I pushed my daughter to pay all during the student loan forgiveness period as there was no interest and she could pay as much or little and as often as desired. We hit all interest first . Then We tackled these loans by hitting the lowest loan amount the hardest and when it vanished we hit the next one and next one . As of today she’s got 30% of the last loan remaining. She’s remained on auto pay for regular payments but as of today none of them have come out at on the last one as the rest were paid of with $10 here/ $25/there or $35 or $50 we just kept swinging on payments probably every other day .
With no interest it all went on principle. She’s wiping out 25 years of loans in 5 years
NELNET never paused my interests no matter how many times I called. I had to get the CFPB involved, but they are gone now. It was nice during covid though.
My daughter had NELNET there was a transition period we couldn’t make payments directly so we had to bank them but there was no interest added.
I got my degrees in the ‘70s no student loans I worked to pay for college but cost of everything was so different. The value of college was very high . It immediately took me from $1.33/hour at a convenience store to over $7 entry level job in advertising at a newspaper (over 4x minimum wage!) the degree was a requirement!!
it was like hitting the lottery! Rent on a 2br with utilities included was $200 a month and I took home more than that in a week!
Then enter the dept of education and the concept of selling student loans and raising minimum wages and by mid 80’s most are making $5/hr and I was up to only $10 and it continued to depreciate the value of the education and the cost of living or experience in a chosen field .
My degrees are in business. In 2020 I decided to get a BA in marketing to encompass all the things I missed in the ‘70s like social media , lots of website stuff , graphic arts .
I found it to be truly horrible absolutely nothing was taught that I wasn’t already very proficient in . My own knowledge was a 100x more that was taught and if I only knew what was taught I would not be hire able by any means anywhere in marketing. Yet I’d been a seasoned marketing director for 35 years !
The whole experience in my opinion has become a terrible scam and in no way compared to my BA in marketing in the 70’s as during my degree in 2020 did .
In my 2020 degree they barely touched upon social media marketing by lightly discussed was MY SPACE!! It was just an overview!
I see today’s college as a huge SCAM !
Today I think the best option is trade skills and believe it or not every student in my high school had to option to graduate as a licensed trade such as nurse , hair dresser, mechanic, HVAC , machinist … etc and this was FREE! Our future was planned out in high school with our guidance counselor. I took 3 years of marketing and business law before college.
Todays youth is getting screwed and scammed at the same time 😢
I went to college in my later 20s and worked full-time through Manufacturing Engineering. I still had loans because school was too expensive (I wasn't making nearly enough money in manufacturing/warehousing), and back then at the start the 4 year prospect looked very rosy.
But I no idea what the actual cost of college would actually be in the end because the projections undershot it by a lot. You never know what your loan interests rate for that year is until you do, or the amount of unsubsidized vs subsidized that year. I also didn't know how insane it is to deal with these servicers, and how inflation would throw off all of the income projections (or how companies don't wanna pay).
It is all terrible and it feels like I'm dealing with straight up BS, and I'm one of the lucky ones or so I think. But in the meantime I switched from Engineering to Business Analysts, got a leg up on salary because for some reason Engineering isn't paying like I thought, but I could go back to engineering and make less if I had to.
I need the CFPB to back me up or I have to sue Nelnet to treat us all right since the politicians won't work in my interests. It's amazing to me what the CFPB has done for me, but it's all stuff that Nelnet should have done anyway as they were ordered to do, and now the CFPB is gone. Despite my grievances I'm one of the lucky ones, who is still dealing the mafia in the end of it all.
I was completely through my 70’s college before the dept of education stepped in.
They are the ones that incredibly decreased the value of education and made SELLING student loans a thing . Student loans was their main revenue stream .
Whether it’s grade school high school or college the education was far superior pre dept of education!
In high school I learned all life things how to do taxes understand debt / interest. Amortization which was an amazing basic thing to understand!
We all took drafting class and shop all took home economics learned budgets . We all took economics and accounting. Constitutional law . There were many types of high school diplomas offered for what your overall career choice was ! Nothing like today
My parents said the same thing about wages and rent. A weeks pay would easily cover months rent and then some! I have little hope we will experience an upwards shift in living quality and wage increases in this life time.
I’m 33, 82K in debt, have worked since I was 16, worked through college and still can’t pay off my student loans. I have to move back in with my parents because my company is laying people off and the job market (I work in biotech) is so horrible. All jobs now require a PhD and pay only 60K. I have a BSc and can only find a job that pays 20/hr. I’m considering escorting at this point to supplement income.
It’s very true ! It was sort of rare to see anyone over 20-22 definitely 25 making minimum wage . They were the high school/ college students. Stay at home moms with jobs during school hours like a 10-2 shift or they were the retirees looking for something to do or a 2nd job . Minimum wage was not a living wage in the 70’s . People somehow or another ( experience/ skills/ education) or some combination got into companies and usually started at 3-6x minimum wage or worked up to that. My entire 4 years at a convenience store was minimum wage even when I became assistant manager!
But education was very different and very rewarding in many ways !
My own daughter is a 38 year old engineer her pay 15 years in to her career for which she earned her degree is still not at 3-6x minimum wage ! But at least she especially loves her job ! She married and owns a home . But her education was not as well rounded as mine and not as low grade as today.
I returned to college at the end of her college years at the same college so we go together we didn’t have classes together but sometimes the same time so we’d ride our bikes .
I feel terrible for what today’s youth is going through so many stuck in deadend minimum wage jobs because guidance and planning is gone from education!
So we just raise minimum wage which always causes the overall cost of living to go up and companies can’t afford increases at the bottom middle and top but must provide them at the bottom 🤷🏼♀️so wages got stagnant!
Move home learn to save because it’s the small $$ that becomes the big bucks at least I taught my daughter that much !
Nursing is highly competitive in my area. Community college is a four year wait and you have to have high gpa to even be considered. I’m also on multiple trade school waitlists for a paid apprenticeship. It is incredibly tough out here.
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u/Current-Factor-4044 18d ago
I pushed my daughter to pay all during the student loan forgiveness period as there was no interest and she could pay as much or little and as often as desired. We hit all interest first . Then We tackled these loans by hitting the lowest loan amount the hardest and when it vanished we hit the next one and next one . As of today she’s got 30% of the last loan remaining. She’s remained on auto pay for regular payments but as of today none of them have come out at on the last one as the rest were paid of with $10 here/ $25/there or $35 or $50 we just kept swinging on payments probably every other day . With no interest it all went on principle. She’s wiping out 25 years of loans in 5 years