Unfortunately, I would not count on it. The National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) has been lobbying Congress very vigorously for several years to try and get the law to change a little bit. They have not been successful as of yet. Maybe they can get the law so that student loans can be discharged if they've paid on it for 10-12 years. I don't think we want to treat student loans like credit cards since the government gu... Read More
What a person should do as a freshman is look at how much they plan to take in student loans. Then take a simple calculator and figure out how much they will have to repay over ten years, which is typically the student loan repayment period. This simple calculation will help them decide if they can afford to go to a particular school. Quite often, the answer is that it’s not smart. A person may have to choose a different school or maybe to go... Read More
There is no such thing as good debt; a lot of people are even re-thinking mortgages in light of what happened a few years back. When people refer to “good debt” or “smart debt’, they are kidding themselves or trying to justify doing something that is mostly stupid. When choosing an educational institution, consider the amount debt it will take to get through the school. This should then be included as part of the decision of where to go.... Read More
A big reason is that they have much higher loan balances without the eventual income to pay them. In the last several years, a number of “for profit” schools got into the business of providing different types of trade education. They encouraged students to get student loans to pay for the education. They were overly optimistic in terms of graduation rates and incomes once they graduated. The kids couldn’t repay the loans when they graduated... Read More
Nationally, the total amount of student loan debt now exceeds credit card debt. Usually, it has been just the opposite. Historically, student loans were directly from the government and carried a very low-interest rate. It wasn’t a bad to finance part of an education. Over the years, schools realized that this was a great way to get students to pay for increasingly expensive education so they encouraged students to take out loans. Unfortunat... Read More
