blacksleepercl

Ok so I am at a loss. I have an issue and I am not exactly sure how to deal with it so I thought I would ask the wonderful minds on here who have more financial insight.

I went to Oregon State University from 2001-2007 and got my business degree. I am around 30-40k in debt, but most of it is very easily manageable. My payments all in all are around $200 per month, I consolidated all my loans so I basically make one payment. $200 a month for life is not bad.

Here's where shit gets sticky. I also met my finance at OSU while she was going to school to become a teacher. She was from a poor single parent family, with a dead beat dad that would not help her out, but on paper her "parents" made too much money for her to get any aid so she took out loans. So we are both graduated, shes working, but as a teacher she only brings home around $1600 per month. She graduated in 08-09 and her student loans are just now becoming due. I accidentally opened her bill from American Education services and discovered that she is almost $100,000 in debt for her college loans and they are asking for some ridiculous amount like $670.00 per month, and that's not even counting her government loans, loans through AED were privet loans and can not be differed.

She spent the better part of a day on the phone with these people trying to get something figured out, she was basically told that she is fucked and better get a second job. They are willing to let her pay $400 per month for a year, then her normal payments will kick back in, but in a year with interest and shit they will go back to close to $800 per month.

So what the hell do I do?? I am at a loss, I love this girl and we are getting married soon, but with this debt how are we ever going to buy a house or a car? I know its her debt and not mine, but the number is so large I refuse to believe its not going to effect us as a couple in the future. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Anachostic

http://www.money-zine.com/Financial-...an-Forgiveness

It's something...

thunder04

iTrader: (1)

Also have you looked into Income Based Repayment?

http://www.ibrinfo.org/

Definitely something to look into.

gatrhumpy

iTrader: (1)

Interesting. Look into the options that are above. Reasoning with these people will not help.

Also, not to be a dick or anything, but your "finance" (fiancee) should have known how much she was taking out in student loans.

I ran into a rather interesting conundrum like your fiancee. I had roughly $20K in student loans about a year before I graduated, and decided that I did not want to take out any more loans, so instead of graduating on time, I took a second internship with a high-profile global engineering company, and I paid for my final semester in cash, instead of using loans. You fiancee probably should have done the same.

I never really understood why people take out loans for three to four times what they will bring in during a given year after they graduate.

NSXNEXT

iTrader: (2)

The short answer is you're not. Like gatrhumpy said, how did your fiance not understand the loans she was signing up for?

Definitely look into the options that others posted. Have your wife call the university and ask them who to turn to.

CocheseUGA

On the flip side, I never understood why it costs 3-4 times what one would make in a year.

$100k for four years? At a public university?

jayhawk815

Agreed.

I also agree with most of the other posts too. That is a lot in loans for a teaching degree, or any four year degree for that matter. Did she not work at all through college? Were these to cover her living expenses? Like Cochese said, how the hell do you accumulate that much for a public university? Did she pay out of state tuition the entire time?

I took my sweet ass time getting through school. There were several semesters that I took out more loans than I needed. Once I realized how much it had accumulated and pulled my head from my ass, I reduced how much I was taking how to the point where I paid for my last 2-3 semesters out of my pocket.

I'm really not sure what advice I could give you in handling that kinda loan amount, outside of what a few others have said. Those loans are gonna hang over your heads for an incredibly long time. Hopefully you two can get something figured out. Good luck, you're going to need it!

gatrhumpy

iTrader: (1)

Sometimes people like to go to an out-of-state school, and hence have to pay two to four times what the in-state student would have to pay. I did this where I went to school, but only for the first semester uintil I was smart enough to realize I could get in-state tuition.

blacksleepercl

Thanks for all your help everyone, right now I am looking at getting her income based repayment for the short term. For the long term I had her contact someone at OSU who is helping her look for schools in our area that qualify for student loan forgiveness if she works there for a certain amount of years in a row.

As far as the debt goes I am going to be honest, I have no idea how she got that much down....she told me no one would help her financially and at one point it was either drop out or take out more loans and she did whatever it took to graduate. I can tell you this much though, I looked into it a little bit and just her interest from the loans is in the teens of thousands of dollars, and that's just on the one loan I saw. I have no idea how she got all this money in the first place.....who made these loans!

CL Type Slim

Most likely the student loans are mostly private loans. Therefore the interest rates are higher than Stafford loans from the government. Due to compound interest of those loans have ballooned to the current amount. Since she is a teacher, some of loans (government) might be forgiven after certain amount of time (10 years).

Setup a plan to pay down the loans. Also, this mean living below her means: No cable, No car loans, No eating out, and etc.

Anachostic

Oh, and as harsh as it sounds, get a prenup. Right now, the debts are hers, but if you get married and some opportunity comes up to refinance all the separate loans into a single loan... that will become a new debt - a marital debt that will be divided at divorce.

TS_eXpeed

Your optimism is inspiring.

phee

iTrader: (5)

this is why i pay cash for my schooling. i work my ass off now so that i dont have to be broke for the rest of my life

DarkSithCL

iTrader: (1)

They above ideas may be helpful....main thing is that you have to insist on having a reduction plan that makes real sense... it is usually been my experience that you do not get anyone to help you out until its the THIRD time you call them...Since so few people want to go into teaching today, there are some school districts that allow you to qualify for loan forgiveness programs that are pretty good (this used to be true... I hope it still is)... now it might create a geography problem for you guys for a number of years, but it may be worth it... I know as a medical doctor, working in undeserved areas will allow for this... they used to have this for teachers also...

dallison

I have a teaching degree but don't teach. The teaching landscape has really changed and i don't desire to go down that road.

some big cities are desperate for teachers, and like Sith said, this may be an area where she can get her experiance and also have her loans fully/partially paid for. It would be stressful but may be an option.

dallison

oh, when you get married you might as well consider it your debt also.

thunder04

iTrader: (1)

If I could do it all over again, this would be how I'd do it. Instead, I was in a hurry to finish school (since I dicked around right after high school I felt I was "behind") and have a decent coin in student loans. Definitely not as much as in the OP, but more than I'd like.

But...oh well!

DarkSithCL

iTrader: (1)

Unfortunate, but very true... her plan is your plan too... so come up with a good one!!!!

DarkSithCL

iTrader: (1)

That's interesting...I taught high school full time for three years while I was getting my masters degree, before I started med school... it was a great career, but I had cast my die...

My Mom quit teaching after 24 years... for her it was more stressful than it was enjoyable anymore...

blacksleepercl

Wanted to stop in and give everyone who gave me advise on my problem an update. After much discussion, yelling and gnashing of teeth we have come up with a pretty solid plan. My girl has a little leg up on the situation because of her field of study. She works with special needs children and problem children, weather it be autism, learning disabilities or just behavior problems. She has all of her certification as well as her degree and 5 total years teaching experience, with 2 years in the Public school sector. Her original plan was to step out of public schools after this year and go back to what she was doing before she graduated, working at a privet institution, eventually working her way up to director. After our discussions she now realizes that this plan is just not going to happen any time soon. So to the plan...

-She has been searching, quite successfully I might add, for jobs at schools in the Portland area that have title certification. Which means that they will pay off $5000-$7000 of her loans per year that she works there, I think most schools that we have looked at have a cap of 20-30 K per employee. She got some apps out there, and the response has been great, lots of interviews coming in the spring.

-The Pre-Nup has already been put in place, because of the car lot I own and all my assets, it was a known fact long before I popped the question that this was going to happen. Most of my family are small business owners and all of their wives had to do it too, so its really no big deal there.

-I successfully got her interest only repayments for one year, this will keep the wolves away from the door while she gets her new job.

-I got a new car, I figured before the shit hit the fan I better go out and get something that is going to be good for a new family, and new enough that I wont have to worry about it for a few years. The payments are basically the exact same as my Acura, so its more of just a trade up for me from a car with 170,000 to one with 20,000 and still under warranty.

-We are going to stay put and stop shopping for a house. We live in a really nice place about 20 miles outside of Portland, but we rent it, so were going to just stay here for a few more year or at least until both of our finances have been current for a couple of years. My credit is fine, but I don't make enough by myself to spend the kind of money for the place we want without her income on the loan.

-We are going to forgo our annual vacation for a few years and instead save the money to put towards her loans. If we can save $5,000 a year and her school pays $5,000, in 5 years her loan will be almost half gone, down around where mine are now.

So there it is, seems pretty solid to me, let me know what you think. Thanks again for all your support and advise on this issue, I was in a pretty bad spot when I made my OP, but you all brought me back down to a reasonable level

Brandon24pdx

Yeah legally her debts are not your problem (unless you were to co-sign after you married her)...only your's are.

Practically, we know otherwise. Together you guys will owe $130-140k and there's just no way around it. Under current law student loans are not expungible in bankruptcy.

It's a big gamble dude. I've got a fun book for you!

http://www.amazon.com/Student-Loan-S.../dp/0807042293

Brandon24pdx

Excellent point.

Her loans are just coming to bear on her...meaning there's a good chance there will be offers in the mail to "consolidate" or "refinance" with one of the (student) loan shark companies. If they did this *after* getting married and his name is on any of that paperwork, he can pretty much assume her $100k is now legally his too.

This will require some deft handling of the situation to be sure.

blacksleepercl

The posts above are one of the reasons why refinancing just was not an option. I am trying to stay as far away from her debt as I possibly can. I don't want my name on anything that has to do with her student loans. This is why we are dealing with it instead of trying to refinance or defer anything. If you read my most recent post, she is the one having to make the big sacrifices. I can go without buying my own house and yearly trips to Vegas for a few years to help out the woman I love.

Brandon, thank you for your insight. I went ahead and purchased that book from amazon. I have been looking for a good read on the subject.

Brandon24pdx

You'll enjoy it.

Other than that, it's just going to take whole lot of sacrifice and being a stick in the mud like you outlined in post #20 to get it righted. A fun way to look at a huge debt you want paid off is to imagine putting every cent of your annual household income towards it and calculating how long it would take for it to be paid off at that rate...then dial in a dose of reality (rent, food, etc), and there's your plan.