Student loans haunt borrower the rest of his life

August 20, 2008

I have a very sad story: a student graduated 20 years ago with a particular specialized major (this particular major was dropped the year after he graduated). [Mistake number one: research your career/major]

 

20 years after graduating this former college student still has $100,000+ in student loans. The reason is the job/career he has pays so little for that type of degree. [Mistake number two: salary was too little for accrued debt]  Due to unforeseen hardships he had declared bankruptcy and lost everything. Plus the car was repossessed.

 

The true tragedy and hardship is that a bankruptcy will not forgive student loans. Now this former college student has a tarnished credit report as well as student loans that are in default.

 

I know, I know, you say this will never happen to you.

 

The Federal Reserve bails out companies that are multiple multiple millions of dollars in the hole. The US Government forgives multiple trillion-dollar debts with foreign countries. However a simple student loan will not be forgiven and haunt you the rest of your life until it is paid off in full.

 

There is only one way to take care of a student loan, pay it off.

 

BEFORE you get your student loan make sure you qualify for as much free aid as possible so the student loan will be as minimal as possible. The next step is to research your career. (You don’t want to graduate with $100,000+ debt with a job that earns $30,000. (It will be a very very long time before that loan is paid off). The third step is to find schools that have money to give out, schools that have deep pockets.

 

My job here at AZ College Planning is to educate students and parents by giving them the tools to acquire knowledge so that they can make an intelligent educated decision. So that these types of tragedies do not become your story.

 

Graduating college is a time that you should begin your life not be strapped down and burdened with huge amounts of debt.

 

My motto is “Know before you go.”

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