pay your student loans

[Martha]

The Supreme Court ruled that the federal government can take your social security--even social security disability--to pay defaulted student loans. It used to be that there was a 10 year limitation period to collection of past due student loans. Several years ago Congress repealed that law and placed no statute of limitation on collecting old loans. Thenew law was retroactive. Therefore, a number of loans that were in default years ago may now be collected from people's social security.

Always pay your taxes, your fines, your student loans and your child support.

 

[justin]

And your friendly neighborhood loan shark.

 

[farmerEd]

I am glad actually...people SHOULD be forced to pay back their loans...I know several people who skipped out on them, and after a few years of being harassed by collectors and nasty letters, the collectors went away. Good to know that in the end justice *may* be served afterall.

I for one paid of all my student loans w/in 3 years of graduating, even though I was given something like 10 or 15 years to do so...perhaps for the same reason I don't have a mortage, car loan or CC debt.

I remeber one guy I worked with who just finished his 8 years of college (PHd in philosophy of all things) and proudly declared "theres $60K the government is never going to see again". Actually in this guys case he may get away with it...he liked to take a lot of acid and stay up all night doing data entry job; that may just catch up with him before there is any SS to take

 

[astromeria]

"theres $60K the government is never going to see again".

Must've flunked his Ethics class

 

[Lazarus]

People should pay back the money they owe no matter who it is to including the government. However the Government does not honor its obligations. When I was collecting the GI Bill money for college they reduced the amount promised. The "Deficit reduction Act". Lowered the amount I recieved but did not lower the years I served. I want my money that I was promised. Small change now, but its the principal. What do you think are the odds the Government will honor Social Security?

 

[justin]

I remeber one guy I worked with who just finished his 8 years of college (PHd in philosophy of all things) and proudly declared "theres $60K the government is never going to see again". Actually in this guys case he may get away with it...he liked to take a lot of acid and stay up all night doing data entry job; that may just catch up with him before there is any SS to take

He he... a PhD in Philosophy doing data entry... makes me glad I have that undergrad engineering degree. 10x the effort, but worth every bit.

 

[Marshac]

With an interest rate far below inflation, I intend to take as long as they will allow to pay those suckers off. I figure that inflation will save me about $4k

 

[justin]

Yeah, me+wife have a six figure student loan debt. I figure inflation will save me about half that amount over the next 30 years. I'd be crazy to pay off the loan early. And then there's the above the line tax deductibility of the tiny interest that I do pay... Thank you uncle sam. Can't lose with the interest rate a few points below inflation.

 

[Jay_Gatsby]

Well, I paid my loans off last year or so, with many of the initial payments at the 9% level!

Then again, it feels fantastic to be debt free.

 

[bosco]

He he... a PhD in Philosophy doing data entry... makes me glad I have that undergrad engineering degree. 10x the effort, but worth every bit.

As a person with 2 engineering degrees and a BA in philosophy, I can tell you that your assumption is wrong.

I'll never forget the math majors who came to the philosophy department and signed up for logic because they could get "humanities" distribution credits for it. Thought they'd get an easy ride. They nearly always regretted their decision. They found out it was at least as much work as any of their math classes, possibly because it wasn't that different.

On the other hand, I had a friend who had a second job selling canned term papers who was a philiosophy major. Someone came up and asked him if he had any papers on ethics. Like an idiot, he bit, and said "sure." To which came the predictable response "then why don't you read them..."

As for ending up doing data entry or serving fries with that philosophy degree, well, that's why I went back and picked up a couple of engineering degrees.

 

[justin]

Not disputing that logic can be a hard class. In my experience obtaining a degree in the humanities (BA in Spanish Language and literature), it was incredibly easy. While obtaining the BA in Spanish, I took plenty of courses in ethics, philosophy, psychology, communications, public administration, etc. courses that gave me a broad overview of what coursework was like in the humanities and social sciences.

At the same time as I was getting my BA in Spanish, I was getting my BS in Engineering. It was 10 times more work, quite literally.

I went on to get a Juris Doctorate at a top 25 law school. The workload there was also a joke compared to engineering school.

Now I'm back working on a Master's/PhD in engineering. Yep, still 10 times the work!

I must note that I try pretty hard (with good results) in my engineering coursework. Maybe that is why it is so much work??

I think if you went in to the math department at my alma mater and suggested that philosophy courses, in general, were more challenging or more work than math courses, you'd be laughed out the door. On the other hand, depending on the university and what its focus is (sciences, engineering, humanities, etc), I'm sure experiences vary.

 

[Martha]

Psychology and Philosophy student here (30+ years ago). It was as hard as you wanted to make it. Advanced Logic courses? Damn tough. And judging from posts on this board, the engineers are no better than the rest of us at logical argument.

 

[Robert the Red]

Back in the days when I was a lowly asst prof in a Math and  Computer Science dept, I had a student who had been a philosophy major, then basically starved for 8-10 years, and was now going to college again in CS to end the starvation period of his life.

He was easily the best student in my class on data structures and algorithms.  I figure this was because he had learned the facility of reasoning precisely about abstract "objects" in his 4 year philosophy major, and could apply ability that to the abstract data structures we were discussing.  Most students have a lot of trouble with abstraction and generality, especially in their first 2 years.  Since that experience, I've had more respect for philosophy majors.

The best student I had in Calculus, on the other hand, was a guy who'd just got out of the Marines (Gulf War #1 had just ended a few month earlier).

 

[LEX]

I totally blew it. I worked my way through undergrad and grad school. I never touched the Federal aid. Perhaps there will be a federal reception held to recognise those who payed their share of taxes and never asked for any hand outs. (I doubt it)

 

[Howard]

justin, there is something a little wierd in what you are saying, you are getting all these degrees in all these disciplines, for What?

Pre -Med/ Business, for me, no desire for Masters, never saw the use unless I wanted to teach.

 

[AltaRed]

Howie, you and I are ancient... what you and I did doesn't count. And especially not from up north.

 

[justin]

justin, there is something a little wierd in what you are saying, you are getting all these degrees in all these disciplines, for What?

To rule the world.

Or at least my state.

Or maybe just my household (don't tell my wife though).

In reality - Engineering degree lets me make good money; my employer is paying for (and urging) me to get my master's, plus I need the coursework to get more proficient at what I do for a living.

Law - thought I was going to be a lawyer (didn't like the work). Turns out it was a good "general knowledge" degree. Lots of business law/practical knowledge kind of stuff. It helped me figure out how the world works.

Spanish - for fun. Good to know a foreign language.

I finished my B.S. in engineering, BA in Spanish and Juris Doctor by the time I was 23 and I worked at high paying jobs all the while throughout school. It really didn't take that long to get the education. Public schools - cheap or free for me.

I like learning new stuff too. The fields I studied interested me a lot.

 

[Spanky]

I finished my B.S. in engineering, BA in Spanish and Juris Doctor by the time I was 23 and I worked at high paying jobs all the while throughout school. It really didn't take that long to get the education. Public schools - cheap or free for me.

What an accomplishment at an early age! A BS in engineering takes 4 years, another B.S. may take another year, and a JD takes 3 years. If one starts at 18, he/she would complete them by age 26.

 

[Spanky]

People should pay back the money they owe no matter who it is to including the government. However the Government does not honor its obligations. When I was collecting the GI Bill money for college they reduced the amount promised. The "Deficit reduction Act". Lowered the amount I recieved but did not lower the years I served. I want my money that I was promised. Small change now, but its the principal. What do you think are the odds the Government will honor Social Security?

I received 42 months of GI bill (no reduced payment). It was a great benefit for 4 years of service.

I think the odd is good that we will receive some SS benefits. However, I am not including its payments as part of retirement planning.

 

[Howard]

AR, I hear what you are saying but I am always bemused by those who take on endless education, with no clear rationale as to why?

I have met people with several Ph.D's in stuff I could not pronounce, working as $30,000 a year bench techs.

Some times School becomes a refuge from reality.

I took course from NYU, USC, and U of Chicago, but they were Business Programmes paid for by my employer.

I took Grad courses at 3 Canadian Schools 1 to earn,, 2 to learn.

 

[SteveR]

AR, I hear what you are saying but I am always bemused by those who take on endless education, with no clear rationale as to why?...

...Some times School becomes a refuge from reality.

My son seems to be doing just that. He has intentionally slowed his progress in getting his degree so he can continue to live in the student ghetto on campus and live in the "artifical" world of a large university. He works full time for the university IT department as a network support tech. and even teaches some courses from time to time. He and some buddies have formed a company to use their talents to get some experience in the real-world application of their chosen field and have even made some stuff for the university to use.

He is on his own so if it takes him the rest of his life to finish, then that is up to him. No wife, no kids, no house, a 15 year old car and shared living expenses put him in a low living expense category so I hope he is saving some of it but by the looks of things it is all going into the business in the form of technology.

He has no student loans. My other son has no loans and works part time as well as being partial funded by the Bank of Dad. I got through with no loans, part time work and living way way below my means on less than $150 a month (not counting tuition and books) in an off-campus rat hole of an apartment; no car, no wife, no kids, nothing much more than a few clothes, a used bed and a home made desk.

Guess they "got it" when we talked about the value of not being in debt.

 

[Howard]

SteveR, I bet those were some of the fondest days of your life?

 

[Spanky]

My fondest days were flying kites, playing with marbles, and watching the stars at nights during my childhood.

 

[Martha]

My fondest days were flying kites, playing with marbles, and watching the stars at nights during my childhood.

Me too, except for the marbles. My dad was an amazing kite builder. He would build these big box kites that you had to have a winch to roll back in. He taught my sister and I how to fold paper and send it twirling up the line to the kite. My sister and I played a game we called "God's wife" where we would scrawl messages on the paper and send them to God, up the kite string.

He also woke us up in the middle of the night to look at the stars. Miss him, he has been gone for 20 years now.

 

[Mr._johngalt]

Me too, except for the marbles.    My dad was an amazing kite builder.  He would build these big box kites that you had to have a winch to roll back in.  He taught my sister and I how to fold paper and send it twirling up the line to the kite.  My sister and I played a game we called "God's wife"  where we would scrawl messages on the paper and send them to God, up the kite string.

He also woke us up in the middle of the night to look at the stars.  Miss him, he has been gone for 20 years now.

A game called "God's Wife". Now that is cute!

There is a verse in 'God Shuffled his Feet' by the CRASH TEST DUMMIES
which goes............

"The people sipped their wine,
and what with God there asked him questions.
Like do you have to eat,
or get your hair cut in heaven?
And if your eye got poked out in this life,
would it be waiting up in heaven with your wife?"

They just don't write lyrics like that any more.

JG