Post: #1

What if Your Son Marries a $149,000 Student Debt?




What if Your Son Marries a $149,000 Student Debt?

Written by Gary North on July 20, 2012


These stories are becoming common. A woman borrowed $100,00 to get a college degree. She stopped paying interest. Now she owes $142,000.

Some guy married her. Now he owes $142,000. Combined, their after-tax income is $42,000.

They cannot write off interest payments from gross income. The law was changed.

Will they be able to buy a home? Not from a conventional lender?

Will they be able to afford children? No.

Will they ever get out of debt? Under hyperinflation, yes.

Her story is worth reading.


Like so many others of my generation I was raised to believe that college was a necessity in order to secure a good job and to have a bright future.

This myth is fading, but not fast enough. Parents are still sending their children into a swamp of debt.


So senior year came and I began looking at colleges and of course their expense. Both parents were living paycheck to paycheck and had no resources to help fund my education. But when all hope seemed lost I found what I thought was my salvation in student loans, which offered low interest rates, consolidation, and flexible payment option. Unsure of what to do I consulted my parents, school, and loan advisors who did not hesitate to tell me that while my college education would be expensive I would have a degree which would guarantee me a good job with a nice income and thus I would have no trouble paying my debt off. I was told it was an investment in my future. Like so may other naive students with no other options I signed on the dotted line.

These poor kids are being hustled by shameless colleges and shameless lenders. They are trapped for life at age 21.

It took her five years to graduate — typical these days.

Then she tried to get a job with her useless $100,000 degree.


I naively assumed that finding a job even in an economic recession was going to be no problem after all I finally had that degree. I was wrong. After six months of trying to look for a job in my degree field and working two full-time jobs that paid only eight dollars and hour just to get by the student loans came due. I had accumulated $100,000 in student loan debt from two companies, Sallie Mae and Mohela, with a combined monthly payment of around $900.

If she had gone into the work force at age 18, she would be earning at least $12 an hour. She would have no debt. She would have had five years of savings.

She could not pay the debt.


. . . I decided to attempt to pay Sallie Mae what I could. Then the non-stop harassing phone calls began. I would receive around half a dozen phone calls a day because my account was past due always speaking to someone I could barely understand in another country. I once again naively believed that because I was doing my best all would be right with the world however I quickly was threatened with delinquency and default. After several months of paying what I could and Sallie Mae’s relentless phone calls I did the only thing I knew to do to escape the horrors of default and I went back to school part-time at a community college, which was inexpensive and that I paid for out of pocket, to put all my loans in deferment.

She went back to a junior college!

Then she got married. They earn $42,000 a year, combined.

Then she checked what she owed — years later. It was $149,000.

Interest had accrued.

Here is her future, and his. It is bleak.


We are living practically paycheck to paycheck and are nowhere near close to being able to afford over $1000 payments every month. Together after taxes and health insurance we bring home around $42,000 a year. I am literally accruing more interest every month then I can afford to pay let alone anything going to the principle.

She is despoerate. She wants a bailout. She thinks she is a New York bank. She isn’t.


Desperate not to accrue even more debt I am left with questions…what do I do? And where are all those thing that were promised to me at the beginning? Why is there no relief for the college graduates who are in over their heads? It appears that default is inevitable. And because these debts can not be bankrupted, there is no statue of limitations to pursue these debts, and wages can be garnished there is no incentive for these lenders to work with their clients thus creating a predatory lending system that is creating indentured servants out of an entire generation. As of now our dreams of owning a home and having a family are gone which I have read in my research is the case for many people. Something has to be done. An entire generation is drowning in debt. A generation that will not be able to afford to buy houses, buy goods and services like the last generation, and will have smaller or no families because they can not afford to. Further our generation will not be able to send their kids to college and certainly with the horrifying lessons we have learned in dealing with these private lending companies we won’t want to. This will impact the economy for years to come.

All true.

Warn your kids. Now.


Continue Reading on studentloanhorror.tumblr.com


http://teapartyeconomist.com/2012/07/20/...dent-debt/

Post: #2

He actually doesn't owe shit unless he tells them he will pay it.

Post: #3

Why did she even bother going to college if she can't land a job that pays well.

College = 4 years of partying and then she thinks she'll get married and hubby will pay debt.

Parents shouldn't encourage their kids to go to college if it means huge debt. Thats insane. Starting a married cloaked in debt means an unhappy ending.

Post: #4

LoP Guest  Wrote:

Why did she even bother going to college if she can't land a job that pays well.

College = 4 years of partying and then she thinks she'll get married and hubby will pay debt.

Parents shouldn't encourage their kids to go to college if it means huge debt. Thats insane. Starting a married cloaked in debt means an unhappy ending.

age old method - Many parents send their daughters to college to find a husband. Preferably, a rich one or soon to be rich - doc, lawyer, etc.

Post: #5

LoP Guest  Wrote:

LoP Guest  Wrote:

Why did she even bother going to college if she can't land a job that pays well.

College = 4 years of partying and then she thinks she'll get married and hubby will pay debt.

Parents shouldn't encourage their kids to go to college if it means huge debt. Thats insane. Starting a married cloaked in debt means an unhappy ending.

age old method - Many parents send their daughters to college to find a husband. Preferably, a rich one or soon to be rich - doc, lawyer, etc.

Sounds like prostitution.

Post: #6

LoP Guest  Wrote:

Why did she even bother going to college if she can't land a job that pays well.

College = 4 years of partying and then she thinks she'll get married and hubby will pay debt.

Parents shouldn't encourage their kids to go to college if it means huge debt. Thats insane. Starting a married cloaked in debt means an unhappy ending.

Until recently, a good college degree did enable one to land a good paying job and the loan payment was affordable because the graduate was making more than double what their non-degreed peers would make.

This is no longer true, but the public is just now beginning to figure that out. Many are figuring it out too late.

The question is, what can be done about it? The answer is to starve the beast. If noone goes to college, the colleges will become desperate for students and lower their ridiculous tuitions and fees. The lenders will lower their ridiculous rates. The government will subsidize more if it knows what is good for it.

In short, something drastic MUST be done or America may well implode. There are already no jobs for graduates. What if there are no graduates for jobs compounded on top of that? No good can come from it, that's for sure.

Post: #7

maybe they could both drive commercial trucks together...live in the truck...and pay off the debt in two years. they're both young and the opportunity is there. if theres a will there's a way.

Post: #8

She had better be one hot piece of ass

Post: #9

My son's fiance owed almost a quarter million. She actually worked 2 jobs and just finished paying it off. She did the Dave Ramsey thing and amazingly was able to pull it off in a couple of years. She decided she wasn't going to enter into a marriage with that burden hanging over it and is now debt free.

Post: #10

After taxes $42k? It sucks to have to pay 1/4th of income to debt payments, but its not the end of the world.

Post: #11

LoP Guest  Wrote:

My son's fiance owed almost a quarter million. She actually worked 2 jobs and just finished paying it off. She did the Dave Ramsey thing and amazingly was able to pull it off in a couple of years. She decided she wasn't going to enter into a marriage with that burden hanging over it and is now debt free.

Exactly what jobs did she work to pay off 1/4 mill debt and live too?

Post: #12

Combined, their after-tax income is $42,000?????????

Maybe HE (the man of the family) needs to figure out a way to bring more money into the house so that:

1. Mrs. doesn't have to work; and

2. HE can be a responsible man and handle whatever finances life has brought his way.

He should work 2 jobs until he can find a better paying one. Then they can work their way up to where they can have nice dinner parties, or BBQ's and invite the neighbors over and foot the bill without worrying about it.

Why is this so hard?

Post: #13

LoP Guest  Wrote:

My son's fiance owed almost a quarter million. She actually worked 2 jobs and just finished paying it off. She did the Dave Ramsey thing and amazingly was able to pull it off in a couple of years. She decided she wasn't going to enter into a marriage with that burden hanging over it and is now debt free.

Dave Ramsey is a shill working for the banksters.

think about it

Post: #14

LoP Guest  Wrote:

LoP Guest  Wrote:

My son's fiance owed almost a quarter million. She actually worked 2 jobs and just finished paying it off. She did the Dave Ramsey thing and amazingly was able to pull it off in a couple of years. She decided she wasn't going to enter into a marriage with that burden hanging over it and is now debt free.

Exactly what jobs did she work to pay off 1/4 mill debt and live too?

NO SHIT!

I want to go to college for exactly what she went to college for.

Post: #15

LoP Guest  Wrote:

LoP Guest  Wrote:

My son's fiance owed almost a quarter million. She actually worked 2 jobs and just finished paying it off. She did the Dave Ramsey thing and amazingly was able to pull it off in a couple of years. She decided she wasn't going to enter into a marriage with that burden hanging over it and is now debt free.

Exactly what jobs did she work to pay off 1/4 mill debt and live too?

Interior Design and Bartender (which apparently you can make a lot of money from.) in a Major U.S. City.

lived very spartan, you my want to read Dave Ramseys Total Money Makeover if you aren't getting it.