“Dear Steve,
Well here it goes…I went to an expensive undergrad school and took out a good amount of student loans. My parents told me it was fine and was actually a good thing to help my credit after I got out. The plan was that they were going to pay for most of the loans, at that time they could afford to as well, unfortunately I was class of 2008.
The recession hit us hard, father lost his job and my family had to use what money was saved to live off and pay the mortgage. By this time I had accumulated over $150,000 in student loans for undergrad.
However, I had graduated with a very good gpa and got a $25,000 a year scholarship to law school, which I took, however first year added $35,000 in loans to my debt burden.
Even though I did much better than average in my class I couldn’t maintain the 3.50 I needed for the scholarship (a 3.5 is pretty incredible for law school which I didn’t know beforehand).
I had to think long and hard about my choices. It would cost an additional $120,000 in pure loans to continue my legal education. This combined with the terrible job prospects in the legal world today made me decide to cut my losses. It was more than likely the best I could do out of law school was a job paying $60,000 which by today’s standards would be a ‘very good job’ for the market (35% of the class was unemployed). That tradeoff for $300,000 in debt didn’t seem worthwhile.
So I moved back home, with interest now more than $190,000 in student loan debt with the only assets being my clothing and about $300 and a TV. I currently have to take forbearances with my loans because I cannot find full time work and what I make doesn’t even cover the $1,500 monthly payments. Even if the loan payments were only $750 a month (half what they are) I still couldn’t afford them and have $0 for some kind of a bankruptcy attorney.
I would just get up and leave the country at this point but my parents are also my cosigners! If I default on my loans my parents will not be able to afford them either and will be unable to pay our mortgage; where we go after that I don’t know.
I’m starting to worry that I will never be able to have a family or live a normal live.
Is there something I can do that I am missing?
Ron”
Dear Ron,
Most important question. Are these private or government backed loans?
Please post your responses and follow-up messages to me on this in the comments section below.
You are not alone. I'm here to help. There is no need to suffer in silence. We can get through this. Tomorrow can be better than today. Don't give up.
Do you have a question you'd like to ask me for free? Go ahead and click here.
- Plastic Pandemic: US Credit Card Debt Surges Nearly 20% in Q1 2021! - May 12, 2023
- The IRS Resumes Collections Notices: What You Need to Know Before It’s Too Late - May 12, 2023
- How Can I Deal With Payday Loan Debt? - May 12, 2023