It's no secret that student loans are a hot topic in the United States nowadays. They are mentioned in the news, both in a positive and negative light, almost every day.
With all of this news circulating around the internet, television, and in print - it is natural to become curious about the numbers behind student loan debt.
Whether or not you believe the allegations, the jaw-dropping dossier of sins that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau accuses the nation’s largest student loan servicer of committing is useful for two crucial reasons.
Q. To assist our son in fulling his dream of becoming an Air Force pilot, we took out a Parent Plus loan to cover his tuition. We borrowed $90,000 over four years. Is there any write-off we can take? It's tough paying $1,200 per month and almost $1,100 goes to interest. It's killing my retirement.
-- Retirement-poor
A. You son is very lucky that you took out loans on his behalf.
Hopefully the day will come when he can help you with the payments.
College students from rural areas are moving to big cities for higher wages to help pay off their student loans, according to new research from the Federal Reserve.
Why it matters: A "rural brain drain" has been pulling college-educated people out of rural America and into urban areas, deepening an educational and political divide that is increasingly coming to define the country.
Americans older than 60 are saddled by student loan debt worth a whopping $86 billion — a figure that rose 161% between 2010 and 2017, the largest increase out of any age group, the WSJ reports.
In October, I wrote a column about Jed Shafer, a teacher in Oregon who found himself on the wrong end of the student loan repayment bureaucracy.
Mr. Shafer thought he was following the rules to qualify for the public service loan forgiveness program, and spent years communicating carefully with the loan servicers who collected his payments on behalf of the federal government. But it turns out he hadn’t been doing it correctly after all.
More than 400,000 student loan borrowers may have placed their faith in a government program with an uncertain future.
The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program promises to cancel any remaining student debt for those who work for the government or nonprofits if they have been making on-time payments for 10 years. Many teachers, public defenders, Peace Corps workers, and law enforcement officers fit the qualifications.
Americans are shouldering around $1.48 trillion in student loan debt, and around 70% of college students who earn a bachelor’s degree borrow to attend college, according to research from Oliver Wyman, a consulting firm that focuses on banking. An employee benefit that’s gaining popularity could help ease that burden, but it may not be as good of a deal as employees think.
It is now the fourth quarter of 2017, and despite all of the coverage surrounding the issue, student loan debt has not subsided whatsoever. In fact, it is still a leading form of debt in the United States as well as a considerable topic of debate in politics.
Plenty of politicians have put forward different plans addressing a variety of issues - including tuition, general reform, and student loan refinancing. Many have failed outright, while others gained attention without producing results in the end.
HUG is NOT refinancing, consolidation, settlement or bankruptcy. It will not damage or freeze your credit. Our typical client will be debt-free in half the time or less, including mortgage, credit cards, student loans and other types of debt obligations, compared to their current schedule. Most clients will pay less than 3% interest over all.
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“This would be a much better world if more married couples were as deeply in love as they are in debt.”
– Earl Wilson
The road to success is always under construction
– Lily Tomlin
"Bankruptcy laws allow companies to smoothly reorganize, but not college graduates burdened by student loans."
– Robert Reich
"If we don't change direction soon, we'll end up where we're going."
– Irwin "Professor" Corey
"There is scarcely anything that drags a person down like debt."
– P. T. Barnum
"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood."
– Marie Curie
“What I would like to do... once I take care of all my kids' student loans, is buy a red 1965 Mustang and fully restore it.”