Hi @Braxton, I’m 51 years old and I have $55, 000+ in student loans as well. Where do we stand now? Are there any considerations for people like us, yet, or are we still on the back burner? What else can we do to be heard?
Hi @scrivenl77 and all others who have posted in this thread!
I wanted to thank you for sharing your stories here and urge you to join our 50 Over 50 Debt Strike! A group of now hundreds of Debt Strikers who are over the age of 50 w/ student debt. We had our last call last week and should have another call come the new year. If you want to try to get your story heard as a Student Debtor over 50, consider joining our Writing Workshop Monday December 12th.
You can find any of our events here!
Hi Jerry, I am a 57 year-old woman and I understand the feeling of guilt you are going through because of decisions made under a desire to conquer the world, especially coming from a disadvantage, family, culture… I pushed my two sons to attend college and now one of them has a debt of almost $200.00. We must keep fighting this corrupt system.
I am an older borrower and I would like to expose the federal TANF or welfare agency as a predatory agency for lenders both private and government lenders. I would like to know how many people needed welfare help due to a crisis but were told they had to go to work or go to school. If I had the career skills and family support when my husband left us I would have gone to work but I had just given birth to our second child when he discovered fatherhood was not for him.
When I told the welfare worker I didn’t want to go into debt, his response was that after I got our of school I would have a job and make enough money to pay for the loans. He neglected to tell my young mother self that I would have enough money to pay for the loans but nothing else. Going to school did not improve my children’s lives but made us poorer than before.
Somehow we need to expose this predatory agent aka the welfare department. How much money has the welfare department made for the banks, financial institutions and educational institutions??
Thanks for listening.
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Hey @lil.brown.owl have you had your student loans for over 40 years? If so, we have a reporter who wants to get in touch with you.
Hey @nvstgatr1 have you had your student loans for over 40 years? If so we have a reporter who would like to talk with you.
Hi @ssuz545 we have a reporter who is looking to talk to people who have had student loans for over 40 years. It sounds like you might have yours for 38 years, which is maybe close enough if you are willing to share your story.
Hi @maestraloca have you had your student loans for over 40 years? If so we have a reporter who would like to talk with you if you are willing to share your story.
Hey @laurel_sharp have you had student loans for over 40 years? If so we have a reporter who is willing to talk to you.
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Yes, I have no problem sharing my story.
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I am 69 but I haven’t had loans for over 40 years.
Cheryl Guerbaoui
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I am now 64. I had federal debt totalling over $50k and private of about $9 k. I was able to get the federal loans discharged as I am on SSDI. I was trying to get a degree so I could get of the SSDI, but had to drop out after I got hurt, which further disabled me. The private loans were charged off as I refused to pay them and private creditors cannot garnish SSDI. Thanks for helping debtors!
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56 years old, 98k in the hole, don’t even have a degree because they said I borrowed my maximum. I don’t know how that’s possible, but I never finished school because they wouldn’t loan me any more money to finish. Now I’m stuck with a useless debt. It earned me nothing.
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I am 66. My husband is 73. I have my own loans and Parent Plus loans. My husband has Parent Plus loans. My 2 kids and I went to state college beginning in 2006. Our tuition doubled from the time we began to the time we graduated 4-5 years later. We borrowed $100K, paid $40K, and now owe $225K. The loan servicer gave us misinformation over the years and encouraged us to forbear. I tried many times to find out what my payment would be married filing separately vs married filing jointly with both my husband and I having loans. They told me one thing, then after I filed the paperwork, my payment turned out to be a completely different amount. I just gave up and went into forbearance at times. I think I am still not getting correct information and I am afraid to do anything. They are saying my payments will be 1/12th of the amount I find when using the loan payment calculator. My husband says to just do what they say and see what happens.
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Yes, I went back to grad school for a career change to Landscape Architecture. It turned out to be quite the fraud. They grossly over promised “jobs everywhere” and the cost for the degree. I started another business.
I really appreciate this forum. I found this group on an NPR story.
Would anyone like to start organizing about architecture schools debt? It’s grossly understated by the schools and they are making the licensure difficult.
Thanks for this post.
I am 60. I have a decent job as a nurse practitioner working for a non-profit in addiction medicine. I was able to pay off my own student loans via debt forgiveness because I work with an underserved population.
I made the mistake of signing Parent Plus Loans for my now 30 year-old daughter so she could get her masters degree. She already had loans from her undergraduate degree, but agreed that she would be responsible for paying back any loans in my name also. She was in forbearance in 2020 when everything was paused. She is working full-time now, but can barely afford to pay the loans in her own name and still support her family. The loans in my name are now over $100,000.
I am single, have a 15 year old dependent, support my 24 year old daughter who lives with me, have a mortgage, some credit card debt, and contribute a small amount to a retirement fund that isn’t big enough to pay off those loans. I make enough money to pay my bills and live comfortably (not extravagantly). When I look at income driven payments, it actually INCREASES my monthly payment estimate. If I was planning on working full-time until I’m 70 and making 120 on-time payments, I would qualify for loan forgiveness because I work for a non-profit. But there is no way I can make those monthly payments (approximately $1600/month, just like my mortgage) for the next 10 years! I would like to plan on decreasing my workload to part-time when I’m 67, but I just don’t see how that will be possible.
I am 54, went back to college at 40. I also have 2 adult children that I have Parent Plus loans for. I recently have gone from a 2 income household to my sole income. I owe $99000 in student loans. The monthly payment they are asking is over $1000 a month. I cant afford that with my regular bills and the new financial situation. This is frustrating because I just dont have it. If I did pay the +$1000/month, I would still end up paying $150000 to pay it off with interest. At this point, I will be 80+ years old before I can pay it off.
Hi Nat, please join in the Debt Collective’s over 50 call on Feb 21. 2024 Fifty Over Fifty Meeting - Debt Collective
HI dottieo, please join in the Debt Collective’s over 50 call on Feb 21. 2024 Fifty Over Fifty Meeting - Debt Collective
please join in the Debt Collective’s over 50 call on Feb 21. 2024 Fifty Over Fifty Meeting - Debt Collective
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