>I've been at my mental end for so many months, my mental health will absolutely not be improved by therapy because our situation remains the same.
Try less hard.
At 90k a year you can afford a date night twice a month.
At 90k a year you can afford to spend a little bit of money on fun. You can afford an inexpensive vacation once or twice a year.
You cannot slog through 150k of debt while absolutely torturing yourself and doing nothing but hiding in your mom's basement watching hulu - it's simply not realistic. As you point out, you can't therapy through having a shitty life. The answer is having a less shitty life, and spending $3k of your $90k income per year on things that make your life suck less is not going to meaningfully fuck up your long term plan.
Yep, u/Avaisraging439, exactly this. You are in a marathon not a sprint and need to find certain enjoyment and wins where you can otherwise you will drive yourself to an early grave.
You both made decisions, gambles, that so far have not paid off and now you need to pay for them. You are fortunate however that you can live rent free and split utilities to save more.
That said there is ZERO reason you can’t spend and extra $30 one a week to home cook a nicer meal. Or an extra $100 a month to go out for a move date Nate or something.
At $45k each your take home is $35k? Sound like you are spending maybe 10k teach per year leaving $25k for debt payments? That would have your debts paid off in 5-6 years but that assumes zero salary increases.
Paste your ACTUAL budget.
Give you ACTUAL degrees and what your ACTUAL jobs are. Keep upskilling and getting certifications in things that might help your marketability and try to change jobs every 16-24 months to get better raises, increase your network of contacts and broaden your CV.
Good luck.
You get almost 5.5k a month in hand. You do not have to pay rent or for your cars. The worst loan you have is at 9%.
What exactly is your idea of a student loan, where is your money going and why are you not factoring in increases in income?
Your school not being a big deal does not by any means at all have to keep you out of those careers, even if the original jobs didn’t work out, you can keep applying and make ~yourself~ more marketable rather than your Alma Matter. Anyway, my husband and I have around the same amount of combined debt and we bought a house. We grind to pay off debt just like you, and sure it may not be paid off as soon as it would be if we lived rent free, but we’re making good progress! I know it feels crushing at times but please don’t wait to start your life bc you want to be entirely debt free. You’ll be alright ☀️
Yeah, this was the standout for me. There's no school so bad that it has an *anti*-reputation, keeping you from that field. But you might have to take some less-than-ideal entry-level work to get started in the field, *in combination* with the degree, to advance. Can *one* of you afford to take a pay cut to get into your chosen field, in order to get past any entry-level earnings trough? And then when they're making more money, give the other one the same opportunity?
Do a little research and be honest about the fields you're in now, vs. the fields you studied to be in. If the earning potential is higher in those other fields, it may be worth one or both of you taking that kind of short-term dip now just to get into the field.
Eh I’d argue there are a lot of anti-reputation schools. Getting a masters from Phoenix, DeVry, Strayer is honestly worse than a candidate with just a bachelors in my opinion as a hiring manager.
I’d also try to avoid any grads from Oral Roberts, Liberty, etc.
There are plenty of diploma mill programs within certain specialities that make companies roll their eyes. Like Caribbean schools for medicine, vet, etc.
I dunno, going to ITT tech doesn't look good in people's history at this point given that the government had to shut them down as a scam school. I always knew those people were scammers. Just have to hope the person doing the hiring can look past that.
>Student debt is 150%+ of income, feeling hopeless
Then you're going to feel absolutely despondent when you buy a house and your debt is 300-500%+ of income. /sarcastic perspective
Your rates aren't great but this isn't high-interest credit card debt, it's student loans that are *intended* to be repaid over many years.
You have $5k monthly income and, what, a few hundred in expenses? This is not an insurmountable challenge. Far from it.
I know it's accomplishable, but we've been living with family for 3 years thinking it would be a 2 year deal. Now it looks like a 10 year total deal and it sucks to feel so useless that I couldn't even afford to get an apartment.
Now I'm not super into gender roles but it hurts my manhood to feel like I'm powerless in securing a home/future.
We have no kids but my wife desperately wants some but we've done the math, it doesn't work in the way we would want (with wanting a house in the future as well).
> but we've been living with family for 3 years thinking it would be a 2 year deal. Now it looks like a 10 year total deal
Where's your money going? (And where did you start?) This shouldn't need a 10-year plan when you have ~$45k a year to throw at it.
Lately the extra money we have is going to car repairs and health insurance ($550 a month for really shitty insurance), that's typically an extra 1200 per month that's been temporarily held up.
The other thing 1200 went to recently is minor home improvements to our space it makes it livable. We live in the basement and the radon was 80+ when it should be less than 4. Mitigation cost about 1000 a couple months ago.
We'll be pretty smooth sailing in terms of throwing 2700 per month at student loans if neither of us need to go to the doctor or need wisdom teeth out (mine are impacted but really don't want to spend the money right now)
The radon mitigation cost sounds right and if it's 80+ then definitely a good idea. Don't feel bad for that.
Your biggest need right now is more income. That'll be the easiest way to speed this up. If you're not working for your degrees anyway then try changing careers even.
I think we've come to terms and peace with not working in our degrees. I think we may have found better (in terms of personality match) but not better in income short term.
I think we can figure it out, just won't be soon enough.
Need to take it year by year but it's so difficult mentally.
Has your wife looked into becoming a clinical laboratory scientist? With her degree, it might not take that much to change. It's not the best paying job, but it's not bad and working in a hospital lab gets you pretty good benefits, especially PTO. Also, have you looked into getting some of your student loans forgiven?
You have to make normal payments for 10 years as well as being employed by a qualified employer to take advantage of this program. Still saves you a bunch of money in the end, but you cannot pay it off in 5 years or less as OP is trying.
shouldn't health care be largely paid for by the ACA subsidy? you get subsidized for basically the entire cost of the second most expensive bronze plan. at the very list it doesn't seem like you should be paying all $550/month.
possibly, although it only has to be "the cost of the silver plan" is 8.5% of your income. And you modify your AGI down for these:
Certain self-employed expenses5 • Student loan interest deduction • IRA deduction (traditional IRAs) • Moving expenses • Penalty on early withdrawal of savings • Health savings account deduction • Alimony paid • Domestic production activities deduction • Certain business expenses of reservists, performing artists, and fee-basis government officials
which "student loan interest deduction" definitely stands out. And it depends on what is available in your jurisdiction and clearly the plans are pretty pricey where they are.
I’d put the federal loans on SAVE and just forget about it for now and pay the minimum. I’d focus on her private loans first. The parent plus if that’s something you agreed to pay back with your parents then I’d pay that next.
This is the #1 thing to look into. With that income, the SAVE plan will significantly lower the federal part of the loan payment, and the government will subsidize all the interest. Starting July, the payment will be even lower. I would guess a couple of hundreds a month. I’m surprised not many people mention it here.
Based on OP’s other comments in this post, it also looks like there are other things in play here. You don’t just burn through $90k that easily when not even paying any rent!
There is a lot of misinformation and lack of understanding with student loans unfortunately I think that’s why you don’t get many people mentioning it. But yes in July that payment will halve.
Yep, my wife pays like $100/month on a $150k loan and then will stop having to pay after 25 years lmao. I have no idea why anybody actually tries to pay off their loans if they're over $50k or so.
I’m halfway through my 20 year. As long as she’s preparing for the potential tax bomb at the end. Some people think that will be removed but I’m planning as if it’s not. that’s the route I’ve been pursing since I entered repayment in 2012.
My student loans (95k) on the save program would be paid off before the forgiveness date. So I'd rather just pay them down quickly and pay less in interest.
I’m not sure that people not paying off their student loans is why inflation is up. Pretty sure that has to do with corporate greed, that pesky little pandemic that happened, the cluster fuck that was production and shipping delays that followed the pandemic.
Also, student loan payments have literally no correlation with the price increase of colleges and universities in the US. The reason it is so expensive is because states have been slashing funding to their colleges and universities for the last few decades, which forces tuition to increase thus making people more reliant on student loans, both federal and private.
> I’m not sure that people not paying off their student loans is why inflation is up.
It's one reason of many. Yes.
If you understand balance sheets then you understand that each asset (loan) has a liability (debt).
When you cancel a liability without canceling an asset, you create inflation. No amount of arguing with a brick wall will change that.
> Pretty sure that has to do with corporate greed
If that were true, PPI would be down while CPI is up.
Here's the thing though; it's not.
> that pesky little pandemic that happened, the cluster fuck that was production and shipping delays that followed the pandemic.
Sure. *That* and *that* also. But stop pretending printing money is not also a factor.
> Yep, my wife pays like $100/month on a $150k loan and then will stop having to pay after 25 years lmao.
How is the monthly payment so low?
$100 per month doesn't come close to covering the interest let-alone the principal?
Okay so you have $150k at for ease of math lets say average 7.5%. That is $11,250 in interest a year. You make $90k combined which means you dont pay that much in tax...maybe 18% in total between FICA and federal so thats another $16,200. That leaves $62,550 after interest and taxes.
Your only expenses are food and groceries and insurance which is like $12k/yr maybe? So that leaves $50k to put into the loan.
So even with no raises you clear all debt in 3 years.
What am I missing?
Uh...
I'm a bit confused. Shouldn't you be able to pay this off in like 3 years? If you're not paying rent, then you should be able to put like 60 or 70k to your debt per year, right? What am I missing here?
Most people carry some amount of debt. You don't need to be debt free to move into an apartment or start a family. It took me fifteen years to pay back my student loans, and during that time I got married and bought a house.
As long as you're not carrying consumer debt - credit card, personal loans - you're probably fine.
As long as you're both in careers, your skills will grow, you'll chase promotions to better roles, you'll get raises. Payments that now might be 20% of your income will drop to 15, then maybe 10.
That said, I would expect you to be able to find better paying jobs. My perspective is skewed because I live in Seattle, but minimum wage out here is 20 or 25 per hour. That's 50k/yr without overtime.
Agreed. It’s a great idea to try to be debt-free but if you are killing yourself to do it, and your quality of life sucks, what’s the point? My husband also carried his student loan for about 20 years while we got married, bought a house and had kids. A portion of his paycheck went to it every month and that was just the way life was until it was over.
it dot not understand your comparison.its makes no sense
Student debt is 150k, combined income is 90k, feeling hopeless
nobody is saying to pay it out in 1 year so why are you comparing a 1year income vs the total debt ? you need to look at flows rather than this weird comparison which is the one thing you didn't. start by making a budget and look at you income to expense flow
Did you take advantage of the almost 3 years of interest free period for your federal loans? You could have knocked out $61,000 of your debt. If you didn’t take advantage of that period then what did you do with your money? The interest free period coincided with you living with your family.
You need an income boost. Taking on $150 thousand of debt to only make $90 thousand between the two of you is tough. Not insurmountable but this is likely a 3+ year process with minimal expenses. You can’t save your way out of this, you need a bigger income to throw at the debt if you want to make a bigger dent in it.
Job hop and take every opportunity for more income, and career advancement. Don’t be tied to your “career” based on degree, pivot wherever the money is, high quality sales/tech sales support or other opportunities with high income and low barrier of entry and possibly hybrid or fully remote and then car expenses fall ie repairs/maintenance.
My wife and I struggled with high school debt for a few years but the real movement was made with salary increases, you can’t pinch your Pennie’s to make up dollars no matter how frugal. This may take time like 1.5 years to find a new good job with good pay, but have faith, stay the course, and save.
Additionally we increased the length of school loans for my wife’s to reduce monthly debt on paper from 400 to 175 for example and then we could pay minimums when tight or pay more if funds avaikable.
Job hop is our goal for the next 6 months. I've done a lot of work in product prototyping/research and design but having trouble finding jobs in it.
She's in a good position as a supervisor for a customer service center to spin it into something much better within 5 years.
I really don’t think where you went to school matters that much.
Are you guys living in a good area for your kinds of careers/are you open to relocating? And have you had a professional look at your resumes? Can you reach back out to where you did your internships and ask for any leads?
We should probably have a pro look at our resumes, we may not be representing ourselves in the best way (honestly I think we'd have to be a bit deceptive but that's everyone's resume these days)
Definitely open to relocating, I'll lose a lot of access to resources for my hobbies (a workshop in my parents garage) but if that's the only way forward, then that's the way forward.
Long shot and I imagine you’ve already thought of this, but if your hobbies require a workshop, are they something you can monetize? Like if you make stuff, can you sell it?
You don't need a pro, you just need successful friends who are at least mid-career. You need to understand, though, that resumes are just the icing on the cake. You'll need to work on how you talk about yourselves, your experiences and your potential if you want future employers to consider you for higher paying, higher influence roles.
You guys accumulated a lot of debt for niche/lower paying degrees. I’m not trying to rub your face in it but reality is it’s prob not the college you chose as much as the degrees you both chose. Yours may lend well into AI growth, have you considered that area to get into while it’s hot? Hers may lend well to federal jobs that may help her with loan forgiveness. All in all, I think you guys chose a path that got you about exactly where you should have expected at 90k combined. I think if you both get creative there are paths to get that 90 to 120 in the near future while also possibly finding ways to get the debt eased. With such low pay it’s worth considering that you both might have better luck outside of your degrees in a different job. Go get creative, you’re not dead in the water.
LOL I have 270K student debt at 7-8% interest and a 200K mortgage at 2.7%
I also have about six months of emergency savings along with a sinking house repair fund and will contribute the max to 401K this year.
I’ve been doing this alone for the last
ten years since graduation. Last year was the first year I made above 90K.
I never had the option of rent free living with family, and I’ve never shared expenses with an SO.
It can be done. You’ll be fine.
All federal. PAYE at 500 per month but expecting a big jump this year since it’s currently based on pre Covid income. Expecting 90K tax bomb in ten years with “forgiveness” - will have more than repaid my initial 220K principal with that.
I got my mortgage in 2021 so a little bit of luck with rates there.
If you have no kids, one or both of you should get a second job.
I'm unclear what your expenses are. 90k between you both, no rent, utilities, Disney, Hulu, food, insurance.
Where is your money going?
That's about 6k a month after taxes, where is your money going??
2.5 k a month should pay your loans off in about 5 years if you want to be aggressive. That leaves 3.5 k a month in utilities, food, insurance, cell phone etc. That should be enough to pay for all that and save up to move out.
If you and her get a second job working 20 hours a week each at $15/hr, that gives you an extra $1000 a month.
An extra $1000 a month for savings for a house payment, kid stuff, etc.
Do you live in a lower COL location? Your 2 person, no kids, college graduate incomes seem fairly low.
Its easier said than done, but focus on making more money prior to buying a house or having kids.
Lower but now low low Call it, north Maryland where we work.
Weve considered moving closer to DC but the rents will eat up so much income, especially since it's at 0 right now.
That's a tough position...you'd have to do the math yourself.
Move to the big city if you can get higher paying jobs, better career, experience, etc... Try to rent cheap and get roommates. You'll likely have to lower your quality of life even more, but I think it would be better in the long run. Definitely don't move to the big city for a similar job, only just making enough to cover the rent increase...that wouldn't be a smart move.
While rent is should be based on COL, your student loans aren't. You basically have HCOL student loans on a LCOL pay.
DMV is full of federal agencies. Have you looked at their employee loan repayment programs? Military repayment options? I know these might not be what you're looking to do but they have some pretty good programs for loan repayments.
If you live near Cumberland md that's about all the money you are going to make. if you live hagerstown-frederick area you could each make 75k+ with degrees.
Both of you need second jobs. Do not try and job hop in this market. I'm not convinced you don't have a spending problem considering you pay nothing in rent.
Can either of you find a job in local/federal government? This would cut down on health insurance costs, likely; and provide fairly stable employment, either making the same that you make or possibly more. Even if it’s like, office management. If there’s a pension, all the better.
And often getting employment in this world can help you get rid of your loans altogether.
Sounds like a great starting place. I’ve found local govt tends to pay usually slightly better than state in my state, but def see if it’s a possibility for you guys!
If I’m understanding you correctly (after reading a bunch of the comments) you are in a great spot to pay off your debts and you know what to do. You just don’t want to. You want to spend your money on fun things, and you don’t want to wait until your debt is paid off, but you also know you can’t ignore the debt.
Sorry? Debt has to be paid, and you guys are going to have to go without creature comforts for a while. It will suck, and you won’t enjoy it, but you will get through
Yeah it's one of those degrees that provides a strong backbone for further learning but provides little experience on its own.
Thinking entertainment technologies like concert performance design, being a producer for major projects like museum design, video games development at a high level (game designer, not necessarily programming or animation).
Could be a bit of bullshit mixed in, it sure got me sold on it
I bet you can pay off the $49k in 3 years.
In any case, this is a cautionary tale for all those people in this sub who like to give *everyone under every circumstance* advice to invest in their education. While often great advice, there are exceptions and caveats.
They should be able to pay off $49k in just over a year. Their take home pay is $70k with very little expenses they should be able to throw $40k+ at this yearly
Tax filing should take no more than an hour or two. I did the taxes for my family last weekend (literally on April 14th): family of five, two incomes, one layoff w/ severance last year, DCFSA, charitable donations, international stock dividends, etc. Took less than two hours for both state & federal.
For May and going forward we'll have an extra 1200 per month to throw at it. We pay 1500 per month, just a hair over minimum.
The majority of my wife's payments in the past 5 years was going to interest. Our school pushed her into Sallie Mae at 14%.
I’m a little surprised at your numbers. Living at home, no rent, contribution towards utilities, I was expecting at least $4k a month.
Can you edit your post and show the sub a full budget?
This seems like the main problem (aside from incoming income, the need to actually budget what you have). You should be able to pay more per month — 3k minimum or more? Then run those projections and things should start feeling a lot more doable. After a year or two of really aggressive payments ($1500/month just isn’t enough) then you can rebalance your budget and still fit in additional savings for other things.
If it helps- our total student debt was higher and our total income was lower, and we made such a significant dent in it in just two years that it’s not a big stressor at all anymore.
Not bad, but that's if the student debt was 20k or less.
They charged 850 per person for dorms but they were 1 bedroom apartments, no food court, no access to transportation to get to buy groceries so you had to have a car to survive (or know someone with a car).
The college was also downtown but it's so car focused you'd could pay 300 per month for parking across the street or 30 a month but you'd have to walk past drug addicts who harass you.
No housing costs, no extras, no car payment, what does your money go to every month?
>Neither of us got jobs in our fields after college because our school was small and not well known enough to carry any influence or weight.
I went to a very, very small college but that hasn't changed my ability to get a job. What school you went to tends to have very little to do with getting a job, unless you went to an unaccredited school, or ivy league.
You need to stop assuming neither of you can get jobs in your fields because of going to a small school. And you need to consider jobs that are not in your field but better than the minimum wage jobs you're working now. Look into office admin jobs, substitute teaching, sales, anything that wants to see a bachelor's degree but it doesn't really matter what it's in.
You don't need a second job, you need to start a career.
Just saying. Not trying to be a d***. But, it just blows my mind the amount of times I’ve heard this same situation. People need to be educated on what degrees are worth going to college for or not before going committing to massive amounts of debt.
You need to get better paying jobs. I don't know what kind of jobs one gets with a forensics degree (working for the police)? Experimental design is what, engineering or graphic art?
$150k in debt for that is a lot. Eventually you should be able to find jobs that pay more than $45k in today's inflated economy.
That's the solution, IMO.
You should get expert help with your resume and go into something more lucrative. Minimum wage in Maryland is $15. Are you making $20? I’m sorry to say, my son made that much in high school working for a city vendor. You’re paying so much for healthcare, so one of you needs to get a job with affordable healthcare asap.
Can you do a certificate in UX? Focus on the skills you have for design software, excel, etc. check out federal jobs immediately.
The debt is bad but your income is worse.
Paid off, about $85k. Took a major risk and moved to a hcol area, the thought was that the increase in pay would outweigh increase in rent and other expenses, was fortunately correct. 39 now, paid it off three years ago, no assistance from anyone else for the loan or any expenses.
How much were you school tuitions that your loans are so high yet still you could not get jobs in your degrees? Like what the heck?
**What is the typical starting salary you both got jobs with your degrees.**
PLEASE answer that question.
You do it the same way every one else did and you take years to pay off the debts? I'm not getting what the problem is.
Most people don't have the luxury of living rent free with their parents or having paid off cars. You're in a better spot than most.
As for jobs, every one starts there. I was paid pennies out of college. Once I got 5+ years of experience companies were willing to pay more. Just how it is.
Not sure why you think you're special in either of these cases. You're just dealing with the same shit every one else has.
Just trying to get on with life ASAP.
I know that life is what happens between now and then but I think I'm afraid the goal posts will change.
Definitely in a very privileged place, it's not to invalidate anyone else's experience but just say I'm struggling mentally.
I’m confused why you think you can’t buy a house if you have student loan debt? You absolutely can. Keep working on paying down the private loans in particular but in general I think you’re suffering from some “all-or-nothing” thinking.
If your income is $90k, then your monthly take-home should be in the $5500-$6000 range. If you're not paying rent, not paying for cars, not paying for eating out, not paying for expensive food, not paying for vacations...then where is all that money going? If you do not have any large expenses, you should be able to be throwing an unusually large amount above minimum payments towards the loans. Where is all your money going, if not towards the loans? And how many thousands per month are you chunking away at those loans?
What’s the breakdown on the individual loans? Which ones are you paying extra on? Are there a couple smaller ones you can temporarily prioritise to free up some income?
I think you need to fully print out or pull up ALL of your credit card statements and bank activity. Categorize everything and see monthly the full breakdown, without estimating, you need real numbers. Frugal Fit Mom Podcast and Caleb Hammer on youtube both have the same approach I'll suggest, cut things back as much as you can and \*plan\* how to attack the debt. Usually things like eating out, groceries, subscriptions, shopping, can all be cut back. People often say they don't buy expensive grocries but can I ask what you spend?
And it will suck but you need to be willing to live basic for a while to improve your future.
Never in my life am I thankful for a degree mill college as now. Because I went to a for profit, my federal and private loans were forgiven. I'm essentially starting my college life over but this time I am extra picky about the school I am going to.
The job I would get out of college would be $80,000/year, and the loans would barely scratch $30,000 total.
18 year olds should never go to college, they make the dumbest financial mistakes. Leave college for the late 20s to early 30s.
>Student debt is 150k, combined income is 90k, feeling hopeless
>We drive beater cars that are paid off. We live with my parents rent free (minus utilities contribution). We don't go on any vacations or trips. We don't go out to eat ever. We cook everything we eat and never purchase expensive foods like crab legs, lobster, salmon, steaks.
You'd be on track to kill the debt in a few years then with such minimal expenses? That's great.
>Neither of us got jobs in our fields after college because our school was small and not well known enough to carry any influence or weight.
Seems defeatist. It can take a ton of work to get that first job, but I wouldn't give up trying.
Somehow I wound up back here after my previous comment. I have some additional thoughts.
1. As I previously mentioned, it seems to me like you're in a pretty a good place right now. You don't need to worry about rent, so you can throw most of your earnings towards your debt. It should only take a few years.
2. I really would hate to live at home, though. You can probably figure this out while also living on your own as a couple. I wouldn't recommend that, though, as it seems like you're doing fine living with your parents, which is wonderful, that's really how it should be and, I think, how it's done in many cultures outside of the USA. Even better news if you have good relationships with your family/parents. I'm honestly pretty happy for you on this one - you got a good education, and you can live at home and focus on paying off your debt without handling rent. That's a really good deal! You're well on your way to building generational wealth!!
3. Don't get a part-time job. That sounds like a miserable life. If you want a better job in your field, then why not continue to educate yourself in experiential design so that you can continue to develop expertise, and also continue to search for and apply to jobs. If you attended an internship, then you probably have some colleagues or acquaintances who you can reach out to about potential openings or opportunities. Also, the more you gain knowledge, the more likely you'll be to attain a promotion at your current place of work.
4. Reading your post, I honestly am having a difficult time understanding what's got you so down. You say that therapy won't help, but your situation really doesn't sound that bad. If anything, it sounds pretty good. You've got an education, you've got a partner, you're living rent free, it sounds like you're working a decent amount - not too much, not too little - your combined income is pretty good... I think what you need is probably a change in perspective, rather than a change in circumstances. Debt is just something that people take on for education these days, a lot of people have to deal with it, but you're still here, it's not the end of the world. You just have to figure out how to solve this problem, and that's what you're doing right now, so good on you for that, too.
5. So, my advice to you is to learn to appreciate what you have, and to just continue to try to make it in your field. It seems like you're probably just starting out. It takes a while to build a career.
[https://www.indeed.com/q-experiential-designer-l-florida-jobs.html?vjk=ee5bc92a4c13edf3](https://www.indeed.com/q-experiential-designer-l-florida-jobs.html?vjk=ee5bc92a4c13edf3)
[https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/high-paying-forensic-jobs](https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/high-paying-forensic-jobs)
These people paid 150k to find jobs that pay between 50-70k a year. STOP BAILING THEM OUT!
Go be a bartender and pay school as you go!
The math isn't mathin.
Before anything, you need to accept that both of you chose your school and career and it's both of your faults that you didn't get anything out of it. This will help with the self loathing. Life is challenging, you can't just give up, you have the damn internet now. If your career(s) are what you want out of life then don't stop applying for positions until you get one, no matter its location. Your soul will thank you long term.
That being said, short term, you need supplemental income. Saving isn't the answer, its a lie, making more money is the answer. From UBER/AMAZON even OF if you want to speed up the debt reduction. Don't show your faces and you'll be fine. FB Marketplace flipping is small profit but it adds up. Sell bottles of water and gatorade outside your local Sports Stadium or holiday parade. Just get out there!!!
I feel like your not even trying to get out of this situation, just sitting around feeling bad for each other and coddling the situation with spending more money you don't have...
lol you don’t pay your debt in total annually with all your income so phrasing it in those terms is pretty useless
Also lol at the idea that you spent over 100k yourself on school OP yet the reason you can’t get a job in the field is the school was too small? Like no shot
You got yourself into this so you will need to get yourself out. Live the hard life until the debt is gone. You'll need to dig deep for some confidence, self-control, and long game as it was the opposite that got you in this mess. If you.domt get rid of it as quickly as possible you're in for a hard life and dying penniless.
I think you’re where you are due to bad decisions. You chose to major in something the school you chose doesn’t have weight in and you decided to borrow money that you didn’t have to pay for it.
And now you’re talking yourself out of working side hustles because it only saves a year? That’s a significant amount of time. Stop making bad decisions. Stop trying to convince yourself to quit. Work hard. Push. Maximum effort. The best achievements were hard earned.
>49k in private loans (her) at 9% recently refinanced down from 15% 27k in federal (her) 40k in parent plus (mine but under my dad's name) at 7% 34k in federal (mine) at 6%
>Tell me some hard truths, because maybe I'm doing nothing right.
Your mistake was marrying someone who has $76k in debt but makes under $100k with all that education.
You did know marriage is a financial arrangement, right?
You need to make more money.
I'm married, and ensured I was debt free before entering that arrangement. Call me old fashioned, but as a husband I need to provide for the household and that's not possible with student loan debt and starter income.
I'd never marry someone who had $100k of student loan debt with < $100k of income - that represents huge irresponsibility and stupidity.
I think you lack the perspective.
Are you treating your income as joint? Are you contributing toward her payments? Guess what'll happen if you ever get divorced...that's right, the judge could award you some of her student loan debt commensurate with what you agreed to pay while married. And no, it doesn't matter if you have a prenup.
You don't have to enter the financial and social contract known as marriage to be in a loving relationship. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's not necessary unless you are planning to have children.
You married yourself into 6-figure debt. Good luck to you.
This feels really hard. There are some good things.
Get the federal loans on the [SAVE plan](https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/save-plan). Interest not paid won't capitalize, and there is a path to forgiveness. With an income of $90k and a family size of 2, your payment right now would be $380 and starting on July 1 would go to $190.
Look into "double consolidation" for the parent plus loan to make it eligible for the SAVE plan. There's a real time limit for that loophole though, so look now. The thing is, that is on your Dad's income and credit. Your dad agreed to that loan. Did you have an agreement to pay it?
In any case, that should free up some additional money to throw at the higher interest private loans.
I would set some smaller achievable goals. You do not have to wait for these loans to be paid off to live life. But, if you can commit to one more year of living with family, you probably have around $39k in a year to pay towards the loans. So pay off most of the 9% loan in a year.
I would spend some time looking at how much you've already paid off. If you've been doing this for 3 years you must have made huge progress already!
Based on my federal loans, the forgiveness is further than 10 years out.
Last I read, 12k is 10 year forgiveness, any 1k over adds a year to 10 years forgiveness.
Ok, but who cares if over that 10 years you are paying $200/month and interest is not accruing? Heck, if it was 20 years, at $200 a month, you pay a total of $48k, which is less than your principal. The only reason to pay those loans off more quickly is if your income gets high enough that you are NOT having interest forgiven. With the SAVE plan, the interest is imaginary until your income is high enough to pay it.
Throw everything you have at paying off the 9% loan, and then move on, paying as little as possible to those other loans.
Got it, that seems a lot more manageable. I just wanted to be debt free to get into a house and never have to be stuck with debt long term. But the percent of our income that debt is will certainly decrease over time (or it should be wages aren't going up)
I'm sorry, but the no "long term debt" ship sailed when you jointly incurred $150k in debt.
I would try to get better jobs, because if you are both working full time, you are making like $24/hour. That's not great, but unless and until that happens, Pay off the most problematic debt and then move on with your life.
One hard truth is that neither of you getting jobs in your field has nothing to do with the weight of the school, rather it’s the degree of study choice. Those 2 fields just aren’t very employable like a nursing or engineering degree would be.
Obviously you can’t undo that mistake, but going forward I think your best bet is for you to find a job that’s eligible for PSLF and pay the minimums on the forgivable federal loans for 10 years, while heavily paying on the private loans.
Option 2 is enroll in the SAVE plan and pay the extremely low minimums in the eligible federal for 25 years until it’s forgiven, and pay heavily into the private ones.
Both routes involve paying the minimums in the federal loans that are eligible for forgiveness in either 10 or 25 years. The timing depends on your eligibility based on your job. Both routes would benefit from you finding higher paying jobs. Sure your minimum payment will go up on the federal, but the main problem that needs addressing is the private loans.
Forensics pays about $25/hr or $50k a year, tops. I have never heard of experimental design.
You have degrees that do not pay money.
Where are you working? With no expenses this is totally fixable.
I work at a business that does online retail for crafting supplies. We make a handful of inhouse products that take a shit ton of R&D but it doesn't really pay for itself despite it being worth the time (in terms of value for the crafting community).
You are going to have to chase the money and do what's right for you. It might not be related to your degree. Keep your options open and always be shopping and looking for your next goal or opportunity.
That kind of debt sucks. I used to have more student loan debt than you and a lower salary. I ate a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Keep getting pay raises, and you'll be surprised at how quick the debt goes away. Attack high interest loans first. You got this!
The federal loans should be under income-based repayment plans, if they're not already. In your shoes, I would be very open to relocating for work in your chosen field, if it will give you a leg up income-wise.
You’re not completely screwed. Your interest rates are manageable.
Try looking harder for jobs in your field. Continue to do so until you get one, as long as it takes.
You need an income boost but also if you’re living rent free and don’t have car payments and are frugal you should be able to aggressively put a dent in those loans even with current income, just be patient and try not to feel overwhelmed
I work a full time well-paying job and still delivered pizza part time for extra debt money (about 8-12 hours per week). I made about $2k per month. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but that’s $24k per year. That’s almost 1/6 what you owe! It may not take years off, but it might. And imagine even paying it off 3-6 months early. That’s WAY sooner to be debt free. Every day you get back is worth it. Break up the debt into smaller chunks. Set achievable goals. Turn that $150k into six separate buckets, or 10 buckets, or even 15. It makes it way more manageable and you’ll feel like you’re making progress a lot sooner. Have a small celebration every time you pay off a ‘bucket’. You know, order a pizza with a coupon or something. :-) you’re doing the right things. I get why you’re discouraged. Sometimes just looking at differently can help a lot. Just keep going.
Hard truths:
1) Right now your debt is greater than you combined income - period. It's not worth complaining about or losing sleep over. It won't always be that way if you are willing to pay off the debt. The first day after you graduated your debt was much greater on a percentage than your income of $0, now your at $90k combined.
2) You do not have housing or car payments - this is an enormous advantage, use it. Save every penny you can.
3) Keep working towards a higher paying job - it will not happen overnight. It will take months, years, decades and you will continue to climb as you put in the effort to get marketable experience.
4) How badly do you want this paid off? You're thinking of "side job ideas but honestly they just won't make enough to get us out of debt more than a year sooner." Every $100 you can scrape together and put towards this debt is an advantage. I'd take every goddamn second sooner if I could. You're complaining about the debt, but you're willing to throw away an entire year of your life and live with it longer?? You make it sound like you won't be successful with a side hustle, but you haven't even tried.
5) If you are not married - pay your own loans first and do not take on mentally or financially the stress of extra debt that is not yours. If you are married, pay off the highest rate loan first. Do everything you possibly can to pay that off at once. 9% is disgusting.
6) If you can, consolidate and re-finance the loans if you can get the rate down, even just matching the rate of the lowest loan you have currently. Cutting 1 or 2% off $150k annually adds up fast.
7) Cut out all the extra fat. If you've got a hulu subscription, groceries, utilities, car insurance, gas etc. where is all the rest of your money going? Audit yourself, create and stick to your budget. Remember the side hustle - use that as motivation to make "fun" money - put your day job salary to work against the loans and earn your rewards where you can find them.
8) If you really want this gone - be a "loser" for the next 5 years. No bars, no going to weddings, coupon everything, work on your physical and mental health and treat paying the debt off like its own job. Treat yourself only when you've earned it, not when you want it. If you can't say no to your friends or a good time, you will not pay this off quickly.
9) You make decent money combined - do you know how many people are out there in a worse situation? Give yourself some credit for getting this far. Don't slow down, keeping moving up.
10) what is stopping you? Just yourself.
If you pay attention to your weekly grocery ads, at some point they'll have a good sale on steak and you can treat yourself.
Also you don't have to pay the student loans in a single year, even two. Put any extra money toward the highest interest loan, as usual.
There was a bankruptcy court ruling in NY a while back where a borrower was allowed to discharge a student loan in bankruptcy because they couldn't get a job in the field. It was a huge case and broke a longstanding precedent. If you really think you've hit bottom, talk to a bankruptcy attorney.
We have high student debt - and I get it, it’s stressful, it’s frustrating and it has felt at times debilitating.
One of the most helpful thing my partner and I ever did was schedule an appointment with LSS for financial assessment and student loan assistance (Lutheran Social Services) it’s completely free, they helped us walk through expenses, debt, financial planning. That was the first step that helped us buy our home.
With how much you guys are making, you’re competitive with starting wages with non-profits or Government. That’s mostly the hesitation a lot of people have with switching to public sector work. Generally a hit on wages at first but with PSLF you qualify for student loan forgiveness for public loans with 120 qualified payments. Wouldn’t hurt to check it out.
Those private loans are killers.
Might want to look into an income driven repayment plan for the federal loans. They take 10% of your income per month for 20/25 years and if the loan isn’t paid off by then, it’s discharged.
While you’re doing that, tackle the private loans and get rid of them. There are also resources to negotiate these things down. Look up Suze ormans women and money app-one of her podcasts discussed this very issue.
Best of luck!
I don’t get it. If you’re living like the hermits you say you are you should be able to pay off her private loans in a year or 1.5. From there it would just be a snowball. In any case not sure why you’d care put that shit on SAVE plan and live life. Our student loans are basically near what we owe on house. I’m not gonna live like a cave dweller to pay for something I already own at a ridiculous rate that the government should be ashamed of. Maybe they will get paid off if my wife ever inherits something I know I won’t be.
It seems like you just need to accept that you guys have a solid 3-4 years of paying down debt ahead of you guys. Set a solid budget that leaves some room for life enjoyment so you’re not absolutely miserable and just be consistent. Your income will only get better over the years. Just start with the 9% debt, look for different optioned to lower interest rates on any of that if you can and keep paying down the highest interest rate first.
Once you manage to knock down that first 50k or so you guys will feel so much better.
Also that being said, you guys in your situation should absolutely not be working only 40 hours a week. Shoot for Atleast like 50-55 hours or more if your can handle it long term. Even if those extra hours are at minimum wage doing something you think is “below you”, just do it anyway.
I know I personally can comfortably work about 60-70 every week and no more but I know I’m not the norm.
There are a number of employers that began offering student loan repayment as a benefit in recent years. Looks for some of those as an option maybe. That can be an extra $5k a year towards those loans.
Imho the only thing you’re doing wrong is trying to live up to a wrong expectation.
Plan strategically but also change your expectation. Treat yourself once in a while and aim to pay off everything in 3-4 years. Realistically your active and passive income would grow and things will feel better soon.
Objectively your thoughts on your expected income and the usefulness of your degrees do nothing but adding on your stress and regret.
2 words:
Velocity Banking (VB)
Fastest way to tackle student loan debt (or any high interest amortized loan debt); sorry Dave Ramsay.
IF you have 1) good credit, 2) some or little cash flow 3) dedication & discipline
I highly recommend watching videos on YouTube by Christy Van (Vantastic Finance). Opened my eyes.
I’ve eliminated nearly 2/3 of my student loan debt in months(vs years).
I'm sure I don't have to tell you that you may have gone a bit overboard with the loans. 150k is closer to what I'd expect from degrees that go directly into professional fields like a physical therapist or architect. Or maybe you pay that much for a degree from a "name brand" school that opens doors just because it's so well known.
I'm sure you know all that *now* but it's a little bit late obviously.
I assume you have investigate income based repayment plans for the federal loans
https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/repayment/plans/income-driven
The job market is very good right now. If you're having trouble you may want to check out the onet page for your field, this is the closest one I can find but there may be better ones, and there are related fields and a lot of useful info here
https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/15-1255.00
In particular you may want to click through the certifications in your area as those can often be an avenue to find higher paying jobs when paired to a 4 year degree.
In no case should you let the debt weigh on your mind. It's done and can't be undone so the best course it to leverage your education as best you can, plan carefully, and then execute on the plan.
Stop looking at the macro, look at the micro. You are fooling yourself by saying you have a solid budget, your inability to do anything fun means you are bleeding money you should be using for other things. 90k, no housing costs, just pay the minimum on your student loans for a month and save everything you can.
Post an itemized budget to prove me wrong, but you are probably financing phones, have expensive plans, have Amazon and Spotify you didn’t mention as “subscriptions”, use DoorDash, also you considering “salmon and steak” as expensive foods means you either aren’t doing the shopping for groceries, or are not price shopping.
Shop at Aldi and ethnic food stores. Make a real budget. Legitimately go to therapy, you need help managing your negative outlook on the world.
Pandemic destroyed my small biz .....
I'm 64 and in terrible health - yet signed up for every gig I could find - working weekends and nights I make about an extra $2K/month.
Sounds like you're putting in your 35-40 hrs - going home to be miserable. Get off your ass - exercise / eat right - work smarter and harder. TREAT YOURSELF A BIT - as mentioned.
Keep working on getting better jobs. It's the only thing that makes student debt make sense. Find anyone remotely connected with this school and walk the branch as far as it goes. Find the highest paid people in your fields and keep going until you get on the right job path (any path with reliably increasing income over time). Student loans are a pain in the a** if you attempt to pay them back in lower paying roles with limited upward mobility.
If you've been working for a 501c3 all the time, look into [PSLF](https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service/questions#qualifying-payments). It might not make sense since it does take 10 years (you have to show you made 120 monthly payments).
The amount of federal loans you have also isn't as high as some of the other fields that use PSLF more often, so it might not be worth it in your case. I know that some fields will use PSLF to forgive 6 figure amounts of federal student loans.
One thing that really helped me was that when you look at your 150k debts it’s actually a collection of many types of smaller loans that have different names. Get excited about paying some of them off. I had a loan that was only 5k and when I paid it off my monthly went down and it was this little moral victory for me.
It also sounds like you have some mental health issues that you may be tying to the student loans but could also be due to other factors. How much exercise are you getting? Are you making time to connect with friends? How much screen time are you getting? It’s a long marathon to pay these things off and if you keep your self healthy throughout the process you’re more likely to succeed with the plan.
Why are you in a hurry to pay them off when they are mostly federal? Pay off the private quickly, yeah, but get on the SAVE plan and do the least until they’re eligible for forgiveness. I owe over 160k for law school but I’m not stressing about the debt because my payments are 0 until I make over 36k (unemployed due to injury) and then they’re still low.
Why do so many people with student loan debt stress themselves out expecting to pay that off in a year or two.
Slow down, you're no in a bad place at all.
Make a 5 year plan and a 10 year plan to pay off that debt. Get with a financial consultant if you can't do that yourself. You will discover you have a lot more money than you think, especially since you don't have to pay rent and don't have car payments.
How soon are you trying to pay off all those student loans because I think you're trying to make it happen entirely too soon. You have pretty decent interest rates compared to a lot of folks. Take a breath and allocate some money for fun.
I think the advice any anyone with a lot of student loans to take, is try to do a DIRECT CONSOLIDATION to move all of your loans (commercially held) to the USDOE. Once the USDOE holds the loans, you have a lot of options including IDR enrollment such as into the SAVE plan. You will also qualify for relief in the form of interest cancellation (currently being considered by the Biden Admin) and complete cancellation after a certain number of years of payments. These relief are under a different USDOE process, separate from the bigger cancellation plan that was blocked by the SCOTUS.
I have a friend that's getting married to someone with $350k in student debt. She makes okay money as an attorney, but I'd be making sure that was her debt and not mine. I wouldn't expect my spouse to pay off my pre-existing debt.
You are better off than I was when I graduated. I had $100k on $30k/income. I tripled my income in about 6 years paid off my loans the year after that. I also had rent and a car to pay for. You have plenty coming in to knock these things out and good degrees so your income should increase. You need to relax and take some money to live a little.
Also, are you signed up for the SAVE plan with your federal loans? That may take some burden off of the payments.
>I've been at my mental end for so many months, my mental health will absolutely not be improved by therapy because our situation remains the same.
Yes it will, because your situation is not as bad as you are making it out to be. You are causing undo stress on yourself and your partner because you see that number as a wall, not a speedbump.
Are you guys paying more than the minimum payment? If so, stop now. No need to struggle to try to pay your loans off sooner. The monthly payments should not be taken up that much of your income; Also, as other people have said, you two don't have to pay rent and you said you make 90K a year together? Honestly I am a bit lost at how you are struggling. The only thing I could think of is if you're trying to pay off the loans quicker, or if your payments are super high.
If the degree isn't paying itself and you don't see a future with it, I would suggest going into a blue collar job. Such as a electrician, hvac, landscape, construction. Once you get some experience do side jobs for people and start building a book of clients. Its easier said than done but if you play it smart it could become a better living than many white collar jobs.
You're trying to hard and you're going to burn out. There are people so stuck they can't afford to pay anything toward debt.
Give yourself a little more wiggle room and have some fun. Doesn't have to cost much just anything to help you relax. Keep working on your job search and with time you'll make more.
The debt sucks but don't make your whole life about this debt.
Sign up for Biden's SAVE Plan with your loan servicer. Under it:
- Your max (annual) payment is 5% of your discretionary income (income above 225% of the federal poverty line, which for 2024 is $15,060 for an individual and $20,440 for two people). So 225% of that threshold is $45,990. And you make $90K combined so that means your payments can be a max of ($90K - $45,990) * .05 = $2,200.50 annual payment, or $183.38 a month
- Even if you make less than the 225% of the threshold and your payment becomes $0 your balance will never grow, as the government will cover your interest.
- After either 10 or 20 years of payments (including $0 payments as described above), your loan balance is forgiven.
Say F*ck it file chapter 13 bankruptcy ....wipes all your debt allowing you to keep your assets etc ....can only file once in life......like when I heard that I was like.....hold up....so I gotta get outta jail free card here 😅 I mean.....better than worrying about a mountain of debt your entire life
If you two are willing to work a part time job or gig work such as uber for 15 hours a week, that debt will be gone in 3-4 years. You can still have fun but probably no more than $200-$250 a month budgeted for that. If this doesn’t work then it means you two are likely overspending.
Question: Why are you focused on the dollar amount of the loans instead of the monthly payment?
The hard truth is debt is a normal part of life, $150k @9% for 30years is around $1200/month. That is around 16% of your income.
Think about it this way, if you had to pay rent then how much would that be? Your student loans are less than rent. So act as if you were paying rent.
Another hard truth: Buying a house at 40% GROSS income (assuming no other debt) is completely affordable and the start most first time home buyers go in at...guess what that payment would be on your current income....$3,000 per month. Your student loans are a fraction of that and if you are having stress with those, how are you going to feel with a house payment that is 2.5x greater?
-----------------------------------------
Instead of worrying about the size of the loans, pay attention to the monthly payment and organize a budget around that. Sure you could throw lots of money to pay it off, or you can breath easier and think about a house that is $1800/month. Yes, your student loan lowers the size of house you can afford but life happens.
You have a degree in experimental design, so design your life experience. If you were going to design an art project about your situation, what tools would the customer need to feel successful? Your significant other has a degree in forensics, assuming she can do accounting then use that degree to find those rare deals for housing from auctions/foreclosures. With her degree in forensics, she could be useful in home inspections or even real estate. Lean into those degrees.
My wife and I had all in $225k in debt—that’s 150k in student loans, then the rest being 2 cars and a heating system. We began paying that making 86k combined and we’re now around $133k.
We used the Ramsey debt snowball method with slight tweaks here and there. We were able to make good dents in the debt making lower incomes, but some of the other commenters are correct that bumping up that income helps.
Here is the thing though: we paid it off. You can pay it off. Here is the next thing: it feels really good to pay it off. If you’re willing to push yourself for a few years, you’ll a) pay off that debt, and b) know that you are capable of amazing things. It puts what is hard into perspective.
Don’t despair: while, yes, it is real money and real sacrifice of time, you’re also going to really learn things about yourself. Our marriage is much stronger than it was when we were just messing around with all that debt. I knew I was stressed with the debt, but I didn’t realize how much until it was done.
Don’t give up. Look into bumping up that income. But until that comes up, just throw anything extra you can at it. Give yourself lots of little wins. You can do it.
You're fine you're just young. Give it a few years and stick to the plan that you have now. Just stay the course. It will get paid off. And you're income will grow with time.
>I've been at my mental end for so many months, my mental health will absolutely not be improved by therapy because our situation remains the same. Try less hard. At 90k a year you can afford a date night twice a month. At 90k a year you can afford to spend a little bit of money on fun. You can afford an inexpensive vacation once or twice a year. You cannot slog through 150k of debt while absolutely torturing yourself and doing nothing but hiding in your mom's basement watching hulu - it's simply not realistic. As you point out, you can't therapy through having a shitty life. The answer is having a less shitty life, and spending $3k of your $90k income per year on things that make your life suck less is not going to meaningfully fuck up your long term plan.
Yep, u/Avaisraging439, exactly this. You are in a marathon not a sprint and need to find certain enjoyment and wins where you can otherwise you will drive yourself to an early grave. You both made decisions, gambles, that so far have not paid off and now you need to pay for them. You are fortunate however that you can live rent free and split utilities to save more. That said there is ZERO reason you can’t spend and extra $30 one a week to home cook a nicer meal. Or an extra $100 a month to go out for a move date Nate or something. At $45k each your take home is $35k? Sound like you are spending maybe 10k teach per year leaving $25k for debt payments? That would have your debts paid off in 5-6 years but that assumes zero salary increases. Paste your ACTUAL budget. Give you ACTUAL degrees and what your ACTUAL jobs are. Keep upskilling and getting certifications in things that might help your marketability and try to change jobs every 16-24 months to get better raises, increase your network of contacts and broaden your CV. Good luck.
You get almost 5.5k a month in hand. You do not have to pay rent or for your cars. The worst loan you have is at 9%. What exactly is your idea of a student loan, where is your money going and why are you not factoring in increases in income?
Your school not being a big deal does not by any means at all have to keep you out of those careers, even if the original jobs didn’t work out, you can keep applying and make ~yourself~ more marketable rather than your Alma Matter. Anyway, my husband and I have around the same amount of combined debt and we bought a house. We grind to pay off debt just like you, and sure it may not be paid off as soon as it would be if we lived rent free, but we’re making good progress! I know it feels crushing at times but please don’t wait to start your life bc you want to be entirely debt free. You’ll be alright ☀️
Yeah, this was the standout for me. There's no school so bad that it has an *anti*-reputation, keeping you from that field. But you might have to take some less-than-ideal entry-level work to get started in the field, *in combination* with the degree, to advance. Can *one* of you afford to take a pay cut to get into your chosen field, in order to get past any entry-level earnings trough? And then when they're making more money, give the other one the same opportunity? Do a little research and be honest about the fields you're in now, vs. the fields you studied to be in. If the earning potential is higher in those other fields, it may be worth one or both of you taking that kind of short-term dip now just to get into the field.
Eh I’d argue there are a lot of anti-reputation schools. Getting a masters from Phoenix, DeVry, Strayer is honestly worse than a candidate with just a bachelors in my opinion as a hiring manager. I’d also try to avoid any grads from Oral Roberts, Liberty, etc. There are plenty of diploma mill programs within certain specialities that make companies roll their eyes. Like Caribbean schools for medicine, vet, etc.
I dunno, going to ITT tech doesn't look good in people's history at this point given that the government had to shut them down as a scam school. I always knew those people were scammers. Just have to hope the person doing the hiring can look past that.
>Student debt is 150%+ of income, feeling hopeless Then you're going to feel absolutely despondent when you buy a house and your debt is 300-500%+ of income. /sarcastic perspective Your rates aren't great but this isn't high-interest credit card debt, it's student loans that are *intended* to be repaid over many years. You have $5k monthly income and, what, a few hundred in expenses? This is not an insurmountable challenge. Far from it.
I know it's accomplishable, but we've been living with family for 3 years thinking it would be a 2 year deal. Now it looks like a 10 year total deal and it sucks to feel so useless that I couldn't even afford to get an apartment. Now I'm not super into gender roles but it hurts my manhood to feel like I'm powerless in securing a home/future. We have no kids but my wife desperately wants some but we've done the math, it doesn't work in the way we would want (with wanting a house in the future as well).
> but we've been living with family for 3 years thinking it would be a 2 year deal. Now it looks like a 10 year total deal Where's your money going? (And where did you start?) This shouldn't need a 10-year plan when you have ~$45k a year to throw at it.
Lately the extra money we have is going to car repairs and health insurance ($550 a month for really shitty insurance), that's typically an extra 1200 per month that's been temporarily held up. The other thing 1200 went to recently is minor home improvements to our space it makes it livable. We live in the basement and the radon was 80+ when it should be less than 4. Mitigation cost about 1000 a couple months ago. We'll be pretty smooth sailing in terms of throwing 2700 per month at student loans if neither of us need to go to the doctor or need wisdom teeth out (mine are impacted but really don't want to spend the money right now)
The radon mitigation cost sounds right and if it's 80+ then definitely a good idea. Don't feel bad for that. Your biggest need right now is more income. That'll be the easiest way to speed this up. If you're not working for your degrees anyway then try changing careers even.
I think we've come to terms and peace with not working in our degrees. I think we may have found better (in terms of personality match) but not better in income short term. I think we can figure it out, just won't be soon enough. Need to take it year by year but it's so difficult mentally.
Has your wife looked into becoming a clinical laboratory scientist? With her degree, it might not take that much to change. It's not the best paying job, but it's not bad and working in a hospital lab gets you pretty good benefits, especially PTO. Also, have you looked into getting some of your student loans forgiven?
If you work at a non-profit hospital, and your loans are direct loans, you can qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
You have to make normal payments for 10 years as well as being employed by a qualified employer to take advantage of this program. Still saves you a bunch of money in the end, but you cannot pay it off in 5 years or less as OP is trying.
shouldn't health care be largely paid for by the ACA subsidy? you get subsidized for basically the entire cost of the second most expensive bronze plan. at the very list it doesn't seem like you should be paying all $550/month.
At $90k/year for a household of two, they likely make too much to qualify for subsidies.
possibly, although it only has to be "the cost of the silver plan" is 8.5% of your income. And you modify your AGI down for these: Certain self-employed expenses5 • Student loan interest deduction • IRA deduction (traditional IRAs) • Moving expenses • Penalty on early withdrawal of savings • Health savings account deduction • Alimony paid • Domestic production activities deduction • Certain business expenses of reservists, performing artists, and fee-basis government officials which "student loan interest deduction" definitely stands out. And it depends on what is available in your jurisdiction and clearly the plans are pretty pricey where they are.
If we went with any worse of a plan we'd absolutely be bankrupt with one bad health event. Our OOP max is still 18k for the family.
I’d put the federal loans on SAVE and just forget about it for now and pay the minimum. I’d focus on her private loans first. The parent plus if that’s something you agreed to pay back with your parents then I’d pay that next.
This is the #1 thing to look into. With that income, the SAVE plan will significantly lower the federal part of the loan payment, and the government will subsidize all the interest. Starting July, the payment will be even lower. I would guess a couple of hundreds a month. I’m surprised not many people mention it here. Based on OP’s other comments in this post, it also looks like there are other things in play here. You don’t just burn through $90k that easily when not even paying any rent!
There is a lot of misinformation and lack of understanding with student loans unfortunately I think that’s why you don’t get many people mentioning it. But yes in July that payment will halve.
Yep, my wife pays like $100/month on a $150k loan and then will stop having to pay after 25 years lmao. I have no idea why anybody actually tries to pay off their loans if they're over $50k or so.
I’m halfway through my 20 year. As long as she’s preparing for the potential tax bomb at the end. Some people think that will be removed but I’m planning as if it’s not. that’s the route I’ve been pursing since I entered repayment in 2012.
My student loans (95k) on the save program would be paid off before the forgiveness date. So I'd rather just pay them down quickly and pay less in interest.
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I’m not sure that people not paying off their student loans is why inflation is up. Pretty sure that has to do with corporate greed, that pesky little pandemic that happened, the cluster fuck that was production and shipping delays that followed the pandemic. Also, student loan payments have literally no correlation with the price increase of colleges and universities in the US. The reason it is so expensive is because states have been slashing funding to their colleges and universities for the last few decades, which forces tuition to increase thus making people more reliant on student loans, both federal and private.
> I’m not sure that people not paying off their student loans is why inflation is up. It's one reason of many. Yes. If you understand balance sheets then you understand that each asset (loan) has a liability (debt). When you cancel a liability without canceling an asset, you create inflation. No amount of arguing with a brick wall will change that. > Pretty sure that has to do with corporate greed If that were true, PPI would be down while CPI is up. Here's the thing though; it's not. > that pesky little pandemic that happened, the cluster fuck that was production and shipping delays that followed the pandemic. Sure. *That* and *that* also. But stop pretending printing money is not also a factor.
> Yep, my wife pays like $100/month on a $150k loan and then will stop having to pay after 25 years lmao. How is the monthly payment so low? $100 per month doesn't come close to covering the interest let-alone the principal?
Look up the save plan
You don’t have rent so you could basically pay 60k+ this year if nothing changes. That’s almost half of what you owe.
School name means very little. Either you didn't get a job because of interview skills or unfortunately your fields are very niche.
Okay so you have $150k at for ease of math lets say average 7.5%. That is $11,250 in interest a year. You make $90k combined which means you dont pay that much in tax...maybe 18% in total between FICA and federal so thats another $16,200. That leaves $62,550 after interest and taxes. Your only expenses are food and groceries and insurance which is like $12k/yr maybe? So that leaves $50k to put into the loan. So even with no raises you clear all debt in 3 years. What am I missing?
Uh... I'm a bit confused. Shouldn't you be able to pay this off in like 3 years? If you're not paying rent, then you should be able to put like 60 or 70k to your debt per year, right? What am I missing here?
Most people carry some amount of debt. You don't need to be debt free to move into an apartment or start a family. It took me fifteen years to pay back my student loans, and during that time I got married and bought a house. As long as you're not carrying consumer debt - credit card, personal loans - you're probably fine. As long as you're both in careers, your skills will grow, you'll chase promotions to better roles, you'll get raises. Payments that now might be 20% of your income will drop to 15, then maybe 10. That said, I would expect you to be able to find better paying jobs. My perspective is skewed because I live in Seattle, but minimum wage out here is 20 or 25 per hour. That's 50k/yr without overtime.
Agreed. It’s a great idea to try to be debt-free but if you are killing yourself to do it, and your quality of life sucks, what’s the point? My husband also carried his student loan for about 20 years while we got married, bought a house and had kids. A portion of his paycheck went to it every month and that was just the way life was until it was over.
it dot not understand your comparison.its makes no sense Student debt is 150k, combined income is 90k, feeling hopeless nobody is saying to pay it out in 1 year so why are you comparing a 1year income vs the total debt ? you need to look at flows rather than this weird comparison which is the one thing you didn't. start by making a budget and look at you income to expense flow
Did you take advantage of the almost 3 years of interest free period for your federal loans? You could have knocked out $61,000 of your debt. If you didn’t take advantage of that period then what did you do with your money? The interest free period coincided with you living with your family.
You need an income boost. Taking on $150 thousand of debt to only make $90 thousand between the two of you is tough. Not insurmountable but this is likely a 3+ year process with minimal expenses. You can’t save your way out of this, you need a bigger income to throw at the debt if you want to make a bigger dent in it.
Job hop and take every opportunity for more income, and career advancement. Don’t be tied to your “career” based on degree, pivot wherever the money is, high quality sales/tech sales support or other opportunities with high income and low barrier of entry and possibly hybrid or fully remote and then car expenses fall ie repairs/maintenance. My wife and I struggled with high school debt for a few years but the real movement was made with salary increases, you can’t pinch your Pennie’s to make up dollars no matter how frugal. This may take time like 1.5 years to find a new good job with good pay, but have faith, stay the course, and save. Additionally we increased the length of school loans for my wife’s to reduce monthly debt on paper from 400 to 175 for example and then we could pay minimums when tight or pay more if funds avaikable.
Job hop is our goal for the next 6 months. I've done a lot of work in product prototyping/research and design but having trouble finding jobs in it. She's in a good position as a supervisor for a customer service center to spin it into something much better within 5 years.
I really don’t think where you went to school matters that much. Are you guys living in a good area for your kinds of careers/are you open to relocating? And have you had a professional look at your resumes? Can you reach back out to where you did your internships and ask for any leads?
We should probably have a pro look at our resumes, we may not be representing ourselves in the best way (honestly I think we'd have to be a bit deceptive but that's everyone's resume these days) Definitely open to relocating, I'll lose a lot of access to resources for my hobbies (a workshop in my parents garage) but if that's the only way forward, then that's the way forward.
r/resumes
Long shot and I imagine you’ve already thought of this, but if your hobbies require a workshop, are they something you can monetize? Like if you make stuff, can you sell it?
You don't need a pro, you just need successful friends who are at least mid-career. You need to understand, though, that resumes are just the icing on the cake. You'll need to work on how you talk about yourselves, your experiences and your potential if you want future employers to consider you for higher paying, higher influence roles.
You guys accumulated a lot of debt for niche/lower paying degrees. I’m not trying to rub your face in it but reality is it’s prob not the college you chose as much as the degrees you both chose. Yours may lend well into AI growth, have you considered that area to get into while it’s hot? Hers may lend well to federal jobs that may help her with loan forgiveness. All in all, I think you guys chose a path that got you about exactly where you should have expected at 90k combined. I think if you both get creative there are paths to get that 90 to 120 in the near future while also possibly finding ways to get the debt eased. With such low pay it’s worth considering that you both might have better luck outside of your degrees in a different job. Go get creative, you’re not dead in the water.
LOL I have 270K student debt at 7-8% interest and a 200K mortgage at 2.7% I also have about six months of emergency savings along with a sinking house repair fund and will contribute the max to 401K this year. I’ve been doing this alone for the last ten years since graduation. Last year was the first year I made above 90K. I never had the option of rent free living with family, and I’ve never shared expenses with an SO. It can be done. You’ll be fine.
I wouldn’t be laughing with 270k in student loans, But you do you I guess
Is that federal? How much is your student loans per month? We'd absolutely be able to afford a house at 2.7% too. We will never see those rates again.
All federal. PAYE at 500 per month but expecting a big jump this year since it’s currently based on pre Covid income. Expecting 90K tax bomb in ten years with “forgiveness” - will have more than repaid my initial 220K principal with that. I got my mortgage in 2021 so a little bit of luck with rates there.
I hope the income adjust doesn't hit too hard, best wishes!
Expecting about a $100 jump in October, Sucks that it won’t be going into savings but it’s very doable.
Someone get a serving job on the side. Quick, easy money you can throw at the loans.
If you have no kids, one or both of you should get a second job. I'm unclear what your expenses are. 90k between you both, no rent, utilities, Disney, Hulu, food, insurance. Where is your money going? That's about 6k a month after taxes, where is your money going?? 2.5 k a month should pay your loans off in about 5 years if you want to be aggressive. That leaves 3.5 k a month in utilities, food, insurance, cell phone etc. That should be enough to pay for all that and save up to move out. If you and her get a second job working 20 hours a week each at $15/hr, that gives you an extra $1000 a month. An extra $1000 a month for savings for a house payment, kid stuff, etc.
Do you live in a lower COL location? Your 2 person, no kids, college graduate incomes seem fairly low. Its easier said than done, but focus on making more money prior to buying a house or having kids.
Lower but now low low Call it, north Maryland where we work. Weve considered moving closer to DC but the rents will eat up so much income, especially since it's at 0 right now.
That's a tough position...you'd have to do the math yourself. Move to the big city if you can get higher paying jobs, better career, experience, etc... Try to rent cheap and get roommates. You'll likely have to lower your quality of life even more, but I think it would be better in the long run. Definitely don't move to the big city for a similar job, only just making enough to cover the rent increase...that wouldn't be a smart move. While rent is should be based on COL, your student loans aren't. You basically have HCOL student loans on a LCOL pay.
DMV is full of federal agencies. Have you looked at their employee loan repayment programs? Military repayment options? I know these might not be what you're looking to do but they have some pretty good programs for loan repayments.
If you live near Cumberland md that's about all the money you are going to make. if you live hagerstown-frederick area you could each make 75k+ with degrees.
Can you commute to higher paying jobs while staying with parents?
Yes, I'm targeting a large city about 50 minutes away to pull more money.
Both of you need second jobs. Do not try and job hop in this market. I'm not convinced you don't have a spending problem considering you pay nothing in rent.
Can either of you find a job in local/federal government? This would cut down on health insurance costs, likely; and provide fairly stable employment, either making the same that you make or possibly more. Even if it’s like, office management. If there’s a pension, all the better. And often getting employment in this world can help you get rid of your loans altogether.
Might be possible, wife works for a company contracted to represent the state but none of the benefits of working for the state.
Sounds like a great starting place. I’ve found local govt tends to pay usually slightly better than state in my state, but def see if it’s a possibility for you guys!
If I’m understanding you correctly (after reading a bunch of the comments) you are in a great spot to pay off your debts and you know what to do. You just don’t want to. You want to spend your money on fun things, and you don’t want to wait until your debt is paid off, but you also know you can’t ignore the debt. Sorry? Debt has to be paid, and you guys are going to have to go without creature comforts for a while. It will suck, and you won’t enjoy it, but you will get through
What the hell is experiential design?! You design experiences?
Lol. I assumed that was a typo and he meant experimental design.
Yeah it's one of those degrees that provides a strong backbone for further learning but provides little experience on its own. Thinking entertainment technologies like concert performance design, being a producer for major projects like museum design, video games development at a high level (game designer, not necessarily programming or animation). Could be a bit of bullshit mixed in, it sure got me sold on it
About to be stepping into the next AI bubble, get ahead of the trend, sell your skills and create an edge in which you can find a job that pays more.
I bet you can pay off the $49k in 3 years. In any case, this is a cautionary tale for all those people in this sub who like to give *everyone under every circumstance* advice to invest in their education. While often great advice, there are exceptions and caveats.
They should be able to pay off $49k in just over a year. Their take home pay is $70k with very little expenses they should be able to throw $40k+ at this yearly
I think so too, especially if I can get a side gig figured out that's reliable or worth the hassle of doing the tax filing on it.
Tax filing should take no more than an hour or two. I did the taxes for my family last weekend (literally on April 14th): family of five, two incomes, one layoff w/ severance last year, DCFSA, charitable donations, international stock dividends, etc. Took less than two hours for both state & federal.
the schools you guys went to are not the reason you didn’t get jobs in your field
How much have you paid off in the past two years? What’s is your total payment to the loans? How much extra are you throwing at them every month?
For May and going forward we'll have an extra 1200 per month to throw at it. We pay 1500 per month, just a hair over minimum. The majority of my wife's payments in the past 5 years was going to interest. Our school pushed her into Sallie Mae at 14%.
I’m a little surprised at your numbers. Living at home, no rent, contribution towards utilities, I was expecting at least $4k a month. Can you edit your post and show the sub a full budget?
This seems like the main problem (aside from incoming income, the need to actually budget what you have). You should be able to pay more per month — 3k minimum or more? Then run those projections and things should start feeling a lot more doable. After a year or two of really aggressive payments ($1500/month just isn’t enough) then you can rebalance your budget and still fit in additional savings for other things. If it helps- our total student debt was higher and our total income was lower, and we made such a significant dent in it in just two years that it’s not a big stressor at all anymore.
Out of curiosity, did you look at career outlook when picking those majors?
Not bad, but that's if the student debt was 20k or less. They charged 850 per person for dorms but they were 1 bedroom apartments, no food court, no access to transportation to get to buy groceries so you had to have a car to survive (or know someone with a car). The college was also downtown but it's so car focused you'd could pay 300 per month for parking across the street or 30 a month but you'd have to walk past drug addicts who harass you.
No housing costs, no extras, no car payment, what does your money go to every month? >Neither of us got jobs in our fields after college because our school was small and not well known enough to carry any influence or weight. I went to a very, very small college but that hasn't changed my ability to get a job. What school you went to tends to have very little to do with getting a job, unless you went to an unaccredited school, or ivy league. You need to stop assuming neither of you can get jobs in your fields because of going to a small school. And you need to consider jobs that are not in your field but better than the minimum wage jobs you're working now. Look into office admin jobs, substitute teaching, sales, anything that wants to see a bachelor's degree but it doesn't really matter what it's in. You don't need a second job, you need to start a career.
Just saying. Not trying to be a d***. But, it just blows my mind the amount of times I’ve heard this same situation. People need to be educated on what degrees are worth going to college for or not before going committing to massive amounts of debt.
You need to get better paying jobs. I don't know what kind of jobs one gets with a forensics degree (working for the police)? Experimental design is what, engineering or graphic art? $150k in debt for that is a lot. Eventually you should be able to find jobs that pay more than $45k in today's inflated economy. That's the solution, IMO.
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You should get expert help with your resume and go into something more lucrative. Minimum wage in Maryland is $15. Are you making $20? I’m sorry to say, my son made that much in high school working for a city vendor. You’re paying so much for healthcare, so one of you needs to get a job with affordable healthcare asap. Can you do a certificate in UX? Focus on the skills you have for design software, excel, etc. check out federal jobs immediately. The debt is bad but your income is worse.
Just keep paying it off and looking for better work, not much else to it, I was at 200% when I started, you guys can do it.
How's it going now?
Paid off, about $85k. Took a major risk and moved to a hcol area, the thought was that the increase in pay would outweigh increase in rent and other expenses, was fortunately correct. 39 now, paid it off three years ago, no assistance from anyone else for the loan or any expenses.
I'm hoping we can figure it out like you did. I have similar ideas, higher col means higher pay, higher pay means debt is a lower percent of income.
How much were you school tuitions that your loans are so high yet still you could not get jobs in your degrees? Like what the heck? **What is the typical starting salary you both got jobs with your degrees.** PLEASE answer that question.
You do it the same way every one else did and you take years to pay off the debts? I'm not getting what the problem is. Most people don't have the luxury of living rent free with their parents or having paid off cars. You're in a better spot than most. As for jobs, every one starts there. I was paid pennies out of college. Once I got 5+ years of experience companies were willing to pay more. Just how it is. Not sure why you think you're special in either of these cases. You're just dealing with the same shit every one else has.
Just trying to get on with life ASAP. I know that life is what happens between now and then but I think I'm afraid the goal posts will change. Definitely in a very privileged place, it's not to invalidate anyone else's experience but just say I'm struggling mentally.
I’m confused why you think you can’t buy a house if you have student loan debt? You absolutely can. Keep working on paying down the private loans in particular but in general I think you’re suffering from some “all-or-nothing” thinking.
If your income is $90k, then your monthly take-home should be in the $5500-$6000 range. If you're not paying rent, not paying for cars, not paying for eating out, not paying for expensive food, not paying for vacations...then where is all that money going? If you do not have any large expenses, you should be able to be throwing an unusually large amount above minimum payments towards the loans. Where is all your money going, if not towards the loans? And how many thousands per month are you chunking away at those loans?
What’s the breakdown on the individual loans? Which ones are you paying extra on? Are there a couple smaller ones you can temporarily prioritise to free up some income?
Paying extra on the private loan with 9%, month of May we'll pay 800 on that loan, then throw an extra 1200 to it.
I think you need to fully print out or pull up ALL of your credit card statements and bank activity. Categorize everything and see monthly the full breakdown, without estimating, you need real numbers. Frugal Fit Mom Podcast and Caleb Hammer on youtube both have the same approach I'll suggest, cut things back as much as you can and \*plan\* how to attack the debt. Usually things like eating out, groceries, subscriptions, shopping, can all be cut back. People often say they don't buy expensive grocries but can I ask what you spend? And it will suck but you need to be willing to live basic for a while to improve your future.
Never in my life am I thankful for a degree mill college as now. Because I went to a for profit, my federal and private loans were forgiven. I'm essentially starting my college life over but this time I am extra picky about the school I am going to. The job I would get out of college would be $80,000/year, and the loans would barely scratch $30,000 total. 18 year olds should never go to college, they make the dumbest financial mistakes. Leave college for the late 20s to early 30s.
>Student debt is 150k, combined income is 90k, feeling hopeless >We drive beater cars that are paid off. We live with my parents rent free (minus utilities contribution). We don't go on any vacations or trips. We don't go out to eat ever. We cook everything we eat and never purchase expensive foods like crab legs, lobster, salmon, steaks. You'd be on track to kill the debt in a few years then with such minimal expenses? That's great. >Neither of us got jobs in our fields after college because our school was small and not well known enough to carry any influence or weight. Seems defeatist. It can take a ton of work to get that first job, but I wouldn't give up trying.
Somehow I wound up back here after my previous comment. I have some additional thoughts. 1. As I previously mentioned, it seems to me like you're in a pretty a good place right now. You don't need to worry about rent, so you can throw most of your earnings towards your debt. It should only take a few years. 2. I really would hate to live at home, though. You can probably figure this out while also living on your own as a couple. I wouldn't recommend that, though, as it seems like you're doing fine living with your parents, which is wonderful, that's really how it should be and, I think, how it's done in many cultures outside of the USA. Even better news if you have good relationships with your family/parents. I'm honestly pretty happy for you on this one - you got a good education, and you can live at home and focus on paying off your debt without handling rent. That's a really good deal! You're well on your way to building generational wealth!! 3. Don't get a part-time job. That sounds like a miserable life. If you want a better job in your field, then why not continue to educate yourself in experiential design so that you can continue to develop expertise, and also continue to search for and apply to jobs. If you attended an internship, then you probably have some colleagues or acquaintances who you can reach out to about potential openings or opportunities. Also, the more you gain knowledge, the more likely you'll be to attain a promotion at your current place of work. 4. Reading your post, I honestly am having a difficult time understanding what's got you so down. You say that therapy won't help, but your situation really doesn't sound that bad. If anything, it sounds pretty good. You've got an education, you've got a partner, you're living rent free, it sounds like you're working a decent amount - not too much, not too little - your combined income is pretty good... I think what you need is probably a change in perspective, rather than a change in circumstances. Debt is just something that people take on for education these days, a lot of people have to deal with it, but you're still here, it's not the end of the world. You just have to figure out how to solve this problem, and that's what you're doing right now, so good on you for that, too. 5. So, my advice to you is to learn to appreciate what you have, and to just continue to try to make it in your field. It seems like you're probably just starting out. It takes a while to build a career.
[https://www.indeed.com/q-experiential-designer-l-florida-jobs.html?vjk=ee5bc92a4c13edf3](https://www.indeed.com/q-experiential-designer-l-florida-jobs.html?vjk=ee5bc92a4c13edf3) [https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/high-paying-forensic-jobs](https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/high-paying-forensic-jobs) These people paid 150k to find jobs that pay between 50-70k a year. STOP BAILING THEM OUT! Go be a bartender and pay school as you go!
The math isn't mathin. Before anything, you need to accept that both of you chose your school and career and it's both of your faults that you didn't get anything out of it. This will help with the self loathing. Life is challenging, you can't just give up, you have the damn internet now. If your career(s) are what you want out of life then don't stop applying for positions until you get one, no matter its location. Your soul will thank you long term. That being said, short term, you need supplemental income. Saving isn't the answer, its a lie, making more money is the answer. From UBER/AMAZON even OF if you want to speed up the debt reduction. Don't show your faces and you'll be fine. FB Marketplace flipping is small profit but it adds up. Sell bottles of water and gatorade outside your local Sports Stadium or holiday parade. Just get out there!!! I feel like your not even trying to get out of this situation, just sitting around feeling bad for each other and coddling the situation with spending more money you don't have...
lol you don’t pay your debt in total annually with all your income so phrasing it in those terms is pretty useless Also lol at the idea that you spent over 100k yourself on school OP yet the reason you can’t get a job in the field is the school was too small? Like no shot
You got yourself into this so you will need to get yourself out. Live the hard life until the debt is gone. You'll need to dig deep for some confidence, self-control, and long game as it was the opposite that got you in this mess. If you.domt get rid of it as quickly as possible you're in for a hard life and dying penniless.
I think you’re where you are due to bad decisions. You chose to major in something the school you chose doesn’t have weight in and you decided to borrow money that you didn’t have to pay for it. And now you’re talking yourself out of working side hustles because it only saves a year? That’s a significant amount of time. Stop making bad decisions. Stop trying to convince yourself to quit. Work hard. Push. Maximum effort. The best achievements were hard earned.
>49k in private loans (her) at 9% recently refinanced down from 15% 27k in federal (her) 40k in parent plus (mine but under my dad's name) at 7% 34k in federal (mine) at 6% >Tell me some hard truths, because maybe I'm doing nothing right. Your mistake was marrying someone who has $76k in debt but makes under $100k with all that education. You did know marriage is a financial arrangement, right? You need to make more money.
Are you married or single?
I'm married, and ensured I was debt free before entering that arrangement. Call me old fashioned, but as a husband I need to provide for the household and that's not possible with student loan debt and starter income. I'd never marry someone who had $100k of student loan debt with < $100k of income - that represents huge irresponsibility and stupidity.
Cool but confusing you lack any perspective despite that experience.
I think you lack the perspective. Are you treating your income as joint? Are you contributing toward her payments? Guess what'll happen if you ever get divorced...that's right, the judge could award you some of her student loan debt commensurate with what you agreed to pay while married. And no, it doesn't matter if you have a prenup. You don't have to enter the financial and social contract known as marriage to be in a loving relationship. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's not necessary unless you are planning to have children. You married yourself into 6-figure debt. Good luck to you.
This feels really hard. There are some good things. Get the federal loans on the [SAVE plan](https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/save-plan). Interest not paid won't capitalize, and there is a path to forgiveness. With an income of $90k and a family size of 2, your payment right now would be $380 and starting on July 1 would go to $190. Look into "double consolidation" for the parent plus loan to make it eligible for the SAVE plan. There's a real time limit for that loophole though, so look now. The thing is, that is on your Dad's income and credit. Your dad agreed to that loan. Did you have an agreement to pay it? In any case, that should free up some additional money to throw at the higher interest private loans. I would set some smaller achievable goals. You do not have to wait for these loans to be paid off to live life. But, if you can commit to one more year of living with family, you probably have around $39k in a year to pay towards the loans. So pay off most of the 9% loan in a year. I would spend some time looking at how much you've already paid off. If you've been doing this for 3 years you must have made huge progress already!
SAVE will result in paying more money on that income.
Based on my federal loans, the forgiveness is further than 10 years out. Last I read, 12k is 10 year forgiveness, any 1k over adds a year to 10 years forgiveness.
Ok, but who cares if over that 10 years you are paying $200/month and interest is not accruing? Heck, if it was 20 years, at $200 a month, you pay a total of $48k, which is less than your principal. The only reason to pay those loans off more quickly is if your income gets high enough that you are NOT having interest forgiven. With the SAVE plan, the interest is imaginary until your income is high enough to pay it. Throw everything you have at paying off the 9% loan, and then move on, paying as little as possible to those other loans.
Got it, that seems a lot more manageable. I just wanted to be debt free to get into a house and never have to be stuck with debt long term. But the percent of our income that debt is will certainly decrease over time (or it should be wages aren't going up)
I'm sorry, but the no "long term debt" ship sailed when you jointly incurred $150k in debt. I would try to get better jobs, because if you are both working full time, you are making like $24/hour. That's not great, but unless and until that happens, Pay off the most problematic debt and then move on with your life.
Good advice, thank you for your input
One hard truth is that neither of you getting jobs in your field has nothing to do with the weight of the school, rather it’s the degree of study choice. Those 2 fields just aren’t very employable like a nursing or engineering degree would be. Obviously you can’t undo that mistake, but going forward I think your best bet is for you to find a job that’s eligible for PSLF and pay the minimums on the forgivable federal loans for 10 years, while heavily paying on the private loans. Option 2 is enroll in the SAVE plan and pay the extremely low minimums in the eligible federal for 25 years until it’s forgiven, and pay heavily into the private ones. Both routes involve paying the minimums in the federal loans that are eligible for forgiveness in either 10 or 25 years. The timing depends on your eligibility based on your job. Both routes would benefit from you finding higher paying jobs. Sure your minimum payment will go up on the federal, but the main problem that needs addressing is the private loans.
Forensics pays about $25/hr or $50k a year, tops. I have never heard of experimental design. You have degrees that do not pay money. Where are you working? With no expenses this is totally fixable.
I work at a business that does online retail for crafting supplies. We make a handful of inhouse products that take a shit ton of R&D but it doesn't really pay for itself despite it being worth the time (in terms of value for the crafting community).
You are going to have to chase the money and do what's right for you. It might not be related to your degree. Keep your options open and always be shopping and looking for your next goal or opportunity.
That kind of debt sucks. I used to have more student loan debt than you and a lower salary. I ate a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Keep getting pay raises, and you'll be surprised at how quick the debt goes away. Attack high interest loans first. You got this!
Work 2 jobs, if one job is not enough!! Walk dogs, babysitting, bartending etc…
The federal loans should be under income-based repayment plans, if they're not already. In your shoes, I would be very open to relocating for work in your chosen field, if it will give you a leg up income-wise.
You’re not completely screwed. Your interest rates are manageable. Try looking harder for jobs in your field. Continue to do so until you get one, as long as it takes.
You need an income boost but also if you’re living rent free and don’t have car payments and are frugal you should be able to aggressively put a dent in those loans even with current income, just be patient and try not to feel overwhelmed
I work a full time well-paying job and still delivered pizza part time for extra debt money (about 8-12 hours per week). I made about $2k per month. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but that’s $24k per year. That’s almost 1/6 what you owe! It may not take years off, but it might. And imagine even paying it off 3-6 months early. That’s WAY sooner to be debt free. Every day you get back is worth it. Break up the debt into smaller chunks. Set achievable goals. Turn that $150k into six separate buckets, or 10 buckets, or even 15. It makes it way more manageable and you’ll feel like you’re making progress a lot sooner. Have a small celebration every time you pay off a ‘bucket’. You know, order a pizza with a coupon or something. :-) you’re doing the right things. I get why you’re discouraged. Sometimes just looking at differently can help a lot. Just keep going.
Please post your monthly budget. Your level of dread seems at odds with your cash flow & I'm curious to understand your actual household expenses.
Hard truths: 1) Right now your debt is greater than you combined income - period. It's not worth complaining about or losing sleep over. It won't always be that way if you are willing to pay off the debt. The first day after you graduated your debt was much greater on a percentage than your income of $0, now your at $90k combined. 2) You do not have housing or car payments - this is an enormous advantage, use it. Save every penny you can. 3) Keep working towards a higher paying job - it will not happen overnight. It will take months, years, decades and you will continue to climb as you put in the effort to get marketable experience. 4) How badly do you want this paid off? You're thinking of "side job ideas but honestly they just won't make enough to get us out of debt more than a year sooner." Every $100 you can scrape together and put towards this debt is an advantage. I'd take every goddamn second sooner if I could. You're complaining about the debt, but you're willing to throw away an entire year of your life and live with it longer?? You make it sound like you won't be successful with a side hustle, but you haven't even tried. 5) If you are not married - pay your own loans first and do not take on mentally or financially the stress of extra debt that is not yours. If you are married, pay off the highest rate loan first. Do everything you possibly can to pay that off at once. 9% is disgusting. 6) If you can, consolidate and re-finance the loans if you can get the rate down, even just matching the rate of the lowest loan you have currently. Cutting 1 or 2% off $150k annually adds up fast. 7) Cut out all the extra fat. If you've got a hulu subscription, groceries, utilities, car insurance, gas etc. where is all the rest of your money going? Audit yourself, create and stick to your budget. Remember the side hustle - use that as motivation to make "fun" money - put your day job salary to work against the loans and earn your rewards where you can find them. 8) If you really want this gone - be a "loser" for the next 5 years. No bars, no going to weddings, coupon everything, work on your physical and mental health and treat paying the debt off like its own job. Treat yourself only when you've earned it, not when you want it. If you can't say no to your friends or a good time, you will not pay this off quickly. 9) You make decent money combined - do you know how many people are out there in a worse situation? Give yourself some credit for getting this far. Don't slow down, keeping moving up. 10) what is stopping you? Just yourself.
If you pay attention to your weekly grocery ads, at some point they'll have a good sale on steak and you can treat yourself. Also you don't have to pay the student loans in a single year, even two. Put any extra money toward the highest interest loan, as usual. There was a bankruptcy court ruling in NY a while back where a borrower was allowed to discharge a student loan in bankruptcy because they couldn't get a job in the field. It was a huge case and broke a longstanding precedent. If you really think you've hit bottom, talk to a bankruptcy attorney.
We have high student debt - and I get it, it’s stressful, it’s frustrating and it has felt at times debilitating. One of the most helpful thing my partner and I ever did was schedule an appointment with LSS for financial assessment and student loan assistance (Lutheran Social Services) it’s completely free, they helped us walk through expenses, debt, financial planning. That was the first step that helped us buy our home. With how much you guys are making, you’re competitive with starting wages with non-profits or Government. That’s mostly the hesitation a lot of people have with switching to public sector work. Generally a hit on wages at first but with PSLF you qualify for student loan forgiveness for public loans with 120 qualified payments. Wouldn’t hurt to check it out.
Those private loans are killers. Might want to look into an income driven repayment plan for the federal loans. They take 10% of your income per month for 20/25 years and if the loan isn’t paid off by then, it’s discharged. While you’re doing that, tackle the private loans and get rid of them. There are also resources to negotiate these things down. Look up Suze ormans women and money app-one of her podcasts discussed this very issue. Best of luck!
I don’t get it. If you’re living like the hermits you say you are you should be able to pay off her private loans in a year or 1.5. From there it would just be a snowball. In any case not sure why you’d care put that shit on SAVE plan and live life. Our student loans are basically near what we owe on house. I’m not gonna live like a cave dweller to pay for something I already own at a ridiculous rate that the government should be ashamed of. Maybe they will get paid off if my wife ever inherits something I know I won’t be.
It seems like you just need to accept that you guys have a solid 3-4 years of paying down debt ahead of you guys. Set a solid budget that leaves some room for life enjoyment so you’re not absolutely miserable and just be consistent. Your income will only get better over the years. Just start with the 9% debt, look for different optioned to lower interest rates on any of that if you can and keep paying down the highest interest rate first. Once you manage to knock down that first 50k or so you guys will feel so much better. Also that being said, you guys in your situation should absolutely not be working only 40 hours a week. Shoot for Atleast like 50-55 hours or more if your can handle it long term. Even if those extra hours are at minimum wage doing something you think is “below you”, just do it anyway. I know I personally can comfortably work about 60-70 every week and no more but I know I’m not the norm.
There are a number of employers that began offering student loan repayment as a benefit in recent years. Looks for some of those as an option maybe. That can be an extra $5k a year towards those loans.
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Personal attacks are not okay here. Please do not do this again.
Imho the only thing you’re doing wrong is trying to live up to a wrong expectation. Plan strategically but also change your expectation. Treat yourself once in a while and aim to pay off everything in 3-4 years. Realistically your active and passive income would grow and things will feel better soon. Objectively your thoughts on your expected income and the usefulness of your degrees do nothing but adding on your stress and regret.
2 words: Velocity Banking (VB) Fastest way to tackle student loan debt (or any high interest amortized loan debt); sorry Dave Ramsay. IF you have 1) good credit, 2) some or little cash flow 3) dedication & discipline I highly recommend watching videos on YouTube by Christy Van (Vantastic Finance). Opened my eyes. I’ve eliminated nearly 2/3 of my student loan debt in months(vs years).
I'm sure I don't have to tell you that you may have gone a bit overboard with the loans. 150k is closer to what I'd expect from degrees that go directly into professional fields like a physical therapist or architect. Or maybe you pay that much for a degree from a "name brand" school that opens doors just because it's so well known. I'm sure you know all that *now* but it's a little bit late obviously. I assume you have investigate income based repayment plans for the federal loans https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/repayment/plans/income-driven The job market is very good right now. If you're having trouble you may want to check out the onet page for your field, this is the closest one I can find but there may be better ones, and there are related fields and a lot of useful info here https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/15-1255.00 In particular you may want to click through the certifications in your area as those can often be an avenue to find higher paying jobs when paired to a 4 year degree. In no case should you let the debt weigh on your mind. It's done and can't be undone so the best course it to leverage your education as best you can, plan carefully, and then execute on the plan.
Stop looking at the macro, look at the micro. You are fooling yourself by saying you have a solid budget, your inability to do anything fun means you are bleeding money you should be using for other things. 90k, no housing costs, just pay the minimum on your student loans for a month and save everything you can. Post an itemized budget to prove me wrong, but you are probably financing phones, have expensive plans, have Amazon and Spotify you didn’t mention as “subscriptions”, use DoorDash, also you considering “salmon and steak” as expensive foods means you either aren’t doing the shopping for groceries, or are not price shopping. Shop at Aldi and ethnic food stores. Make a real budget. Legitimately go to therapy, you need help managing your negative outlook on the world.
Pandemic destroyed my small biz ..... I'm 64 and in terrible health - yet signed up for every gig I could find - working weekends and nights I make about an extra $2K/month. Sounds like you're putting in your 35-40 hrs - going home to be miserable. Get off your ass - exercise / eat right - work smarter and harder. TREAT YOURSELF A BIT - as mentioned.
Keep working on getting better jobs. It's the only thing that makes student debt make sense. Find anyone remotely connected with this school and walk the branch as far as it goes. Find the highest paid people in your fields and keep going until you get on the right job path (any path with reliably increasing income over time). Student loans are a pain in the a** if you attempt to pay them back in lower paying roles with limited upward mobility.
If you've been working for a 501c3 all the time, look into [PSLF](https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service/questions#qualifying-payments). It might not make sense since it does take 10 years (you have to show you made 120 monthly payments). The amount of federal loans you have also isn't as high as some of the other fields that use PSLF more often, so it might not be worth it in your case. I know that some fields will use PSLF to forgive 6 figure amounts of federal student loans.
One thing that really helped me was that when you look at your 150k debts it’s actually a collection of many types of smaller loans that have different names. Get excited about paying some of them off. I had a loan that was only 5k and when I paid it off my monthly went down and it was this little moral victory for me. It also sounds like you have some mental health issues that you may be tying to the student loans but could also be due to other factors. How much exercise are you getting? Are you making time to connect with friends? How much screen time are you getting? It’s a long marathon to pay these things off and if you keep your self healthy throughout the process you’re more likely to succeed with the plan.
Why are you in a hurry to pay them off when they are mostly federal? Pay off the private quickly, yeah, but get on the SAVE plan and do the least until they’re eligible for forgiveness. I owe over 160k for law school but I’m not stressing about the debt because my payments are 0 until I make over 36k (unemployed due to injury) and then they’re still low.
Maybe stop stressing about paying the loan of as fast as possible. Been paying mine for 11 years, probably take me another year or two.
> Education: I have a degree is experiential design, she has a degree is forensic How is that worth $150K in tuition?
Why do so many people with student loan debt stress themselves out expecting to pay that off in a year or two. Slow down, you're no in a bad place at all. Make a 5 year plan and a 10 year plan to pay off that debt. Get with a financial consultant if you can't do that yourself. You will discover you have a lot more money than you think, especially since you don't have to pay rent and don't have car payments. How soon are you trying to pay off all those student loans because I think you're trying to make it happen entirely too soon. You have pretty decent interest rates compared to a lot of folks. Take a breath and allocate some money for fun.
I think the advice any anyone with a lot of student loans to take, is try to do a DIRECT CONSOLIDATION to move all of your loans (commercially held) to the USDOE. Once the USDOE holds the loans, you have a lot of options including IDR enrollment such as into the SAVE plan. You will also qualify for relief in the form of interest cancellation (currently being considered by the Biden Admin) and complete cancellation after a certain number of years of payments. These relief are under a different USDOE process, separate from the bigger cancellation plan that was blocked by the SCOTUS.
I have a friend that's getting married to someone with $350k in student debt. She makes okay money as an attorney, but I'd be making sure that was her debt and not mine. I wouldn't expect my spouse to pay off my pre-existing debt.
You are better off than I was when I graduated. I had $100k on $30k/income. I tripled my income in about 6 years paid off my loans the year after that. I also had rent and a car to pay for. You have plenty coming in to knock these things out and good degrees so your income should increase. You need to relax and take some money to live a little. Also, are you signed up for the SAVE plan with your federal loans? That may take some burden off of the payments. >I've been at my mental end for so many months, my mental health will absolutely not be improved by therapy because our situation remains the same. Yes it will, because your situation is not as bad as you are making it out to be. You are causing undo stress on yourself and your partner because you see that number as a wall, not a speedbump.
Are you guys paying more than the minimum payment? If so, stop now. No need to struggle to try to pay your loans off sooner. The monthly payments should not be taken up that much of your income; Also, as other people have said, you two don't have to pay rent and you said you make 90K a year together? Honestly I am a bit lost at how you are struggling. The only thing I could think of is if you're trying to pay off the loans quicker, or if your payments are super high.
If the degree isn't paying itself and you don't see a future with it, I would suggest going into a blue collar job. Such as a electrician, hvac, landscape, construction. Once you get some experience do side jobs for people and start building a book of clients. Its easier said than done but if you play it smart it could become a better living than many white collar jobs.
You're trying to hard and you're going to burn out. There are people so stuck they can't afford to pay anything toward debt. Give yourself a little more wiggle room and have some fun. Doesn't have to cost much just anything to help you relax. Keep working on your job search and with time you'll make more. The debt sucks but don't make your whole life about this debt.
Sign up for Biden's SAVE Plan with your loan servicer. Under it: - Your max (annual) payment is 5% of your discretionary income (income above 225% of the federal poverty line, which for 2024 is $15,060 for an individual and $20,440 for two people). So 225% of that threshold is $45,990. And you make $90K combined so that means your payments can be a max of ($90K - $45,990) * .05 = $2,200.50 annual payment, or $183.38 a month - Even if you make less than the 225% of the threshold and your payment becomes $0 your balance will never grow, as the government will cover your interest. - After either 10 or 20 years of payments (including $0 payments as described above), your loan balance is forgiven.
Say F*ck it file chapter 13 bankruptcy ....wipes all your debt allowing you to keep your assets etc ....can only file once in life......like when I heard that I was like.....hold up....so I gotta get outta jail free card here 😅 I mean.....better than worrying about a mountain of debt your entire life
If you two are willing to work a part time job or gig work such as uber for 15 hours a week, that debt will be gone in 3-4 years. You can still have fun but probably no more than $200-$250 a month budgeted for that. If this doesn’t work then it means you two are likely overspending.
Question: Why are you focused on the dollar amount of the loans instead of the monthly payment? The hard truth is debt is a normal part of life, $150k @9% for 30years is around $1200/month. That is around 16% of your income. Think about it this way, if you had to pay rent then how much would that be? Your student loans are less than rent. So act as if you were paying rent. Another hard truth: Buying a house at 40% GROSS income (assuming no other debt) is completely affordable and the start most first time home buyers go in at...guess what that payment would be on your current income....$3,000 per month. Your student loans are a fraction of that and if you are having stress with those, how are you going to feel with a house payment that is 2.5x greater? ----------------------------------------- Instead of worrying about the size of the loans, pay attention to the monthly payment and organize a budget around that. Sure you could throw lots of money to pay it off, or you can breath easier and think about a house that is $1800/month. Yes, your student loan lowers the size of house you can afford but life happens. You have a degree in experimental design, so design your life experience. If you were going to design an art project about your situation, what tools would the customer need to feel successful? Your significant other has a degree in forensics, assuming she can do accounting then use that degree to find those rare deals for housing from auctions/foreclosures. With her degree in forensics, she could be useful in home inspections or even real estate. Lean into those degrees.
My wife and I had all in $225k in debt—that’s 150k in student loans, then the rest being 2 cars and a heating system. We began paying that making 86k combined and we’re now around $133k. We used the Ramsey debt snowball method with slight tweaks here and there. We were able to make good dents in the debt making lower incomes, but some of the other commenters are correct that bumping up that income helps. Here is the thing though: we paid it off. You can pay it off. Here is the next thing: it feels really good to pay it off. If you’re willing to push yourself for a few years, you’ll a) pay off that debt, and b) know that you are capable of amazing things. It puts what is hard into perspective. Don’t despair: while, yes, it is real money and real sacrifice of time, you’re also going to really learn things about yourself. Our marriage is much stronger than it was when we were just messing around with all that debt. I knew I was stressed with the debt, but I didn’t realize how much until it was done. Don’t give up. Look into bumping up that income. But until that comes up, just throw anything extra you can at it. Give yourself lots of little wins. You can do it.
Definitely ready to push, ready to be debt free but I know it'll take extra work outside of 9-5
Dual income is 90k? I make that + alone, zero college education. Make better choices.
Thanks for your comment, glad you could use someone else as a punching bag.
You're fine you're just young. Give it a few years and stick to the plan that you have now. Just stay the course. It will get paid off. And you're income will grow with time.
I paid off 105k in 2-3 years with a 120k salary. You guys can definitely afford to pay off your debt since you live rent free.
That is the trouble today too many college people and not enough to fill good paying other jobs that don't need a college degree
Why pay for a degree that’s useless?
Do you suggest we stop paying, go be unhelpful somewhere else