More threads by Daniel E.

Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator
College Graduates Struggle To Repay Loans
by Claudio Sanchez
NPR Public Radio
November 23, 2009

November brings a nerve-racking deadline for May's college graduates: It's time to make the first payment on their student loans.
With this year's tough job market, many graduates don't know how they'll come up with the money. Many are asking for deferments, and some may have to default.

But a new federal law designed to ease the pain of repayment may help some make it through this tough time.

Living On Parental Subsidies
Samantha Green graduated from Indiana University in May with a $50,000 debt, a degree in journalism and a burning desire to start her career in Chicago.

So far, the only job offers she has gotten are temporary or minimum-wage sales jobs.

"It's just not something that's a good fit for me," says Green, who is doing odd jobs to earn some money.

Her job prospects are so poor that her parents have been helping pay her rent, electric bills and groceries. Now they're covering her $300 monthly student loan payments, too.

"Fortunately, we have some money saved, so we're able help her," says Matt Green, Samantha's dad.

But unless she gets a job soon, he says, the new graduate might have to move back with her parents in a suburb of Boston.

"We knew the job market was tight, but we didn't expect it would take her this long to secure any kind of employment," Matt Green adds.

Student Loan Defaults On The Rise
An absolutely dismal job market has driven the student loan default rate to about 7 percent, nearly twice what it was in 2006. About a quarter of a million people who were supposed to start paying their student loans in 2007 still are not.

And that does not include 2009 or 2008 graduates, including Gregory Cendana.

Cendana was the first in his family to attend college, and his parents could not contribute much to his education. Even though he received the maximum amount of federal assistance, he still worked three jobs during college. He graduated from UCLA with $40,000 in loan and credit card debt.

With an annual salary of $35,000 and monthly loan payments of $350, Cendana doesn't have much left over to live on in pricey Washington, D.C. He doesn't have a car or cable TV, and buys only the "bare minimum" of food.

"It's difficult, and I feel like I shouldn't have to live paycheck to paycheck, especially with a UCLA degree," says Cendana, president of the United States Student Association.

Cendana's parents both took second jobs to help him avoid going into default.

When people do go into default, their loans are turned over to collection agencies, their wages can be garnished, the government can withhold Social Security benefits, and their credit is tarnished.

New Law Offers Some Help
If graduates can prove that they are hardship cases, they can defer loan payments for up to three years. And since Congress passed the Income-Based Repayment Plan this summer, borrowers now can sign up for a program that will limit their payment to 15 percent of their incomes.

"It's going to be a great plan for borrowers who are in financial distress," says Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org, a Web site devoted to helping students find ways to pay for college. "The Income-Based Repayment Plan will prevent a lot of defaults."

Kantrowitz has a rule of thumb: Students should not borrow any more than they expect to earn right after they graduate. That's about $45,000 for the average graduate with a bachelor's degree.

That advice is not much help to Samantha Green in the Windy City. But she says she has a backup plan: applying to graduate school. Of course, that could heap on another $50,000 in loans.
 

Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator
Ways to Reduce your Student Debt without using your Paycheck - CNBC.com
2/14/19

..."In order to attract and retain talent, employers are looking at offering contributions to people's student loans," said Katie Berliner, account executive at YouDecide, a benefits firm.

Companies that have offered their employees help with their student loans include Aetna, Penguin Random House, Nvidia and Sotheby's.

A spokesman for Fidelity said nearly 60 companies — including Hewlett Packard Enterprise, New York Air Brake and Millennium Trust — are currently (or will soon be) using its student debt employer contribution program. (Fidelity also offers a student debt benefit for its own employees.)

"Do a quick Google search and find the employers who are out there doing this," Berliner said...

To attract younger residents, Maine is offering student debt relief to graduates who live and work in the state.

The details of the program vary based on when you graduated and whether you are from Maine or elsewhere. But generally, people are able to subtract their total student loan payments over the year from their state income tax liability. So if you owe the state $2,000 in state income taxes and you paid $1,800 in student loans, you'll owe Maine just $200...
 

Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator

Only 32 federal student-loan borrowers have received forgiveness through income-driven repayment, out of 4.4 million. That's 32 out of the 4.4 million who have been paying off their debt for more than 20 years through a program that calculates monthly payments based on income.
 
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Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator
I assume some other states are now doing something similar to this -- providing full tuition scholarships for a masters in education:

Teach Arizona students are eligible to apply for the Arizona Teachers Academy tuition scholarship, which pays full tuition and fees in exchange for an agreement to teach for two years in an Arizona public school following graduation.

You may apply for the ATA Scholarship prior to being accepted to an eligible teacher certification program.
Certainly, for some, teaching for public and charter schools is now more interesting and less of a burnout experience when done on an online basis. e.g. You can now mute the class clown.

Personally, I would have the whole class using Google Scholar the first day :D
 
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Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator
For current and future veterinarians:

 

David Baxter PhD

Late Founder
For current and future veterinarians:


Up here, that is a very tough program. The best one, at least in Ontario, is the one at Guelph University:

 

Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator
I see vets as surgeons more than anything, even though they are paid less than human doctors who never have to operate. OTOH, vets don't have the residency requirements that human doctors have. They are just thrown to the wolves. I have heard vets say a number of stupid things over the years, more so than human doctors (who are far from immune).

Like two different vets not knowing how to properly diagnose diabetes in a cat. And one of the same vets saying a skin growth was probably cancer, so we need to remove it ASAP. Then after us paying $700, no surprise by the vet that it was benign (as predicted by Google).

Even my current vet that I like a lot doesn't know how to write a prescription for supplemental oxygen (mostly just in case of emergency). And she has been in practice for many years at a busy pet hospital. So I have to call the oxygen people tomorrow and find out for her.
 
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David Baxter PhD

Late Founder
The vet I have for Mindy is very good. He's good at keeping her relaxed and he doesn't try to push anything I don't need to try to pad the bill. That alone is the mark of a vet who is in the profession to help animals instead of buying big houses and cars. :)
 

Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator
Yes, they intentionally keep their pricing mysterious.

Lately, it is $1 to sign up for a trial week and then $29/month after that. I signed up using cash back and then cancelled sooner than later.

It is available anywhere it seems:


"Since 2003, we've helped more than 9 million people in 196 countries and have an A+ rating with BBB and a 9.6/10 rating with TrustPilot."

They don't have a .ca extension (which is already taken) but they have domain extensions for a few other countries like the UK and Japan.

A lot of their value is in previously answered questions, which are free to find with Google.

For example: site:justanswer.com cat allergy treat - Google Search

And:

"You may have particular questions with unique circumstances, but you may also have a basic question that someone else has already inquired about. If your question is more general, browse the site’s extensive Q&A history to see if you can find your answer for free. Thousands of responses are available at no cost, and you don’t even have to register or apply a JustAnswer coupon code. The easiest way to navigate the repository is to click the category that best describes your question and scroll through previous queries and answers."
 
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Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator

Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator

The Department of Education’s new plan would cap monthly payments on undergraduate debt to 5% of discretionary income, down from the usual 10% to 15% on existing plans...

Another major impact of the proposed payment plan is that borrowers will no longer accrue interest on their loan as long as they make their qualified monthly payment, which could be $0 for those with low income.


1662507685818.jpg

"You'll have until Dec. 31, 2023, to submit your application for student loan debt relief."
 
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