Ask Me About Student Loans!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Ask Me About Student Loans!

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

My girlfriend is in a weird situation and your advice would be greatly appreciated. She's 24 and independent but has been living off of gifts that her family has given her. Those gifts have been enough to pay her rent and bills but only just barely. She has about $800 total in her bank accounts. Her family is financially unable to sustain these gifts so she's looking for whatever she can get for financial aid. Her EFC is obviously 0 but she has no wages so to speak (we couldn't figure out where to put gifts of any sort in the FAFSA application) so she'll need to pay for everything with loans and grants. We expect that she'll get tuition reimbursment and a pell grant for tuition and books but she'll still need to take out loans for rent and living expenses.

Obviously she's hoping for a subsidized loan of some sort but we're both worried that she'll need to take out a bit too much in loans. She's meeting with a financial aid counselor this week to discuss options but I was curious, is there anything specific we should know before she goes in to this meeting?

# ¿ Jan 15, 2007 09:47

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 18:43

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

I've looked through the thread and didn't see anything specifically applicable to my situation so I thought I'd ask.

I'm getting married soon and my fiancee has about $80,000 in student loan debt spread across Federal and private loans. I have no debt. We're trying to figure out what the tax implications will be once we get married and most of the resources we've found don't have a lot of information and instead say that we should ask an accountant.

My understanding is that from a liability perspective we'll need to file separately so that I can't be legally held responsible for her loans if something happens, but if we do she loses the student loan interest deduction and we lose any benefits we might gain filing jointly. Are there other things I should be considering? Does anyone have experience with this scenario and have any advice?

# ¿ Dec 31, 2012 15:30

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

Hey folks, quick question:

I've got private loans with Sallie Mae and my family had been gracious enough to extend me a personal loan for the rest of my Sallie Mae loan balance.

I want to pay off my loan in full but I want to make sure that Sallie Mae doesn't screw me over.

I talked to a rep at my bank and he suggested using a bank check at a minimum, but I want to see if you folks had any advice as well.

Thanks!

# ¿ Oct 11, 2014 16:28

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

MJBuddy posted:

Actually that's not what I said at all. I said if you have 50k and you take a loan for 50k, and you get a job, you can then pay the loan back in full because you have the assets to cover the entire loan value. If you DON'T get a job, you now have a loan that requires 0 monthly payments and assets to EAT.

I never said not to pay them back, but IBR also gives you the ability to manage your payment structure in a way other loans do not allow since you can basically refinance them on an as-needed basis.

The point is that if you take a student loan, which other than being unable to drop when declaring Bankruptcy aren't toxic at all (and dropping them in Bankruptcy isn't very important since, again, they're forgiven if you can't make an income high enough to pay them after 10-20 years), but in the question at hand he was being asked whether he should spend all of his savings up front before he had cash inflow from a job OR should he take federal student loans. I said take the loans because if he gets a job, he can then use his savings to clear the loans out. If he doesn't get a job, then his two realities were one with zero savings and no job or one with savings and a large loan balance earning interest until he landed a position. It's only a toxic loan in this case if you can't ever get a job, and then the best advice is "Don't go the that grad program." Taking the loan is almost strictly dominant in risk-management, again because your upside is "who cares it's paid off" and your downside is "thank god I can eat this week".

This is fundamentally wrong though because paying your loans isn't simply contingent upon getting a job. You can be employed and simply not make enough money to cover your loans even if you're on IBR. This is especially true if you have private loans.

The point I'm trying to make is that having loans opens up all sorts of other risk factors that are really tough to plan for, like requiring a minimum salary to be able to afford payments.

Not taking out a loan means that you don't have to worry about payments and only have to worry about making enough money for rent, food, etc. even if you are tapping into savings.

Really, the easy answer is for that person not to blow all their savings now on a program but to work a bit, save some more money, then go back to school when they're more financially stable.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2014 21:13

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

MJBuddy posted:

You HAVE the assets; that's the precursor to the question, so it is absolutely contingent upon that. Not taking out the loan means you don't tap into savings because you DO NOT HAVE SAVINGS. That was the question: "Do I use all of my savings for tuition OR take loans."

You don't need a minimum salary if all you have is student loans, precisely because of IBR. At a below-minimum salary, you pay $0.

This isn't and never was a question about taking out a loan vs not going to school. It was about taking out a loan when you could otherwise afford to pay for most of it by depleting your savings to nothing.

I don't disagree with your easy answer as well. I just think people are mis-characterizing my answers as a one-size-fits-all when it was specifically tailored to their situation.

private loooaaaaannsssssss

# ¿ Nov 9, 2014 23:24

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 18:43

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

LMAO Navient cashed two checks, one closing out loan #1 and one closing out loan #2 and instead of applying them both to their respective loans and zeroing the balance on both loans there's now a positive balance on one and a negative balance on the other.

Nice loving job shitlords.

# ¿ Nov 15, 2014 03:48

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Ask Me About Student Loans!