Just to vent my frustration a bit...

I started paying back my student loans back in February. A hard hit to my budget and morale. The payments are over half of my monthly income. Rent is about a quarter. Meaning I've only got one paycheck left to pay the bills and my groceries. I've been trying hard to keep my head above water but I just can't.

My budget had NO slack in whatsoever, and I just had to buy a new pair of glasses since my other ones fell apart after 3 years of abuse. My insurance didn't cover any of it since I haven't been at this job for 12 (yes, 12!) months yet.

I've been eating plain white rice all week and probably will be for the next few months. I need a ****ing hug.

you don't need a hug, you need Reggae Reggae Sauce.

*huggles*

this is mildly disturbing though, since not only am I still in school, but I just took out a loan for 10 grand for a study abroad trip.

Yay, huggles.

The most disturbing part is that most of the payment goes just to pay interest. I hardly see my capital go down at all. It's soooo ****ing discouraging.

Time for a different job, maybe??

I remember when I found out the $2500 grant I thought I got with my $2500 loan, was just another loan.

yeah well the loans for the school shouldn't be too awful but I took out a signature loan for the trip, which has ridiculous interest rates

I'm already making more at this job than I would be making if I was actually working in my field of studies. If I was actually working in my field I wouldn't have the money to support myself.

Take it easy, man!

So, in conclusion, Rob, I told you so.


Sorry to hear about the loans. :/

Sorry to hear this. I had problems with my student loan, too. I had borrowed 13k + a crappy 1k "loan origination fee" and a variable interest rate and they jacked it up over 14% by the time I had to pay back. I was making payments for 5 years and the principal had only gone down a grand. When I sold my house I used some of the money to just pay it off. Hope you can work it out.

Turn to a life of crime. It works, but only if you're smart. The trick is to make what you're doing seem legal—e.g., givers-of-loans, politicians, government bureaucrats, the Illuminati.

..If you need some food I'll buy you some. (Serious) Just let me know where to send it.

Student loans are a *****. I just recently paid mine off and I feel like this giant weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

I've got about £7000 worth of loan from the first year alone. I'll probably need that again for the second.

Interest is at the rate of inflation, though. Seems that American student loans are all $$$, by the sound of things, which seems pointlessly pointless.

Is it necessarily necessary to modify an adjective with the same word in adverb form? That seems pointlessly pointless.

Its called funny.

This is why working to pay off loans while still in school is a really good idea.

Would it be possible for you to consolidate your loans in any way? The TV-advertised companies that offer help are a scam, but there are some not for profit organizations that can help you out with this sort of thing.

http://www.studentloanconsolidator.com/repayment/forgiveness.php

I don't know how it works in Canada, hopefully you can find some way to make it work. Hang in there man.

Well...you did take out the loans....I'm pretty sure loans need to be payed back :/. Not quite sure what you were expecting.

I'm sure I'll feel slightly different after taking out my massive loans for Penn State, but still, I realize I will have to pay them back and adjust accordingly.

I still have about £16,000 to pay off if that helps you feel better. God knows what that would be in US$ or CD$...

Just short of $32,000.

Sometimes your conservative arrogance bothers me, buck.

Wait about eight months to a year, then try and refinance your loan so you can get a smaller monthly payment. After your payments are reduced, continue paying the original amount. The extra money you pay will apply directly to the principle, and you'll end up paying a lot less interest in the long run.

PS: I am not an accountant or a banker and I don't know anything about money or loans.

This one time I got this call, my mom handed me the phone and I wasn't even out of bed yet.

Background: I just finished 4 years of college, but I'm 2 years away from my degree because of major/school transfer changes, parents ran out of money for a year (and my first school no longer offers my first major, but that's another story).

ANYWAY, this guy says he's some kinda financial coordinator and asks me some questions, one of them is "Where are you finishing your education?". I explain to him that I transferred from my first college and I go to a different school, and that's why I don't have my degree yet.
He asks me if he can help me finish up with my student loans.
I say "My parents are paying for school, I don't have any loans to pay off."
He says "Oh, well can I leave you my phone number so you can give it to anyone else who needs my services?"
I say "Uhh...(I think for about 10 seconds)... are you like the loan officer at concordia? (my first school).
He says "yeah."

I'm figuring if he is the financial coordinator at my old school, why doesn't he have the schools records of people to call regarding financial issues.
Why would I give his information out to them?

I stop and say "well, I don't keep in touch with anyone there, most of my friends have graduated already."

He stutters and says "Oh...um...yeah...uhh...nevermind." and hangs up.

I figure he was some con man person.

/random

I've got £15,000 that I'm going to have to start paying back someday too...

Still I've managed to delay that 4 years by doing a PhD which actually may help me save some cash and pay a lump sum off...still, its not nice to know I have a £15k loan over my head.

I hate loans so much, I didn't take any. Take that, loans!

Fixed.

I'm not so much arrogant, but when people complain about things that are 100% of their own doing, I don't really like it, and I prefer to point out to them that.

Loans by definition must be paid back. It is up to the person to take them out. If he or she complains about it, he / she shouldn't of taken them out in the first place. At least take pleasure knowing that money you are paying basically paid for your education that you wanted badly enough you took a loan out for. It enhanced your life (hopefully), and things aren't free.

Is it arrogant to tell people to take responsibility for their own actions? Sure I feel sorry for the guy, but his reality is one that is well established and can be foreseen as he signs his name for that loan.

I think he's aware of his predicament, just looking for others to relate.

I can hear you buddy.

last week the bills hit me so hard i fed on rice and oatmeal for a week. -_-

you do any live work or are you just a studio guy?

Thanks guys.

Buck, I'm not complaining about having to pay it back. I'm complaining that the damn payments are so high.

I'll be calling my bank next week to discuss some options.

Seb - mostly live work outside of my current job. I'll be working a bit for GES this summer.

Are you still in school? If not, it sounds like it's time to find a second job if you aren't willing or able to find a higher paying primary job. I know how you feel (I'm paying $600/month on my student loan so that I can have it paid off by December of this year even though the minimum is only $75/month) and it's rough, but it's better to suffer a bit now so that you can be out of debt sooner than later. I would also encourage you to become more of a minimalist (sell off everything that you don't absolutely need and only buy things that are of necessity). Your life will become less complicated and you will find it easier to focus on what's important. Good luck!

i thought student loans were set at a very low interest rate. 4 or 5% or something like that. you know... 'cause you're a student. mine was. but that was uhhh... going on 20 years ago. **** i'm old. and i'm in ontario.

oh and when i was in college i knew a guy that worked nights cleaning mcdonalds. i was in north bay, ontario. average temp in the winter is -20°C. once every couple of weeks i would step out to go to school in the morning and find half a box of frozen quarter pounders and a couple of ten pound bags of frozen fries. when i finally got sick of burgers and fries i started making meatloaf and mashed potatoes.
i'll never be able to repay that *******.

Do you expect him to get anywhere without an education, Buck? And yes, it's arrogant to point out that he should just blame himself for his money problems and deal. It's not about who to blame, and it's not about making the decision to be in debt. It's about being stuck with the debt of something you've been told your whole life you need, even if you can't afford it. You probably don't worry too much about money from the way you put you opinion, and hence why I called you arrogant. You're arrogant about the luxury of money. I could be wrong, though. You do say those things a lot, though.

Levi Roots wishes cancer on your friends and family.

So...it's the fault of society?

No one needs to go to college. Just because you are told too doesn't mean you don't have too. If you find that college will best provide you the opportunity to be financially secure in the future or learn the most about what you want to learn about, you go to college.

Just so you know, I do not experience the luxury of money. My family now has my brothers (Nubs, poster above) 25,000 dollar tuition this year, and my 30,000 a year tuition. I will probably have 80,000 dollars MINIMUM student loans. But hey, I chose to go to Penn State, I wanted to go, I accepted the loans, I know they will be outrageous. If I didn't want to pay loans, I wouldn't of gone. You kidding me, look in my wallet 95% of the year and I will have....maybe, 10 bucks in my wallet?

I'm still sympathetic for Big Ts cause. It's rough, and I damn well will experience it (see, I realize I will have my loans and will adjust accordingly). But, without them, he wouldn't of gotten the education that he sought out, and neither would I. They are helping me more than holding me back.

Hey, don't sully my good name in the interests of debate, I'm just an unwitting bystander.

i hope for $80,000 you learn english at an american university. sorry man. i had to point that out.

quick question; are american/different states' universities government subsidized for tuition?

In some cases, one English class is all you get in a major, and that's all easily forgotten after its out of the way.

One thing I find funny is a lot of people assume the cheapest place to go to college is one of the local public universities, getting an in-state tuition rate, but getting hardly any aid at all, and they just ignore the high ranking private schools with $35k tuitions and such because they think they won't be able to afford it...

Now the thing that makes it funny: private universities will often times give students a lot more money than public universities, and thus require less loans and such to be borrowed. Of course this varies by private university, but the ones with good endowments that put a lot of money into things like grants for students can actually be quite cheap, and that $50,000 total cost can really be as low as $5,000... Of course getting into such schools is usually much harder, but under the right circumstances it can be a lot cheaper.