student loans.

 

[Truefan31]

I started at 50k in student loans..Mostly from my masters
I'm beginning a PhD this fall, but it's financed. Hubby has $200k in student loans, so right now we're paying about 2,000/month. We just recently lost our second income since I'm returning to school, but we'll request lower payments in the coming months. Hopefully we can get it down to $1,000/month. The payments suck, but neither hubby or I would've been able to work in our jobs had we not went to school. I'm pretty happy with where I'm at now.

Hey it's ok to be happy with your work. My advice though would be to have a plan to knock out that debt asap. That's a lot but it sounds like when all said and done your income will be large. Just be focused on paying it off asap. Lower payments=more paid in interest. You got 250k right now. If you go back to school what will it be then? Y'all doctors/lawyers?

 

[Truefan31]

you won't have to worry about money in a couple decades, not like spending 10k a week on random luxuries, but you'll be able to tell your boss to fukk off, quit, and live life on your own terms without having to worry about slaving for a paycheque.

always play the long game.

Yeah. It's the thing of financial freedom. Imagine people with no debt, owned house, owned car/cars, no cc debt, no student loans, nothing. You got a good emergency fund, good investments. You can basically be free to do anything on your terms. People paying off 100k in 4 years making 40k. Cash flowing can and should be done. Ask these peeps if the want another loan payment they tell you to fukk off lol.

 

[NinoBrown]

All this talk about paying 300K worth of loans doesn't apply to the majority of borrowers fresh out of college/grad programs.

Two of my friends have careers in BigLaw who just got married, 160k starting salaries for both and they have loan payments of 5 stacks a month, not including all of their personal expenses....
They had to hold off on having children until they can get their loans down to at least a hundred (they have 300+ combined) as they did grad programs too....

They were in the top of their classes mind you and diligent with their studies. Again, this is a rarity. This mentality of "Live like a monk and pay it back asap" doesn't apply in the real world.

As long as you aren't late with payments, you are in good standing which helps your credit score....

Unfortunately they knew classmates who played around with the bar exam, failed, and had to take jobs as admin assistants making 40K a year with 100+ in loans, that is the American truth now for students.

Liberal Arts Majors are worthless in my opinion and are a large problem with colleges. STEM fields devour the weak and reward the strong...

 

[Hijo de luna]

All this talk about paying 300K worth of loans doesn't apply to the majority of borrowers fresh out of college/grad programs.

Two of my friends have careers in BigLaw who just got married, 160k starting salaries for both and they have loan payments of 5 stacks a month, not including all of their personal expenses....
They had to hold off on having children until they can get their loans down to at least a hundred (they have 300+ combined) as they did grad programs too....

They were in the top of their classes mind you and diligent with their studies. Again, this is a rarity. This mentality of "Live like a monk and pay it back asap" doesn't apply in the real world.

As long as you aren't late with payments, you are in good standing which helps your credit score....

Unfortunately they knew classmates who played around with the bar exam, failed, and had to take jobs as admin assistants making 40K a year with 100+ in loans, that is the American truth now for students.

Liberal Arts Majors are worthless in my opinion and are a large problem with colleges. STEM fields devour the weak and reward the strong...

So you really think paying 5 digit annual interest to service debt is a good strategy for building wealth?

Have you ever in your life heard a wealthy person talk about a credit score?

 

[NinoBrown]

For my friends what other options do they have? Those are just minimum payments there....you want to play the game, you have to get capital from somewhere to do it....

Really wealthy people seldom mention their wealth period...

 

[Skooby]

"I majored in screen writing and I don't want to major in debt"
"I majored in art history and Italian and I don't want to major in debt"
"I majored in environmentalism art and I don't want to major in debt"


What the fukk is environmentalism art? lol. Morons.

There are some majors worth going to school and getting loans for. Med school would be one of them. Y'all list some more...

 

[Truefan31]

All this talk about paying 300K worth of loans doesn't apply to the majority of borrowers fresh out of college/grad programs.

Two of my friends have careers in BigLaw who just got married, 160k starting salaries for both and they have loan payments of 5 stacks a month, not including all of their personal expenses....
They had to hold off on having children until they can get their loans down to at least a hundred (they have 300+ combined) as they did grad programs too....

They were in the top of their classes mind you and diligent with their studies. Again, this is a rarity. This mentality of "Live like a monk and pay it back asap" doesn't apply in the real world.

As long as you aren't late with payments, you are in good standing which helps your credit score....

Unfortunately they knew classmates who played around with the bar exam, failed, and had to take jobs as admin assistants making 40K a year with 100+ in loans, that is the American truth now for students.

Liberal Arts Majors are worthless in my opinion and are a large problem with colleges. STEM fields devour the weak and reward the strong...

Holding off on children is probably a good idea financially. So is buying a house or having car payments. If you're making 320k you should be able to pay off 300k loans in less than three years easily and that's not exactly living like a monk either.

The real world as you say is mostly saddled with debt. They live paycheck to paycheck, have cc debt, student loans, too much mortgage, car payments. All that's called average. Why does anyone wanna be like that? Half of college students don't finish, but the loans don't go away.

Being debt free and living debt free you care less about a credit score. Cash flow everything, you need a mortgage go through manual underwriting. If you must have credit cards don't ever let balances hang and don't use more than 20% of available credit.

The real world lost this common sense concept of saving up enough to buy something. Instead banks want you to leverage future earnings so you can be a slave to them.

 

[Truefan31]

For my friends what other options do they have? Those are just minimum payments there....you want to play the game, you have to get capital from somewhere to do it....

Really wealthy people seldom mention their wealth period...

They need to take a hard look at their monthly expenses and do a budget. See where all the money's going, cut out unnecessary expenses/bills, throw it at debt. Again Dave Ramsey is a great start. His podcasts are free.