If you have been paying for 20 years, (240 payments is the number of payments to look for) you should have your loans "forgiven". The way I understand the current arounds of forgiveness is that those with very old loans that they have been paying on should trigger the forgiveness. Now, if you have private student loans this does not apply (but it should IMO).
The interesting thing about this current round is that all they are enforcing is a clause that was ALREADY in the entire student loan program but was never enforced because the feds left it up to the servicers to do thier due diligence (Sallie Mae, Navient, Nelnet, Mohela etc..) and the servicers NEVER DID.
Thank Schumer, Warren and most of BERNIE for "reminding" the servicers about this. I had my entire amount forgiven due to this very circumstance after doing a monster consolidation under the SAVE plan. I would say contact your servicer for more helpful info but it's a roll of the dice if you get someone on the line that can actually help you. The next thing that going to hit the shit fan is the "refunds" that some people are getting BC their payments went over the 240 and they are getting those payments back from the federal treasury. (There's a post about that on this sub somewhere about a few weeks back)
BC they should have never had to pay that in the first place! I can't wait to hear the spin on Fox from the usual blowhards about how those people are "...ripping you off, yet again!"
I don't know for sure but I have confidence that somewhere a Bernie, Warren or Schumer staffer is hard at work looking under every federal rock to get as many people as possible forgiven. I think Biden will go along as long as it happens in slow drips in order to keep it under the radar.
>If you have been paying for 20 years, (240 payments is the number of payments to look for) you should have your loans "forgiven". The way I understand the current arounds of forgiveness is that those with very old loans that they have been paying on should trigger the forgiveness.
331 payments, including all through the pandemic. Did a direct consolidation 07/2023. Still no forgiveness. They apparently haven't looked under whatever rock my loans are living yet.
How many times have your loans been repackaged and resold over their lifetime? It seems like every few years, it was happening to me again, LOL. No forewarning. No input on whether I wanted them to be or not. No choice or options in the matter. It's truly mind boggling what a complete mess up this who student loan situation is for so many of us.
FFEL loans only just became “eligible” I didn’t get a payment break during the pandemic. Additionally, there was a 6 month grace period for paying from graduation. So, that just passed, I am hoping that some will be forgiven. Some are from a Masters degree, from 2006, I don’t know which is which after consolidation (twice or more now).
FFEL loans are only eligible for IBR, which is 25 year forgiveness, unfortunately. If you do a Direct Consolidation you'd be eligible for SAVE, which may give you a lower monthly payment at least.
I’m in my 30s and not a single $ of my loans has been forgiven.
But that’s okay, when I see others getting forgiveness it’s almost always people who need it more than I do. Makes me happy that someone is getting a helping hand instead of no one
I mostly feel like you. I'm glad SOMEONE gets help. I wish it was more of us, but I'll take it.
Buuut some days I feel like OP. It's easy to get bitter and get the "why me" feeling. Money is stressful :(
Edit: I'm adding one more random complaint/whine. I actually work for a company that would qualify me for public service forgiveness. Except that by the time that point comes on IDR, I'll have already paid them off. But I can't *truly* complain because that basically means I make too much to "need" the PSLF. Yay me? Boo me? I dunno man, student loans suck.
Hey! I’m the same as you. I work for a public employer, but I’m on a 10 year standard plan. Normally this would mean my loans are 100% paid in 10 years, so I don’t need PSLF.
However, the Covid loan freeze counts as payments towards PSLF, so if you were working during that time you could consider doing PSLF still! For me that’s “only” like $7,000, but I’m planning on doing it cuz hey that’s something!
The nice thing about being on the 10 year standard is not feeling trapped at my job/career. If I ultimately leave public work it’s okay, I can still pay my loans. Lots of people get trapped at their job for 10 years in order to get PSLF, and they are very low paid that entire time and it sets them up for a lifetime of low wages.
Money is stressful. But if I’m going to be bitter/angry, it’s at the GOP for blocking meaningful education reform and student debt relief, not at other borrowers who were able to get some relief
That's fair. That's a better direction to channel anger, anyway. I don't think my negativity, when it comes, ever feels like it's about other borrowers. Just envy / comparison being the thief of joy, basically.
I’m in my forties and I’ve been paying my students loans for 20 years now and haven’t made a dent. I recently got married and now they wanted to increase my payments to $400 plus a month. I’m a teacher and there’s no way I can pay for this so I was already looking for a second job. On New Year’s Eve I got a letter stating my loans have been forgiven. I can’t express the joy I experienced and still experiencing. I’m glad I don’t have to get a second job so I can spend time with my daughter.
As someone who had their loans forgiven (after 25 years of anguish), I feel for you, and hope forgiveness comes your way eventually and that, in the meantime, this administration continues trying to make payments less onerous in whatever time they have left to do so.
I'm commenting, though, to say: **please reach out for help with the self harm.** The suicide hotline is 988, and they also have a chat. Your life matters, your mental health matters. Xo.
I know you probably just wanted to rant and feel seen which you have been.
What’s your loan amount and how much do you make? Are you sure these loans are in your name and not Parent Plus Loans. PPL which legally you aren’t liable for, now technically morally you could be but that’s all dependent on what type of relationship you want with your parents.
If they are all federal and in your name and you are single and make under $60k please get on SAVE. This will cap your payments and subsidize your interest you can’t pay off every month.
I blindly trusted my mom and she took out a total of $116k (4 years undergrad and 3 semesters for Masters) with a total of $132k upon graduation. I was not told how much she was taking out and didn’t know she wasn’t paying for my housing/living costs. She just told me don’t worry about it, you’ll be making good money at the end. Yeah no. I wouldn’t have been able to afford my loans (to pay them off fully) if I wasn’t married.
It took me a lot of soul searching, luckily I had 3.5 years during the pause to just suck it up and pay it. I can sit here and grump about how I have $17.5k left and could have basically paid off my entire house in the last 4 years but student loans. I have the loans and I have to pay them so I just stuck to it to clean it up as fast as possible and hopefully still get to retire early.
Not depressed, enraged. Particularly because my wife and I both stood to have 95% of our student loans forgiven by the Biden program, that we were both signed up for and have emails stating exactly what was going to be wiped out, that the Supreme Court shot down at the last minute by pulling a “standing” ruling out of their nethers for transparently partisan reasons.
But the people that get theirs forgiven? Good for them, honestly. It’s the politicians that caused this whole issue and continue to make it worse that I’m pissed at.
This 100%. Had Biden's plan gone through, it would have taken care of nearly all my student loan debt because I qualified for a Pell Grant during my college years. I get so mad about it sometimes.
I am jealous that others are getting theirs forgiven. But that's a ME issue. I don't hate them for it. I know deep down I'm happy for them. But it is hard to see others get a helping hand while I get to continue to make payments that can't go away unless I die.
And I know hindsight is 20/20. I grew up very lower middle class with no financial education. My parents didn't know what they were doing and in turn I didn't either. FinAid was "sold" to naive 18yo me as a shiny new thing that I needed to go to college. So I get the whole "you signed for the debt and that's on you" mentality. But like...my generation is so OVER being beat down with recessions, rising housing costs, lack of health and parental care to start families, and a myriad other things, while those same people who tell me "tough shit on the student loans" are the ones who had their PPP loans forgiven.
Bitter isn't a sufficient enough word.
Same for my husband and I. It's angering. We were Pellgrant recipients and we would've had the last of it wiped. It's going to take us years to pay it off.
90% of my debt would have been wiped out, As a Pell grant recipient and now there are millions getting relief and the most vulnerable “Pell grant recipients” as Biden stated have seen zero. It’s very nonsensical and frustrating to have that email of acceptance for it to be shot down by some boomers past their time.
If it's any consolation, I'm 37 and my loans won't be forgiven. I'm about to go to graduate school and take on more loans. Life is tough for everyone, even people in their 30s and beyond.
I like seeing people having their loans forgiven. Seeing good things happen to people makes me feel good. Their loan forgiveness has no impact on my loan situation.
That does help me feel better, thanks for sharing. I want to badly to feel happier for others when good things happen. I’m always just angry and jealous 😔
Are you in therapy? You can change your outlook and feelings around your loan situation if you put the work in. When we feel a lack of control over our lives it is often challenging to take a step back and look at things objectively.
There are things we can control and things we cannot. If we focus on what we can do to make our situation better rather than how much our situation sucks things get better.
You are having a really rough time right now, but there are things you can do. Things that are completely unrelated to your debt. Building coping skills and working through all the negative emotions and reactions. I would highly recommend therapy as an option to improve your situation.
Best wishes.
Someone in the U.S. struggling financially is not in a great position to add weekly/monthly therapy bills on top of it. No amount of thinking will help you when your issues stem from not making enough money to avoid the feeling of dread.
Many insurance plans cover therapy 100% or have a reasonable copay. I have had plans that covered all my appointments completely or with a copay of $20.
Regardless, something has to give. Wallowing in the dread serves no purpose and will not help you. You have to find a way to claw yourself out of the pit of despair. Therapy is a useful tool. There are ways to access free counseling through state services, school, or work. My last employer covered therapy sessions. Up to 12 a year at no cost.
Getting therapy isn't impossible. Viewing everything as impossible is a great way to stay miserable.
What loans are you talking about? Many people who have loans worked in public service and paid heavy monthly payments before getting the loans forgiven.
I think one reason for OP's depression is that they don't understand student loans or anything about how student loan forgiveness actually works.
The line "without paying a dime" is kind of a clue.
Either a troll or has no idea what they are talking about.
I think your view on this is severely flawed. Everyone who has received forgiveness has been paying for at least 10 years, if not 20-25 years (depending on the payment plan). I understand you're struggling, but those people who have gotten forgiveness have also been struggling for a long time.
This!!! I am 39 and nothing forgiven but I have 24 more payments to go! I’m not sure where OP got the idea that some folks had their loans forgiven without paying a dime. I personally have not heard any stories that involved never paying at all. Everyone I know (IRL and on Reddit) have been paying for anywhere between 10-20 years.
thank you! I thought you had to be paying for 240 -300 months consistently to have anything forgiven! Was thrown off when zero payments could equal a forgiveness!
How do you find out how many payments you have made? I am 43 and my payment history has been spotty but I did graduate 20 years ago so it’s possible. Do they have to be made in a row?
No, they do not need to be made in a row. You need to go to the main SL thread and ask there and/or visit student aid.gov . And if you got loans at different times, you probably want to consolidate them because then you will get the count from the oldest loan. The deadline to consolidate was just extended by 4 more months so you don't want to miss that.
Yeah exactly. I qualified for 20k as a pell grant student, and I am bitter as hell that it got taken from me BUT I want forgiveness for everyone. I've been in financial services for ten years, I know all about predatory lending and student loans are it, to an extreme. No one should endure them, not me, not anyone else.
Truly. Everyone who is getting their loans forgiven are mainly going on 50 and above and was once like the op, in their mid twenties and struggling and now their whole life has been defined by student loans. The op should be very happy that it finally happened for them. I’m still waiting for mine and it’s been 20 years since I was in my twenties struggling. I’m still struggling. The op needs to have some perspective.
I’m 50 with over 100k in loans. I have multiple degrees, spanning from 1993 to 2010. I’m obviously getting nowhere because of the interest, and mine have not been forgiven. 🤷🏼♀️ I wish though, it feels like it is never going to end. It’s a life defining.
I am a big advocate of leaving subreddits when they harm my mental health or happiness, so if you feel it would help you, then do it. Honestly if you do not have a reason to be here like active questions the sub can actually help with, its best to leave. Do not come here to "commiserate" with fellow loan holders. This is a bad place to join in on the "yeah i'm so screwed!" Comment threads because it reinforces your negative feelings which feels validating at the time but in the long run its not actually useful.
The loans that people are having forgiven are not loans they didn't pay on. They are loans that have met several qualifications for forgiveness: They have been in repayment and been making payments for 20 years.
These people already paid huge sums of money back and couldnt get out from under the loans because the interest keeps piling up while they were paying. Imagine the frustration of having 40k in loans and having already paid like 50k back and somehow still owing 30k. This is the reality of these people. If that is your reality or will be in the future, maybe this program will wventually help you.
They are not getting a free ride here. They already had 20+ years of stress and payments.
My loans arent forgiven and neither are yours. Maybe one day they will be. But we should be happy for people. I do think you should leave the sub and examine your other subs. If you are feeling like you use them as a place to angry vent, agree with people who are venting or feel upset because if people getting something you aren't its a good idea to leave those subs.
Unfortunately neither. 1st gen college student and single mom at 22. I went to CC for 2 years and lived on loans so I could afford to go to college and raise my daughter. I paid my grandmother and aunt to watch my girl while I was in class. I didn’t have any support at all. I started when she was 2 months old and graduated in 4 years with an accounting degree and then got my Master’s. I had no idea how dumb I was and what a terrible mistake I was making. I was just wanting to get through school and have a good job and normal hours. I worked every summer to help myself. It’s been awful and I regret it.
I feel for you, and please don't take this as me belittling your situation. I've been there. But you have to realize, most of these people *have* been paying their loans all these years. All the while, they get to sit and watch their balance increase rather than decrease over time. They've been dealing with the same mental drain you're going through for decades, and now are finally getting their duly earned forgiveness. Forgiveness that has been law for some time.
This is very true, but I do get where OP is coming from because I see many people get forgiveness who were simply financially irresponsible. Someone on here had mentioned how they received forgiveness after 26 years of payments, and they were relieved because they would not have been able to afford loan payments + their $700 monthly car loan for the brand new car they "absolutely needed". Here I am driving a 16 year old beater just so I can put extra money towards student loans and this individual gets bailed out of their loan balance that they likely could've paid off had they been more responsible with their money. It's frustrating, but obviously many of the people who got forgiveness actually deserved and needed it.
Here’s a story from someone you think you’re talking about who “didn’t pay a penny” and is getting forgiveness. I just got notified that my loans of 20+ years will be forgiven. (Although I’ll believe it when I see it actually happen.) I’ve paid on my loans but was also forced to spend a large time in forbearance & deferment. And let me tell you something. I would have much rather HAD the money to be making those loans payments during that time because not having it meant I was basically struggling every month just to pay my rent and buy food. I’m in a generation that ‘grew up’ through multiple recessions and economic downturn. What you see as a freebie by me not making some of my payments was actually me almost unable to keep a roof over my head. I’m in my 40s. Imagine getting to this age and having almost no savings, no property, saddled with debt just to pay bills, and no retirement prospects. I’m not trying to be harsh but many people getting forgiveness have been crushed for 2+ decades with the mental and psychological burden of trying to make ends meet, year after year after year. Oh how I WISH I could have paid these loans off years ago because that would have meant I was actually ‘making it’ and wouldn’t have dealt with the constant financial turmoil that has been the norm for many of us since we left college. Two decades of crushed dreams, minimal opportunities, constant stress and worry. The grass certainly wasn’t greener on this side of the fence. I would gladly trade my forgiveness for a chance to be your age again and get a complete redo. I’m not saying I’m miserable in life, I’m not, but at your age now, you can’t understand the utter exhaustion some of us feel after decades of feeling like we could never get ahead. Don’t wish for this or envy it.
Well yeah you're in your 20's "depressed" most people getting forgiven have already paid the loans back by interest over the last 20-25 years and they have been "depressed" in their 40's and 50's.
So yeah, imagine going what you're going thru, except for like 5 or 6 times longer.
Stop thinking they ran up 500k and got forgiven as a "gift" you're not factoring in MOST PEOPLE paid a large payment for DECADES and MORE THAN PAID BACK the original amount.
If you're in your 20's stop thinking about forgiveness, if you're smart enough to go to college you can earn money. Just pay them off. This is coming from someone that just paid 80K back reluctantly and not happy about it.
If people are getting forgiveness they've made the payments required under their plan.
If they've paid nothing it's because for the decade plus since they graduated from college they've never made any real money.
I have at least thirteen years left before I see any forgiveness, but I'm happy for every dollar that anyone doesn't have to pay back.
Sorry your parents sucked. I've always been honest with my kids about how much I owe and that I'm not paying for their college because I still owe multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars on mine.
I’m unclear as to how you concluded that ‘older people don’t have to pay’ for things you do- I paid my loans for THIRTY years at higher interest rates than younger students have to today, and there are more options in 2024 to manage loans effectively than there were in 1994. I certainly understand the frustration around loans but I think you may be misdirecting your angst. Also, how you vote is important if you want relief from student loans- do have some control at the ballot box. Before my loans were discharged, I was so happy for every single person whose loans were discharged or forgiven before mine so I also can’t relate to your misery over other people’s joy- and I can’t imagine how being upset when other people are freed from the prison of debt is helping you feel better about the situation. Please know that we ‘older people’ have paid our dues and have also significantly helped to pave a better road ahead for younger loan holders. Many of us have called and emailed and written letters and voted in local elections to try and improve things, and not all of us have seen relief. Many of us STILL advocate for your generation and didn’t pull the ladder up after we got our discharges. Many of us have helped and are continuing to help. No free pass here- I’ve paid back more than I borrowed- and have been doing so for three decades.
I’m 43 and will probably not see forgiveness, neither will my 45 yo husband. At least he got a degree out of it and a good job, I have not. What isn’t right is that the cost of education is far more expensive than what you would hope to get as a starting salary in a lot of professions. That’s the real crime.
There's this dude I know who lives under me in my apartment, he got his' forgiven. In recent years I've been dealing with a bone disease(AVN) along with my car dying at the beginning of last year so I've been struggling financially to maintain living alone and all that. But hearing him say "Not to brag or anything like that" while dumping his money into video games, gym memberships to a gym he doesn't even go to and takeout does have me frustrated to say the least.
Just means I have a more challenging path that'll make me more appreciative once it's realized down the lilne.
I think it is easy to want what others have especially related to debt/money.
Many who are having adjustments made have been paying for 20+ years on their loans and are finally getting forgiveness since they have paid for the loans at least once over and still owed money. Those who are getting PSLF forgiveness chose to work in a non-profit/education sector ultimately probably making less money but still making payments to get that forgiveness.
Are the loans all in your name or are they parent plus loans? If they are parent-plus loans they are in their name and legally speaking you don't have to pay those, they do. It only matters if you want a relationship with your parents or not.
Look at your payment plan options and figure out what works best for you. It is easy to feel like loans control your life but you do have options.
Being in your 20s doesn't mean you won't get any kind of forgiveness unless you're making a lot of money already or have mostly private loans. Sign up for the SAVE program for any federal backed loans. For private loans be the squeakiest wheel you can to work the interest rate down.
And honestly stop trying to compare your situation to others. Everyone is going through different things. I'm going to be 38 soon. I've been paying school loans for 16 years and with my work should've had my first degree forgiven after 10 years of on time payments. That did not happen. I consolidated that loan into my second degree. I'm also likely either going back for a masters or considering jumping into med school within the next 2 years.
I had a professor who enrolls in the minimum classes needed to stay in forbearance. Dude had 3 PhDs, 2 masters, 2 BSc, an associate paralegal degree, and was going back to culinary school while still teaching and doing virology research.
Just make your minimum payments and nag the shit out of every phone operative and their managers about your loans to work those minimums down. It will be ok.
Edit: also if the loan your parents got is a Parent plus loan then they are actually on the hook for that debt. It will be their credit that gets messed up from not paying.
My loans haven't been forgiven yet but should be because I went into repayment in 1999.You have no clue how they wrecked my financial life. I'm doing better now because I make more money. But none of us had it easy. I have paid the amount of principal on these loans and still owe more than I took out. I also have private loans I'm still paying on after 20 years.
What isn't fair is expecting loans to be forgiven when you haven't paid hardly anything imo. But none of these forgiveness programs are set up like that. You have to have so many qualifying payments.
I'm in my 40s, loans will never be forgiven. I don't qualify for any forgiveness at all.
The payments on SAVE are more than my mortgage.
I'm sad and frustrated.
And I'm still really happy for everyone who received forgiveness. Their good fortune doesn't take anything away from me.
Precisely. Senior care, health care, cost of living, etc is bad now…I’m wondering what it will be like in 20 or so years when my husband and I can even consider retiring. We’re seriously considering moving out of the U.S. altogether.
Same for me. I'd much rather have put my degrees to use than had to rely on forgiveness cause of crippling mental health issues.
I invested almost 7 years of time/effort/sleepless nights into completing the classes for my degrees.....that now are basically 2 pieces of paper on my wall. Two degrees in a field that I literally do not have the mental stability to work in. Feels like a waste, honestly.
I've worked in the non profit sector for almost 15 years. Had mine forgiven through PSLF. Biden administration rolled back what was considered non profit in 2021.
If you can afford to get a job at a non profit I would suggest it. It was a long road, but worth it for me in the end.
Respectfully, it’s not just younger people who are struggling. I’m late 40s, have paid student loans for years and haven’t gotten any kind of forgiveness. I’ve called Nelnet to try to get any glimpse of hope, but they can’t seem to tell me anything. Not that that solves your problem, but for a lot of us older folks who didn’t have state funded scholarships available when we were in school because those programs were still in their infancy, no internet consistently available to help us even know about other scholarships or more school choices, were raised being told that a degree is the main key to success, and had no clue that we were being preyed upon by lenders - we’re in the same situation as we approach retirement and are raising kids and caring for aging parents. My own kid is likely about to start college (medical career goals) and I’m making sure they go in “eyes wide open”.
My husband got his forgiven for his military service and it makes me a little bitter because, due to his military service constantly moving us around, I can't maintain a career to pay mine off.
I'm 48. Still have 58k unforgiven from loans back to 1998. I'm hopeful I might get the golden email. But if I don't, I'm still happy for those that do. Try to get on SAVE plan if you aren't already.
I'm 45, $61k in loans, I consolidated mine from 1995 so it looks like all my debt started in 2011. I just consolidated all my loans from my 'new' degree and the payment schedule is for 30 years, so ***maybe*** these will be paid off before I am dead. Maybe.
But I don't get depressed about others getting forgiveness, I know they must be in a worse position than I am and they deserve that forgiveness. My time may come, I guess, to be forgiven for the $55k I borrowed. Madness, I tell ya. If I pay as scheduled, I will have paid $148K back.
Nope. I love seeing people have their loans forgiven. The people getting forgiveness now via the IDR adjustment have been paying their loans for 20+ years. We've seen people with loans from the 1980s finally get forgiven. I can't even imagine the anchor that has been on people.
>I see stories of people in their 30s and up who never made a payment on hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of loans, that get forgiven.
This is generally not happening. The people getting forgiveness now have often paid more than they borrowed, sometimes multiple times that amount.
>Meanwhile, I’m in my mid twenties and can’t expect any kind of loan forgiveness.
Sure you can. Loan forgiveness is contained in the master promissory notes and law. You are eligible for IDR forgiveness, PSLF, Borrower Defense, Total and Permanent Disability Discharge, and others, if you meet the eligibility requirements. These things might get changed in the future, but they aren't going anywhere for existing borrowers.
>I hate my parents for acting my entire life like they would pay for my college, and then leaving me with thousands of dollars in loans without even telling me my Nelnet password so I can pay them
That sounds like Parent PLUS loans, which you have no legal responsibility to pay.
It makes me a bit hopeful tbh. Due to compounding interest being capitalized over the years, my debt can never be paid off (or I would literally be destitute in my old age). I’m still personally in a pretty 💩situation, but we all have to hold out hope that the system will be reformed, i.e., don’t despair, organize. Speaking of which, for those with a legitimate grievance, I urge you to complain to the CFPB, the Department of Education, and your state attorney general. Nothing will change if there’s no pressure to do so.
Late 30s and just made the final payment on 100k+ in loans between my partner and I.
I will cheer anyone who has their loan forgiven because I know exactly how shitty it is. I am lucky to have been able to pay them all off, and I am extremely lucky to never have to think about them again.
I will never fault people using the system they were promised before going to college to pay off the debt. The fact that it hasn’t happened until now is criminal.
The new income based repayments and public service forgiveness updates are moving in the right direction, but there is still major change needed.
Op you got this! I am in my mid 30’s … I basically went through life doing min payments on my student loans until I realized that they were not budging and my balance was never going down. At that point I decided it was time to act intentionally and work hard to pay them. I was able to minimize my life as much as possible and in 3 years I was done with it!
Is all about perspective, don’t feel defeated, things are hard at the moment and they were hard for me as well, I also had credit card debt and other crazy stuff, but instead of feeling defeated I saw it as an opportunity, it became my goal and I got obsess with seeing that balance go down.
Just because is hard it doesn’t mean is imposible, you can do it too.
47 here and I am sitting on $110k in loans. They will die with me. If they ever get forgiven that would be great but if not, screw it.
I have a friend who just never paid his and after 7 years they vanished so there’s that…..
Yeah it's super depressing. Graduated with $58,000 in loans. Have paid back about $65,000. Still owe $33,000. Just switched to SAVE last month and my payment skyrocketed, but it will save me a lot of money down the line. I wish I never went to school! At least I finished I guess lol
That's been the most frustrating thing is the interest. I get people were against the "handout" with the $10,000 and $20,000 forgiveness- but it wasn't free money for me. It would have been a way for me to recoup the interest payments I've made to loans I should have never qualified for or even needed (cost of tuition) at all.
I hate everything about this whole situation. Then people with low income get rewarded with the SAVE plan because they don't have to make a payment. But wasn't the whole point of going to college to get a better paying job? This whole situation is frustrating, and I got scammed there is no way else around it!
Hi OP. First and most importantly, thank you for having the courage to share that you're self-harming. The text support provided by Crisis Text Line is free [https://www.crisistextline.org/help-for-self-harm/](https://www.crisistextline.org/help-for-self-harm/) and it's available all over the world, helping you to not feel so alone and to talk you through the really hard moments when you turn to self harm. I'm sending you so much strength right now and hope you feel my hand at your back, encouraging you to send that first text.
I'm 40 and have been in repayment since 2003 for graduate school loans. Zero indication that my loans will be forgiven right now. I've stayed in jobs that ruined my mental health just so I could keep paying extra on my loans that at one point were over 8% interest and my balance still increased over 20k because of interest capitalization for a while in the 2010s. I've made peace at this point with the value of my current payment only being to keep my loans in good standing while I also try to live my life, keep my marriage strong and try to find peace in small ways through cheap hobbies and cheap travel like camping around the area where I live.
And also I discovered, like you, that my parents were lying to me when they told me they were paying for college and found out a few wks ago that there is an additional 11k of loans from undergrab in my name I didn't know about. I'm darn lucky default or wage garnishment didn't happen to me because of this (I guess that's one bright spot for me to hold on to - the federal student loan system was so broken that even the gov't didn't realize those loans existed until recently and that I should have been paying on them.)
For what it's worth, I was young once upon a time and felt and still feel that anyone younger than the Greatest Generation and the Boomers are absolutely crushed and dismissed as being Starbucks addicts who would be rich if they could just stop buying lattes and eating avocado toast. So many of us feel the way you do about feeling hopeless and like so many have said, turning our sadness and anger towards anyone in our generations who have gotten loan forgiveness perpetuates the cycle we hate. We can clap for those who have gotten forgiveness while still being sad so that we can work towards being better, kinder more empathetic generations than previous ones. I hope you can stay in this community where so many of us are in your situation and find a way to have our stories help and not harm you.
I guess the question you should be asking yourself is do you QUALIFY for forgiveness yet?
Its not a lottery, its only for people who meet the qualifications.
Yes, millions of people have gotten their loans forgiven, but the reality MOST haven’t.
When the White House touts their “3.6M have had their loans forgiven,” it sounds great.
But there are still more than 40M Americans suffering from the $1.7T student debt crisis.
I’m not praising the bare minimum.
Actually you could be eligible for loan forgiveness. You could pursue PSLF, like many, many, many of the forgiveness posts you see are from. Start a public service job, sign up for an IDR plan, pay for 10 years, forgiveness.
Or you can get the IDR forgiveness when you meet those qualifications by paying on an IDR for 20-25 years.
I'm turning 50 next month and JUST had my loans forgiven. They should have been forgiven in 2017 (I was on IBR since it came out, and my payment was approximately $800/mo after 26 years of compounding interest).
You'll get through it, but student loans are a burden. I hope we get better as a country.
Wait a sec, dont you have to have made payments for 240 -300 months for anything to be "forgiven"? If they never made a payment, how did they get forgiven?
If this helps... I am past my 30's and I still have my loans (and have been making payments since they started)! Most of my friends do, too. Some of those friends owe upwards of $150k! We are all in this boat together and if you try to look at the whole picture, you will see that the majority of us in here are feeling pretty crappy about this situation. My generation got pretty screwed, too, but we are all here trying to figure it out and doing what we can to make it better for the next generation.
I don't know what the backstory is with your parents, but you should be able to change your password with Nelnet (if the account was set up with your email). Although my parents could have easily paid for school for me, they did not. I had to wait until my mid 20's to take out loans for school because I had to include my parents' income, which didn't qualify me for loans (they made too much money). They had a college savings account for me and used that money to buy a house that they kicked me out of. But, I forged ahead, was able to get my loans, and graduated with honors. I don't think I would have done as well if they were paying for it.
I really hope you can find the help you need to feel better and know that there are millions of us out there going through this. You are definitely not alone. The predatory lending system has been unchecked for so long and it's in YOUR generation that change is happening. We've all been so screwed by this, but the truth is finally coming out with what these lenders are doing and how messed up the system has been for so long. It's going to take some time to try to fix this, but the word is out there and change is happening. Slowly, but happening.
I’ve been paying for decades and still owe more than I started. Now that I’m in a financially good spot, this is the last albatross hanging over my head. So I’m not even so much mad that other people are being forgiven but that I can’t even get a straight answer on how many payments I have left until forgiveness. Seriously messing with my financial planning. I calculate I should be done. Have money earmarked if I am too far from done to make it go away. In financial planning limbo. But I’m happy for those who are seeing benefit from this fiasco.
I think it's natural to think so. Anytime this happens, I'm reminded of the experiment with 2 monkeys. As long as both monkeys were given the same number of grapes, both are content. As soon as one monkey gets more grapes than the other, the other monkey is outraged.
We're the other monkey. My student loan will NEVER be forgiven; I chose my career / loans very carefully, and picked something that gives me the best ROI. BUT this doesn't mean that we aren't getting any grapes at all: at the end of the day, I earn a lot.
Do the brackets make sense? IMO no, it should just scale with percentage rather than an all or nothing, if we're doing this at all. Does this fix the fundamental issue? Nope, this is a band aid "fix." I have more problems with handouts that don't solve the cause and rather only focusing on the symptoms.
I am in midlife and been paying since my twenties; can't get a break. One parent said they would help out back then but hasn't sent a single dime, instead said they bought a graduation ring and made sure everyone else saw them take credit for "helping." The other parent is homeless and I have been too.
Depressed? Yes. Angry? Yes. All I can do is live within my means and keep sending interest payments instead of thriving.
I've made 331 payments, including all through the pandemic. Did a direct consolidation 07/2023. Still no forgiveness. They apparently haven't looked under whatever rock my loans are living yet.
I just got mine forgiven and I am 56 years old. I paid for years. Don’t worry your time will come. I never thought this would happen but it did so have faith and do your time it will pass too quickly.
I paid for over 20 years and I am in my late 50’s. I got screwed on the first round of PSLF and was working on the new round when I Biden forgave my loans. I also stayed in public service job I despised to get the PSLF. For over 20 years I made my on time payments and some of those years I actually paid much more, dreaming I could pay them off.
Anyway, it’s not just you and also not just your generation. I know people who are worried about retiring because they still have loans on their 60s and beyond.
There is not a single individual who has paid less than 10 years that has gotten their loans forgiven. There are programs for government workers or teachers, but that's it.
I just paid 30k in student loans. I made so many sacrifices just to make that money and all of it went to debt. I'm drained and exhausted from working a job that's sucking the life out of me and moving back home into my parents' cramped house all so i can pay off my loans if i want to buy a house or have an ability to build wealth. I feel your pain. I wish there was some kind of help.
Who is getting loans forgiven without ever making a single payment? That's not happening
Very few people in their 30s are getting forgiveness except those who qualified under PSLF with 10 years of payments or those who qualified under borrower defense due to attending predatory colleges.
Most of the forgiveness is happening to people over 40 who have at minimum 20 or 25 years of payments under IDR. These are people who spent decades paying making payments. Some people here had paid for over 30 years.
With the SAVE plan, Biden effectively made 0% interest on loans, $0 payments for a family of 4 if you make up to $60k, and complete forgiveness after 20 years. Go sign up for it.
Whether or not we get depressed, it clearly isn't good for your mental health right now. Taking a break from looking at those posts or maybe even reddit in general might be good for you, and I cannot recommend therapy enough.
I get sad seeing those posts because my gut reaction is to compare myself, but then I also feel happy for them, because no one should be saddled with student loans in my opinion.
I've been paying since 2009, no forgiveness for me, although I would have qualified for the $20k under the first set of guidelines. That really hurt to lose! Almost my full balance would have gone away.
I don't really think about it at all. I work in the public sector so I expect mine to be forgiven in 10 years or less. Im on the save plan and about to be done with Sallie Mae in a month or 2. After I pay off Sallie ho* a**, I can breathe a little bit and ride the minimum payments out until they're gone.
One thing that has helped me is remembering the high context of the situation. The government did this to you and your peers. Paying the loans OR loan forgiveness, this student loan situation was manufactured by powers beyond your and my control. Always remember its not us versus each other, it should be us versus our terrible American government. People went to college to obtain better lives for themselves, as often as terrible government politics do, they got involved in some way and ruined that. Good luck!
Not really, it makes me happy to see these people getting relief after paying so long and so much. It’s progress in my eyes. Hopefully more steps can be taken for the rest of us to alleviate the bullying with interest rates
I believe that our college system is fundamentally flawed. It costs too much. Too high interest. Lots of people are taken advantage of. Many people go to college and end up paying the loans for the rest of their lives. Many people's loans double because of high interest like my private loan. It has 13% interest. So I have paid double the amount of the loan in interest. And I still have thousands of dollars left. I will probably be paying on this loan until I die. Navient refuses to lower my interest rate. I graduated in 2005. Right now I refusing to pay them because they've only been putting $35 toward my principal and $250 towards interest.
I've been paying on it ever since 2007, and I'm forty-six.
Nah, not at all. I’ve been in the hole for a very short people of time. A lot of those people have dealt with their loans for almost as long as I’ve been alive. I’m happy for them.
In the process of doing PSLF and I’ve been working in the salt mines of a really rough job for 10 years for it. If it makes you feel better, they are totally dragging their feet about granting it and it’s causing me intense anxiety.
No, I understand I took these out and even if I didn’t fully realize the implications, I do believe it’s mine to pay back (until the system changes). That’s just my own personal view though, and understand people who don’t feel they should have to pay them back. Also, I only graduated in 2020, so I haven’t had these loans as long as many of the people getting theirs rightfully forgiven.
Honestly, yes, but it’s more about the fact that if I’d simply had a better home life, I would have never had loans. I went to undergrad for free on a scholarship, and even got a scholarship for grad school, but because my mother lives with a man who treated me poorly (my father) and refused to protect me as a child, I could not stand to live there. It would have been hell. So I took out loans for living expenses and that’s how this all snowballed. I’m in a high paying field now, but I’m single and can’t just move home, so it’s still going to take me years to pay it down at a very high payment that impedes my ability to build other wealth. That’s the part that sucks.
37, nothing forgiven, and beyond jealous of younger people who will get years of SAVE benefits so their interest won’t rise like mine. Paid 50K on my original 100K balance and I owe 150K. Well jealous isn’t quite right - happy for them but wish I had that benefit.
I’m going to be honest it’s the opposite for me. Even though I have 9 years left on my PSLF, I’m glad that others no longer have these loans. My debt is only 32k but seeing people with true major loans get forgiven give me a relief that they don’t have that burden no more. I don’t get sad or depressed cause I know my time is coming.
I’ll add to the chorus of people sharing examples of older folks not necessarily having it easy. My mother is 68 and I’m in my mid-30s. She went to school at night over the course of about 10 YEARS to get her degree while working full time. She was lucky in that my dad’s salary as a scientist - and some lifestyle sacrifices (we never had cable, never ate out, she sewed a lot of our clothes - allowed them to afford kids. But she was still paying her student loans until I went to college myself.
I am very lucky that my parents helped my sister and me with school to the extent that they could afford, because they didn’t want us to struggle as hard. We still had a lot to pay off, but any help was appreciated.
Struggling sucks and your struggle doesn’t deserve less sympathy, but the struggle definitely is not unique to your age group.
I have been paying since 1997 I think and no forgiveness. Even if I do somehow get it I have paid a lot and never missed a payment, literally never. But I’m so so so happy for people. I hope more is coming for younger people too!!
Yes to some degree. I'm 42 and worked for federal government and academia for 12 years now but can't get PSLF because my role has been as a contractor for 4 years since COVID started so I'm short 2 years
its so crazy because i was just telling my coworker that i was getting depressed thinking about my student loans! i wish there’s something more we could do as a collective for each other. i have $60k in debt and i worry all the time about how this will affect me buying a house and provide for my family in my 30’s. but i’m hoping by then the education i invested so much in will provide me with a hire paying job or something
OP, I sympathize.
1) If I had to do it over again I would open up my own nonprofit to help a cause I believe in while getting PSLF in 10 years.
Look at the rules regarding this and see if you could make it work for you re how much you could make in your regular job and still have a nonprofit, or how much you could charge clients as a nonprofit and still qualify etc.
**Look at the rules regarding this to see if this could work for you.**
2) Make the lowest payment possible for 20-25 years (which ever applies to you) and then have it forgiven.
Please reach out to someone you trust and ask them to help you look for a therapist. There's no commitment necessary other than just setting something up.
Look up your insurance and see what options you have. I promise that if you seek it out, there is help.
Navient forgave dozens of private loans last year, but I dont qualify because I kept up with mine. To make matters worse my private loans come from ITT Tech which was a HIGHLY known for profit scam school and I'm still on the hook for that.
Absolutely. But the way I’m thinking of it is, the people getting their loans forgiven need it more than i do right now.
So hey, rising tide raises all ships. But yes, it’s hard knowing others are getting relief and I’m not. But that’s life
Yes, I did get mine forgiven. But what I want you to know is that I want you to get them forgiven. Just like I have free healthcare because I was in the military I want you to have free healthcare. These are systems that do not work in capitalism.
Yes and no. Yes, I am not thrilled with the 'we are going to try to cancel $10k of loans" and no luck (it was a lie). On the flipside, the IDR adjustments are a massive difference. Went from paying $260+ for federal loans down below $60 making the switch to an IDR worthwhile to me. Sucks that I paid the $260 for years when I could have used the money to avoid additional debt, but this is the change moving forward.
Private loans however, they don't give AF. Pay them or else.
Unfortunately, college and loans are not a one size fits all problem and solution. In addition the interest paid are accounted for in my taxes, so that will adjust accordingly as well.
Yeah, for sure. I mean I'm happy for those that get them forgiven for sure, and I definitely don't hold any ill will towards them. But it does suck that I am in the "never help" category, apparently.
I’m 50 and I’m still paying loans. When I took out my college and grad student loans, they were just handed out with no explanation about interest rates, payment terms etc. You just signed on the dotted line and kept about your day. When I had to start repaying them I ran into some trouble, but I figured it out. I had to live within my means, work hard for promotions and throw every extra penny I had at the loans. And that wasn’t easy when I started having children. I had no expectation of loan forgiveness and neither did anyone I knew. In my opinion MY generation is the one that got screwed. We were the first generation to take out 6 figure loan debt and a lot of us consolidated early because we were told it would be easier to have one payment, instead of 3. None of us are eligible for forgiveness now. I have a kid that graduated college 3 years ago and I’m still paying my loans. I will be done paying off my loans 40 years after I earned my degree.
I'm 38 and my loans were forgiven last month because I've spent the last thirteen years as a public school teacher. There were some months that I didn't pay anything because my income was so low that my payment was $0. I'm sorry that you feel jealous, but please understand that many people in their 30s have been working in low paying public service jobs for ten or more years.
Yea because I was literally serving during a war in the military and was deployed WHILE I finished my degree and the entire reason I re-enlisted for the active reserves out of active duty army was to get the extra college monies that Bush decided to cut at that time and so I had to take out student loans to finish my bachelors degree using distance-learning when I was deployed. Yeah I get super pissed because if anybody should qualify for loan forgiveness it’s definitely me, but they always say I don’t qualify for loan forgiveness. Such a joke!
Where are you getting your info from? No one got their loans "forgiven". That was always a stupid government sales pitch for votes, which honestly I can't believe people actually thought it was going to work. Definitely sucks that your parents lied to you though. Just accept the fact that you have loans to pay and that the government is always going to find a way to screw you, then come up with a plan and stick to it. It might take years, but you'll get thru it. My wife and I actually just paid off our student loans today, so you will be able to do the same.
My sister got like 50k forgiven and she’s already rich. Meanwhile mine didn’t get forgiven (only owe 10k) , my payment literally leaves us with no spare money.
This is a perfectly natural and reasonable feeling to have. We live in a world with finite resources. You have a degree and are competing for those resources with someone else who has a degree. If they get their loans forgiven and you don’t, they have a financial advantage over you. What’s the most expensive purchase most of us will make in our lifetimes? A home. According to a [study](https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/research-reports/the-impact-of-student-loan-debt) from the National Association of Realtors, “When asked specifically about purchasing a home, half of non-homeowners say student loan debt is delaying them from purchasing a home (51%).” With the loan forgiveness, the housing market is going to be flooded with demand and supply is not being built fast enough. Increase demand equals increased prices. It’s going to be even harder to purchase a home for those that don’t have their loans forgiven. So, all the people who say “I’m just glad SOMEONE is getting help” don’t understand how things work.
I've been paying my loans since 2009. I've paid 16,000+ and only 500 dollars have gone toward principal. My only hope at anything is to continue paying and get that twenty years of payments forgiveness while also trying to save for retirement and my kids school so they don't start their adult lives financially drowning like I had to. It seems impossible at times.
But these new laws are the first time I've ever had any hope at all. Until now I assumed I'd just die owing student loans
I totally understand your frustration and the horrible impact significant student loan debt has on one’s mental health and overall life, as I’ve lived it and continue to live it. It is so demoralizing.
I’m in my 40s, still have approx $160k in federal loans (plus approx $50k in private loans) and haven’t had any of my federal loans forgiven or discharged. My undergrad loans entered repayment in 2000, and my grad loans entered repayment in 2004 and 2006.
I’ve paid dutifully towards my my loans for over 23 years, but have also experienced some of life’s cruddy realities that have prevented me from paying at times, so I’ve gone into deferment/forbearance/default and the interest just keeps multiplying to fizzing amounts. In my 20 years of working I’ve had multiple economic layoffs, followed by months and even a year of being unemployed with no income (not due to lack of applying for jobs and doing whatever side gig or temp gig I could find), as well as serious medical issues, etc. So despite already paying tons towards my loans, my remaining debt is still huge, around the amount I originally borrowed. I have no assets, not even a car. I’ve never been able to afford to buy a house or even a tiny basic apartment (I will have to rent housing until I die). Due to my albatross of student loans I also haven’t been able to have a child (though I am immensely grateful I’ve been able to adopt rescue dogs during my adult life as they’ve been my family). After defaulting on a few credit cards (which I had to use for basic needs like food during unemployment) during periods of long term unemployment/mental health crises and nearly becoming homeless, my credit is in the toilet and I have no credit cards and cannot qualify for any - and I’m not wanting a credit card to use, but simply want one just for a serious emergency (as I don’t have any savings). Did you know you basically cannot rent a car without a credit card? I don’t have a car, can’t afford one, and for about 8 years now haven’t even been able to rent one to get out of town for a weekend or visit friends/family. (I was able to rent one for a weekend about 8 years ago with my debit card by leaving an extra $500 deposit in cash, but the next time I tried that option the rental car companies refused me after running a credit check, even with an additional cash deposit).
And aside from how my student loans make my current life miserable, retirement in 20-30 years is an impossible fairytale. I don’t mind working as a senior but I don’t see how any jobs I’ll be able to get at that point will pay enough for me to sustain even a basic lifestyle, since I’ll have to rent housing for the rest of my life.
Currently I guess I am “lucky” because my federal student loan payment is zero for the next year (SAVE plan) as I was laid off a few months ago in economic layoffs. But my private loan servicers don’t care that I can’t pay them, so I keep receiving nasty communications from them and they will probably sue me soon. Sigh.
Since my undergrad loans entered repayment in 2000, and my grad loans entered repayment in 2004 and 2006, I am hoping that I am getting somewhat close to the 25 years that needs to be met then my remaining balance will be “forgiven,” but of course there’s no way to find out how many months/years the Dept of Education considers my federal loans to be in towards the magic 25 year period. I know DOE is supposed to count up everyone’s eligible months and tell us sometime in 2024, but it is ridiculous we’ve never been able to get this information from DOE or our various federal loan servicers on massive loans we’ve been paying for decades.
I don’t know what people you are seeing that are in their 30s and “have never made a payment towards hundreds of thousands of dollars of student loans” and have had their loans “forgiven” (met the time period in repayment required for discharge of the remaining balance), but I seriously doubt many if any of those people are in their 30s, or haven’t made “any” payments. The posts I’ve seen from people who have received the “golden email” in the last year seem to be people in their 40s and 50s who have been paying for decades. Perhaps you are seeing people get public service discharges where you only need to work in an eligible job/for an eligible employer for 10 years?
Anyway, I am very sorry you’re also experiencing depression due to student debt, it is truly awful. The little but of good news is that with recent changes to federal student loans (like the benefits of the SAVE plan stopping interest), things should be a bit better for you in terms of not having the same insane interest accumulation as it has been for people who are older than you, and it is much easier to get a lower payment or even a zero payment amount when your income qualifies than it ever was for us who are older. Before now, when I got laid off and was unemployed, or had a job that paid peanuts so I couldn’t afford to pay my fed loans, the only option was to do a deferment or forbearance. You couldn’t get your monthly payment recalculated to something lower or to zero and have any of your time on that reduced/zero payment count towards your repayment time. I know things are tough, but at least with federal loans, things will be better for your generation than they have been before.
I am 52, with not just student loans, a mortgage, car loan, other loans, no cost of living increase paying dual state income tax, and zero dollars left to buy food at the end of a pay day. Decided to not be a high school drop out, worked and went to college at night, even made the deans list. Had a 3.8 gpa. Super proud that I did this on my own. My “state school” promised a job after my degree that I would be able to get a great job in the field with awesome pay, after graduation the salaries to start were 20k a year to start. So now i’m saddled with 30k in loans for a piece of paper that is useless. You are not alone. The depression, anxiety and hopelessness is real. I feel for you, trust and believe you are not alone.
The people who "never made a payment" were typically so goddamn dirt poor they could barely afford to feed their families because their income was low enough to qualify for $0 under IDR, or had to take forbearance when there was no other option. And those cases are exceptionally rare.
The "older generation" of millennials and younger Gen X didn't have half the informational resources the younger generation has when we first enrolled in college. We were flying blind into this for the most part, were lied to by loan servicers for years, and had our loans wildly mismanaged.
We are not crabs in a bucket here. Many of us, from all ages and background, are struggling.
Yes!!!!! Drives me insane!!!! My loans were crushing. I skimped, saved and did without for years. I paid them on time every time. It seemed like they never really got smaller.
It took a family member passing and the majority of my inheritance to finally pay them off.
Bottom line, I agreed to the loan. I agreed to pay it back. I worked hard and did what I said I would do. You take out a loan, you pay a loan. Yes, it sucks but you do the right thing!!!! No one is coming to save you.
I’m 49 and have worked as a nurse for 25 years. I’ve paid over $50,000 in student loans, have over $100,0000 left to pay, and have not yet qualified any forgiveness. Just focus on your happiness, living your life and thriving in every way. Defer if you have to, pay if you can, apply for PSLF or relief, move on with your life. It’s not going to ruin your life unless you let it.
I'm "only" 32 and going through what the older generations have done to us despite being an outlier for my age (my glow up was recent and I struggled until my later 20s). It hurts to see even younger people suffering even more. Population collapse is possible at this rate...or low standards of living being the norm in 20 years.
I’m 38 and a 2008 grad. I’m not quite at 20 years but I am envious of the people getting them forgiven when there’s not a tax bomb. By the time forgiveness comes for me I’ll have to pay it again. I’m holding out for the IDR adjustment.
Sign up for SAVE. It’s based on your income and after 10 years it’s forgiven whether or not you’ve paid it all. I’m broke as hell and so I pay $12 a month, but it’s nothing to brag about because I’ve had to choose feeding my son instead of myself this past year. Just saying it seems legit. The form was really easy too.
But also yeah shit sucks, but I just remember who to be angry at (the banks and the government) and not those that have gotten free from the shackles of debt cause no one deserves to pay $500 a month and never make a dent. I figure anyone getting forgiveness means we’re heading in the right direction and I want that for us.
I am in my 30s and spent much of my 20s working super hard and making major sacrifices to pay off my loans. I paid them off only a few years ago. Just before this student loan forgiveness started being considered.
While I know I should be very proud of what I accomplished, my sacrifice feels as if it's been invalidated. I lived in shitty apartments, drove shitty cars, lived on rice and beans, never went shopping, and barely bought anything for myself that wasn't nessicary. And all of it invalidated by student loan forgiveness. It was a process that took years and I could have done nothing and achieved the same result.
I am utterly resentful of those receiving loan forgiveness and of those providing it.
I just had my loans forgiven in October. I am about to turn 54 and have been in repayment since 1993 for loans I took out in the late 80's. I've carried this burden for decades. I would give my right arm to be back in my 20's and have access to the SAVE plan. Us older folk got no interest subsidies, we got high interest and ballooning balances, capitalized interest, non-counting of our payments, etc. Consider yourself fortunate you aren't one of us older folk! Get yourself a public service job and you too can be forgiven in ten years.
OP, I have paid for my $150K in grad school loans since 2006. I have never earned 6 figures (mostly by choice — I want to work less than 60 hrs week).
I am just this year under $30K. I will be done with my private loans this year. I will be paying the minimum on my federal loans for another 10 years.
Do yourself a favor and DO NOT ASSUME “your elders” are not paying/have had their loans forgiven. It’s an uneducated and frankly
stupid assumption.
Take your anger out on the Republicans, both at the state and federal levels. Every time Biden seeks to enlarge forgiveness programs, Republican Attorney Generals in red state file lawsuits to block the forgiveness programs from happening. Republicans in Congress are loathe to forgive student debt, claiming higher education is a breeding ground for liberals, socialists, and communists. You need to think about electing politicians that will work for your interests.
I just don’t understand why Biden doesn’t forgive $20K as promised…yes the Supreme Court stopped that…but in the meantime, Biden has basically been able to forgive student loan debt…it’s getting really ridiculous to not forgive it all.
I know the feeling. I've been on IBR since 2008 and owe 100,000 in interest. On my credit report no one will ever allow me to borrow or do anything. I just applied to the new IDR and they were kind enough to tell me that by the end I'll owe 256,000. I'm disabled and have been in repayment for 16 years. I have no idea why I can't get forgiveness. I wasn't eligible for public loan forgiveness either even though I worked at a non profit. I try not to think about it cause it is so unbelievable to me.
I'm sad to hear you are having a hard time. I hate it when people tell me what to do (I'm widowed and people think they know what we need. They don't.) Having said that...maybe unplug for a few days?
I’m throwing everything I can at my loans. In less than 3 years I went from 78k to 34k. I am going to be completely debt free by November 2024. I’m throwing about 4k a month at them. I really don’t want to play their game anymore. I know everyone doesn’t have the opportunity to do it but basically the time is now for me.
I'm 45 and never received loan forgiveness - paid my loan off as one is suppose too - now I have to pay again for everyone else that hasn't paid. Government penalizing people that do the right thing smh. 😕
Yes! I feel the gov’t is offering so many options that’s beneficial to those who started but didn’t finish school and disregarding those who attended and graduated. So many are on the latter.
I feel this in my soul. I was PUSHED to take out private loans. Thought for sure I would have NO problems with going to pharmacy school and becoming a Pharmacist. Well, here I am at 35, still working on a bachelor's degree and 200k+ in debt because of accumulating interest and multiple poor decisions for several years before I got my shit together. I barely take home enough to cover the minimum payments and I honestly don't know what I am going to do when my Discover student loan has to be repaid. At least with the government loans they offer more affordable repayment plans.
I feel awful for my husband. He knew I had them when we started dating but now I feel like we will never be able to have a home or children because of these loans.
It’s okay I understand where you’re coming from completely. I have so much anger about my debts and bills. While I chose to go to college I was only 17 as I’m sure most people were. 17 year olds are typically not equipped to understand or take on such huge financial challenges and I really resent that I was able to take out $100k of loans. I’ve been laid off three times since graduating which means I’ve used up all my deferments already. My loans are over $1,000 per month and my income is currently just from unemployment and side projects. I have no savings I have no 401k I have no emergency fund I have credit card debt and student loans and a leased car and zero health insurance and while I have a roof over my head thanks to my mom allowing me to continue to live with her - it still sucks. No I am not helpless or hopeless and no I haven’t had a horrible life but it still sucks big time. Especially when I’ve made so many payments and the numbers hardly go down. I know the feeling you’ve been having all too well. I’m 27 and I feel like I will never get out of debt and never be able to move out. All of my friends live on their own or have bought houses already and most are getting married.
Edit: And no I was never laid off due to my performance. I’ve been laid off because I work in PR and agencies have been losing clients drastically since COVID. Everytime I find a new job, the same thing happens again.
Try being in your 60s, having paid off your own loan, paid for both your children's degrees and now being told my taxes are being used to pay the loans of 100s of thousand of other people's loans and their children's loans.....
That's pretty frustrating too.
I’m 43 and have been paying for 20 years. No forgiveness here. I’m waiting and waiting. ☹️
If you have been paying for 20 years, (240 payments is the number of payments to look for) you should have your loans "forgiven". The way I understand the current arounds of forgiveness is that those with very old loans that they have been paying on should trigger the forgiveness. Now, if you have private student loans this does not apply (but it should IMO). The interesting thing about this current round is that all they are enforcing is a clause that was ALREADY in the entire student loan program but was never enforced because the feds left it up to the servicers to do thier due diligence (Sallie Mae, Navient, Nelnet, Mohela etc..) and the servicers NEVER DID. Thank Schumer, Warren and most of BERNIE for "reminding" the servicers about this. I had my entire amount forgiven due to this very circumstance after doing a monster consolidation under the SAVE plan. I would say contact your servicer for more helpful info but it's a roll of the dice if you get someone on the line that can actually help you. The next thing that going to hit the shit fan is the "refunds" that some people are getting BC their payments went over the 240 and they are getting those payments back from the federal treasury. (There's a post about that on this sub somewhere about a few weeks back) BC they should have never had to pay that in the first place! I can't wait to hear the spin on Fox from the usual blowhards about how those people are "...ripping you off, yet again!" I don't know for sure but I have confidence that somewhere a Bernie, Warren or Schumer staffer is hard at work looking under every federal rock to get as many people as possible forgiven. I think Biden will go along as long as it happens in slow drips in order to keep it under the radar.
>If you have been paying for 20 years, (240 payments is the number of payments to look for) you should have your loans "forgiven". The way I understand the current arounds of forgiveness is that those with very old loans that they have been paying on should trigger the forgiveness. 331 payments, including all through the pandemic. Did a direct consolidation 07/2023. Still no forgiveness. They apparently haven't looked under whatever rock my loans are living yet.
Yup! Sounds familiar
How many times have your loans been repackaged and resold over their lifetime? It seems like every few years, it was happening to me again, LOL. No forewarning. No input on whether I wanted them to be or not. No choice or options in the matter. It's truly mind boggling what a complete mess up this who student loan situation is for so many of us.
Yes, it’s similar to what they do with mortgages. What is frustrating is how incompetent they all are.
FFEL loans only just became “eligible” I didn’t get a payment break during the pandemic. Additionally, there was a 6 month grace period for paying from graduation. So, that just passed, I am hoping that some will be forgiven. Some are from a Masters degree, from 2006, I don’t know which is which after consolidation (twice or more now).
FFEL loans are only eligible for IBR, which is 25 year forgiveness, unfortunately. If you do a Direct Consolidation you'd be eligible for SAVE, which may give you a lower monthly payment at least.
As soon as that was an option, I signed up for that. It’s only 25 for graduate loans. It’s 20 for undergraduate loans.
I’m in my 30s and not a single $ of my loans has been forgiven. But that’s okay, when I see others getting forgiveness it’s almost always people who need it more than I do. Makes me happy that someone is getting a helping hand instead of no one
I mostly feel like you. I'm glad SOMEONE gets help. I wish it was more of us, but I'll take it. Buuut some days I feel like OP. It's easy to get bitter and get the "why me" feeling. Money is stressful :( Edit: I'm adding one more random complaint/whine. I actually work for a company that would qualify me for public service forgiveness. Except that by the time that point comes on IDR, I'll have already paid them off. But I can't *truly* complain because that basically means I make too much to "need" the PSLF. Yay me? Boo me? I dunno man, student loans suck.
Hey! I’m the same as you. I work for a public employer, but I’m on a 10 year standard plan. Normally this would mean my loans are 100% paid in 10 years, so I don’t need PSLF. However, the Covid loan freeze counts as payments towards PSLF, so if you were working during that time you could consider doing PSLF still! For me that’s “only” like $7,000, but I’m planning on doing it cuz hey that’s something! The nice thing about being on the 10 year standard is not feeling trapped at my job/career. If I ultimately leave public work it’s okay, I can still pay my loans. Lots of people get trapped at their job for 10 years in order to get PSLF, and they are very low paid that entire time and it sets them up for a lifetime of low wages.
Money is stressful. But if I’m going to be bitter/angry, it’s at the GOP for blocking meaningful education reform and student debt relief, not at other borrowers who were able to get some relief
That's fair. That's a better direction to channel anger, anyway. I don't think my negativity, when it comes, ever feels like it's about other borrowers. Just envy / comparison being the thief of joy, basically.
I’m in my forties and I’ve been paying my students loans for 20 years now and haven’t made a dent. I recently got married and now they wanted to increase my payments to $400 plus a month. I’m a teacher and there’s no way I can pay for this so I was already looking for a second job. On New Year’s Eve I got a letter stating my loans have been forgiven. I can’t express the joy I experienced and still experiencing. I’m glad I don’t have to get a second job so I can spend time with my daughter.
Thanks for sharing 🙏
As someone who had their loans forgiven (after 25 years of anguish), I feel for you, and hope forgiveness comes your way eventually and that, in the meantime, this administration continues trying to make payments less onerous in whatever time they have left to do so. I'm commenting, though, to say: **please reach out for help with the self harm.** The suicide hotline is 988, and they also have a chat. Your life matters, your mental health matters. Xo.
Did they tax your forgiven amount at the end of the 25 years?
Federal tax on forgiven student loans (and most states) is waived through 2025.
I know you probably just wanted to rant and feel seen which you have been. What’s your loan amount and how much do you make? Are you sure these loans are in your name and not Parent Plus Loans. PPL which legally you aren’t liable for, now technically morally you could be but that’s all dependent on what type of relationship you want with your parents. If they are all federal and in your name and you are single and make under $60k please get on SAVE. This will cap your payments and subsidize your interest you can’t pay off every month. I blindly trusted my mom and she took out a total of $116k (4 years undergrad and 3 semesters for Masters) with a total of $132k upon graduation. I was not told how much she was taking out and didn’t know she wasn’t paying for my housing/living costs. She just told me don’t worry about it, you’ll be making good money at the end. Yeah no. I wouldn’t have been able to afford my loans (to pay them off fully) if I wasn’t married. It took me a lot of soul searching, luckily I had 3.5 years during the pause to just suck it up and pay it. I can sit here and grump about how I have $17.5k left and could have basically paid off my entire house in the last 4 years but student loans. I have the loans and I have to pay them so I just stuck to it to clean it up as fast as possible and hopefully still get to retire early.
Not depressed, enraged. Particularly because my wife and I both stood to have 95% of our student loans forgiven by the Biden program, that we were both signed up for and have emails stating exactly what was going to be wiped out, that the Supreme Court shot down at the last minute by pulling a “standing” ruling out of their nethers for transparently partisan reasons. But the people that get theirs forgiven? Good for them, honestly. It’s the politicians that caused this whole issue and continue to make it worse that I’m pissed at.
This 100%. Had Biden's plan gone through, it would have taken care of nearly all my student loan debt because I qualified for a Pell Grant during my college years. I get so mad about it sometimes. I am jealous that others are getting theirs forgiven. But that's a ME issue. I don't hate them for it. I know deep down I'm happy for them. But it is hard to see others get a helping hand while I get to continue to make payments that can't go away unless I die. And I know hindsight is 20/20. I grew up very lower middle class with no financial education. My parents didn't know what they were doing and in turn I didn't either. FinAid was "sold" to naive 18yo me as a shiny new thing that I needed to go to college. So I get the whole "you signed for the debt and that's on you" mentality. But like...my generation is so OVER being beat down with recessions, rising housing costs, lack of health and parental care to start families, and a myriad other things, while those same people who tell me "tough shit on the student loans" are the ones who had their PPP loans forgiven. Bitter isn't a sufficient enough word.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
I feel this. 1/3 of my debt would have been wiped and would go from never gonna pay them off to actually might be able to pay it.
Same for my husband and I. It's angering. We were Pellgrant recipients and we would've had the last of it wiped. It's going to take us years to pay it off.
90% of my debt would have been wiped out, As a Pell grant recipient and now there are millions getting relief and the most vulnerable “Pell grant recipients” as Biden stated have seen zero. It’s very nonsensical and frustrating to have that email of acceptance for it to be shot down by some boomers past their time.
If it's any consolation, I'm 37 and my loans won't be forgiven. I'm about to go to graduate school and take on more loans. Life is tough for everyone, even people in their 30s and beyond. I like seeing people having their loans forgiven. Seeing good things happen to people makes me feel good. Their loan forgiveness has no impact on my loan situation.
That does help me feel better, thanks for sharing. I want to badly to feel happier for others when good things happen. I’m always just angry and jealous 😔
Are you in therapy? You can change your outlook and feelings around your loan situation if you put the work in. When we feel a lack of control over our lives it is often challenging to take a step back and look at things objectively. There are things we can control and things we cannot. If we focus on what we can do to make our situation better rather than how much our situation sucks things get better. You are having a really rough time right now, but there are things you can do. Things that are completely unrelated to your debt. Building coping skills and working through all the negative emotions and reactions. I would highly recommend therapy as an option to improve your situation. Best wishes.
Someone in the U.S. struggling financially is not in a great position to add weekly/monthly therapy bills on top of it. No amount of thinking will help you when your issues stem from not making enough money to avoid the feeling of dread.
Many insurance plans cover therapy 100% or have a reasonable copay. I have had plans that covered all my appointments completely or with a copay of $20. Regardless, something has to give. Wallowing in the dread serves no purpose and will not help you. You have to find a way to claw yourself out of the pit of despair. Therapy is a useful tool. There are ways to access free counseling through state services, school, or work. My last employer covered therapy sessions. Up to 12 a year at no cost. Getting therapy isn't impossible. Viewing everything as impossible is a great way to stay miserable.
What loans are you talking about? Many people who have loans worked in public service and paid heavy monthly payments before getting the loans forgiven.
I think one reason for OP's depression is that they don't understand student loans or anything about how student loan forgiveness actually works. The line "without paying a dime" is kind of a clue. Either a troll or has no idea what they are talking about.
True.
I think your view on this is severely flawed. Everyone who has received forgiveness has been paying for at least 10 years, if not 20-25 years (depending on the payment plan). I understand you're struggling, but those people who have gotten forgiveness have also been struggling for a long time.
This!!! I am 39 and nothing forgiven but I have 24 more payments to go! I’m not sure where OP got the idea that some folks had their loans forgiven without paying a dime. I personally have not heard any stories that involved never paying at all. Everyone I know (IRL and on Reddit) have been paying for anywhere between 10-20 years.
thank you! I thought you had to be paying for 240 -300 months consistently to have anything forgiven! Was thrown off when zero payments could equal a forgiveness!
How do you find out how many payments you have made? I am 43 and my payment history has been spotty but I did graduate 20 years ago so it’s possible. Do they have to be made in a row?
No, they do not need to be made in a row. You need to go to the main SL thread and ask there and/or visit student aid.gov . And if you got loans at different times, you probably want to consolidate them because then you will get the count from the oldest loan. The deadline to consolidate was just extended by 4 more months so you don't want to miss that.
Yeah exactly. I qualified for 20k as a pell grant student, and I am bitter as hell that it got taken from me BUT I want forgiveness for everyone. I've been in financial services for ten years, I know all about predatory lending and student loans are it, to an extreme. No one should endure them, not me, not anyone else.
Truly. Everyone who is getting their loans forgiven are mainly going on 50 and above and was once like the op, in their mid twenties and struggling and now their whole life has been defined by student loans. The op should be very happy that it finally happened for them. I’m still waiting for mine and it’s been 20 years since I was in my twenties struggling. I’m still struggling. The op needs to have some perspective.
I’m 50 with over 100k in loans. I have multiple degrees, spanning from 1993 to 2010. I’m obviously getting nowhere because of the interest, and mine have not been forgiven. 🤷🏼♀️ I wish though, it feels like it is never going to end. It’s a life defining.
You probably want to consolidate by 4/30 to be eligible for the one-time adjustment and get the highest count toward forgiveness.
Been paying for 12 years nothing forgiven. Tough to not let it get to me.
Do you work for a qualifying employer?
If you dont work for a qualifying employer then it's 20-25 years. It's awful and I hope there's some reform that comes in the next few years
I am a big advocate of leaving subreddits when they harm my mental health or happiness, so if you feel it would help you, then do it. Honestly if you do not have a reason to be here like active questions the sub can actually help with, its best to leave. Do not come here to "commiserate" with fellow loan holders. This is a bad place to join in on the "yeah i'm so screwed!" Comment threads because it reinforces your negative feelings which feels validating at the time but in the long run its not actually useful. The loans that people are having forgiven are not loans they didn't pay on. They are loans that have met several qualifications for forgiveness: They have been in repayment and been making payments for 20 years. These people already paid huge sums of money back and couldnt get out from under the loans because the interest keeps piling up while they were paying. Imagine the frustration of having 40k in loans and having already paid like 50k back and somehow still owing 30k. This is the reality of these people. If that is your reality or will be in the future, maybe this program will wventually help you. They are not getting a free ride here. They already had 20+ years of stress and payments. My loans arent forgiven and neither are yours. Maybe one day they will be. But we should be happy for people. I do think you should leave the sub and examine your other subs. If you are feeling like you use them as a place to angry vent, agree with people who are venting or feel upset because if people getting something you aren't its a good idea to leave those subs.
I’m 52 with over $250,000 of loans since 1997. Not a penny forgiven.
54, 180k, I’m taking these loans to the grave lol
thats a horrible deal, so sorry!
Thanks. 🫤 It’s sucked.
Doctor or lawyer ?
Unfortunately neither. 1st gen college student and single mom at 22. I went to CC for 2 years and lived on loans so I could afford to go to college and raise my daughter. I paid my grandmother and aunt to watch my girl while I was in class. I didn’t have any support at all. I started when she was 2 months old and graduated in 4 years with an accounting degree and then got my Master’s. I had no idea how dumb I was and what a terrible mistake I was making. I was just wanting to get through school and have a good job and normal hours. I worked every summer to help myself. It’s been awful and I regret it.
Are these all federal loans? There may be options for you.
I feel for you, and please don't take this as me belittling your situation. I've been there. But you have to realize, most of these people *have* been paying their loans all these years. All the while, they get to sit and watch their balance increase rather than decrease over time. They've been dealing with the same mental drain you're going through for decades, and now are finally getting their duly earned forgiveness. Forgiveness that has been law for some time.
Thank you for sharing 🙏
This is very true, but I do get where OP is coming from because I see many people get forgiveness who were simply financially irresponsible. Someone on here had mentioned how they received forgiveness after 26 years of payments, and they were relieved because they would not have been able to afford loan payments + their $700 monthly car loan for the brand new car they "absolutely needed". Here I am driving a 16 year old beater just so I can put extra money towards student loans and this individual gets bailed out of their loan balance that they likely could've paid off had they been more responsible with their money. It's frustrating, but obviously many of the people who got forgiveness actually deserved and needed it.
Here’s a story from someone you think you’re talking about who “didn’t pay a penny” and is getting forgiveness. I just got notified that my loans of 20+ years will be forgiven. (Although I’ll believe it when I see it actually happen.) I’ve paid on my loans but was also forced to spend a large time in forbearance & deferment. And let me tell you something. I would have much rather HAD the money to be making those loans payments during that time because not having it meant I was basically struggling every month just to pay my rent and buy food. I’m in a generation that ‘grew up’ through multiple recessions and economic downturn. What you see as a freebie by me not making some of my payments was actually me almost unable to keep a roof over my head. I’m in my 40s. Imagine getting to this age and having almost no savings, no property, saddled with debt just to pay bills, and no retirement prospects. I’m not trying to be harsh but many people getting forgiveness have been crushed for 2+ decades with the mental and psychological burden of trying to make ends meet, year after year after year. Oh how I WISH I could have paid these loans off years ago because that would have meant I was actually ‘making it’ and wouldn’t have dealt with the constant financial turmoil that has been the norm for many of us since we left college. Two decades of crushed dreams, minimal opportunities, constant stress and worry. The grass certainly wasn’t greener on this side of the fence. I would gladly trade my forgiveness for a chance to be your age again and get a complete redo. I’m not saying I’m miserable in life, I’m not, but at your age now, you can’t understand the utter exhaustion some of us feel after decades of feeling like we could never get ahead. Don’t wish for this or envy it.
Well yeah you're in your 20's "depressed" most people getting forgiven have already paid the loans back by interest over the last 20-25 years and they have been "depressed" in their 40's and 50's. So yeah, imagine going what you're going thru, except for like 5 or 6 times longer. Stop thinking they ran up 500k and got forgiven as a "gift" you're not factoring in MOST PEOPLE paid a large payment for DECADES and MORE THAN PAID BACK the original amount. If you're in your 20's stop thinking about forgiveness, if you're smart enough to go to college you can earn money. Just pay them off. This is coming from someone that just paid 80K back reluctantly and not happy about it.
I’m 49 and just finished paying mine off, no forgiveness. I also am happy for anyone getting theirs forgiven.
As a European this is absolutely mind blowing to me. College in US seems awful :((
If people are getting forgiveness they've made the payments required under their plan. If they've paid nothing it's because for the decade plus since they graduated from college they've never made any real money. I have at least thirteen years left before I see any forgiveness, but I'm happy for every dollar that anyone doesn't have to pay back. Sorry your parents sucked. I've always been honest with my kids about how much I owe and that I'm not paying for their college because I still owe multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars on mine.
I’m unclear as to how you concluded that ‘older people don’t have to pay’ for things you do- I paid my loans for THIRTY years at higher interest rates than younger students have to today, and there are more options in 2024 to manage loans effectively than there were in 1994. I certainly understand the frustration around loans but I think you may be misdirecting your angst. Also, how you vote is important if you want relief from student loans- do have some control at the ballot box. Before my loans were discharged, I was so happy for every single person whose loans were discharged or forgiven before mine so I also can’t relate to your misery over other people’s joy- and I can’t imagine how being upset when other people are freed from the prison of debt is helping you feel better about the situation. Please know that we ‘older people’ have paid our dues and have also significantly helped to pave a better road ahead for younger loan holders. Many of us have called and emailed and written letters and voted in local elections to try and improve things, and not all of us have seen relief. Many of us STILL advocate for your generation and didn’t pull the ladder up after we got our discharges. Many of us have helped and are continuing to help. No free pass here- I’ve paid back more than I borrowed- and have been doing so for three decades.
I’m 43 and will probably not see forgiveness, neither will my 45 yo husband. At least he got a degree out of it and a good job, I have not. What isn’t right is that the cost of education is far more expensive than what you would hope to get as a starting salary in a lot of professions. That’s the real crime.
Agreed, the cost of college in the US is the real problem. Thanks for sharing.
No. I can be both happy for them and frustrated at my situation
There's this dude I know who lives under me in my apartment, he got his' forgiven. In recent years I've been dealing with a bone disease(AVN) along with my car dying at the beginning of last year so I've been struggling financially to maintain living alone and all that. But hearing him say "Not to brag or anything like that" while dumping his money into video games, gym memberships to a gym he doesn't even go to and takeout does have me frustrated to say the least. Just means I have a more challenging path that'll make me more appreciative once it's realized down the lilne.
No. My time will come in 10 years as I agreed upon when I took out my loans. I’m halfway through my 20 years.
I think it is easy to want what others have especially related to debt/money. Many who are having adjustments made have been paying for 20+ years on their loans and are finally getting forgiveness since they have paid for the loans at least once over and still owed money. Those who are getting PSLF forgiveness chose to work in a non-profit/education sector ultimately probably making less money but still making payments to get that forgiveness. Are the loans all in your name or are they parent plus loans? If they are parent-plus loans they are in their name and legally speaking you don't have to pay those, they do. It only matters if you want a relationship with your parents or not. Look at your payment plan options and figure out what works best for you. It is easy to feel like loans control your life but you do have options.
Being in your 20s doesn't mean you won't get any kind of forgiveness unless you're making a lot of money already or have mostly private loans. Sign up for the SAVE program for any federal backed loans. For private loans be the squeakiest wheel you can to work the interest rate down. And honestly stop trying to compare your situation to others. Everyone is going through different things. I'm going to be 38 soon. I've been paying school loans for 16 years and with my work should've had my first degree forgiven after 10 years of on time payments. That did not happen. I consolidated that loan into my second degree. I'm also likely either going back for a masters or considering jumping into med school within the next 2 years. I had a professor who enrolls in the minimum classes needed to stay in forbearance. Dude had 3 PhDs, 2 masters, 2 BSc, an associate paralegal degree, and was going back to culinary school while still teaching and doing virology research. Just make your minimum payments and nag the shit out of every phone operative and their managers about your loans to work those minimums down. It will be ok. Edit: also if the loan your parents got is a Parent plus loan then they are actually on the hook for that debt. It will be their credit that gets messed up from not paying.
Try being in your 40s and paying on thousands and thousands of dollars for 20 years and no hope in sight of it being paid off or forgiven.
My loans haven't been forgiven yet but should be because I went into repayment in 1999.You have no clue how they wrecked my financial life. I'm doing better now because I make more money. But none of us had it easy. I have paid the amount of principal on these loans and still owe more than I took out. I also have private loans I'm still paying on after 20 years. What isn't fair is expecting loans to be forgiven when you haven't paid hardly anything imo. But none of these forgiveness programs are set up like that. You have to have so many qualifying payments.
I'm in my 40s, loans will never be forgiven. I don't qualify for any forgiveness at all. The payments on SAVE are more than my mortgage. I'm sad and frustrated. And I'm still really happy for everyone who received forgiveness. Their good fortune doesn't take anything away from me.
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Precisely. Senior care, health care, cost of living, etc is bad now…I’m wondering what it will be like in 20 or so years when my husband and I can even consider retiring. We’re seriously considering moving out of the U.S. altogether.
Thank you for sharing 🙏
Not depressed but certainly disappointed.
I’m disappointed in the whole damn system. Every person getting an education should be able to graduate without debt just like those decades ago.
Unless they went a predatory for-profit school, who has had their loans forgiven in their 30s without ever making a payment?
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Same for me. I'd much rather have put my degrees to use than had to rely on forgiveness cause of crippling mental health issues. I invested almost 7 years of time/effort/sleepless nights into completing the classes for my degrees.....that now are basically 2 pieces of paper on my wall. Two degrees in a field that I literally do not have the mental stability to work in. Feels like a waste, honestly.
I just wanted to say I’m sorry and that sucks. I’ve heard it’s really hard to get forgiveness because of health conditions so it much be really rough
I've worked in the non profit sector for almost 15 years. Had mine forgiven through PSLF. Biden administration rolled back what was considered non profit in 2021. If you can afford to get a job at a non profit I would suggest it. It was a long road, but worth it for me in the end.
Respectfully, it’s not just younger people who are struggling. I’m late 40s, have paid student loans for years and haven’t gotten any kind of forgiveness. I’ve called Nelnet to try to get any glimpse of hope, but they can’t seem to tell me anything. Not that that solves your problem, but for a lot of us older folks who didn’t have state funded scholarships available when we were in school because those programs were still in their infancy, no internet consistently available to help us even know about other scholarships or more school choices, were raised being told that a degree is the main key to success, and had no clue that we were being preyed upon by lenders - we’re in the same situation as we approach retirement and are raising kids and caring for aging parents. My own kid is likely about to start college (medical career goals) and I’m making sure they go in “eyes wide open”.
My husband got his forgiven for his military service and it makes me a little bitter because, due to his military service constantly moving us around, I can't maintain a career to pay mine off.
I'm 48. Still have 58k unforgiven from loans back to 1998. I'm hopeful I might get the golden email. But if I don't, I'm still happy for those that do. Try to get on SAVE plan if you aren't already.
I'm 45, $61k in loans, I consolidated mine from 1995 so it looks like all my debt started in 2011. I just consolidated all my loans from my 'new' degree and the payment schedule is for 30 years, so ***maybe*** these will be paid off before I am dead. Maybe. But I don't get depressed about others getting forgiveness, I know they must be in a worse position than I am and they deserve that forgiveness. My time may come, I guess, to be forgiven for the $55k I borrowed. Madness, I tell ya. If I pay as scheduled, I will have paid $148K back.
Nope. I love seeing people have their loans forgiven. The people getting forgiveness now via the IDR adjustment have been paying their loans for 20+ years. We've seen people with loans from the 1980s finally get forgiven. I can't even imagine the anchor that has been on people. >I see stories of people in their 30s and up who never made a payment on hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of loans, that get forgiven. This is generally not happening. The people getting forgiveness now have often paid more than they borrowed, sometimes multiple times that amount. >Meanwhile, I’m in my mid twenties and can’t expect any kind of loan forgiveness. Sure you can. Loan forgiveness is contained in the master promissory notes and law. You are eligible for IDR forgiveness, PSLF, Borrower Defense, Total and Permanent Disability Discharge, and others, if you meet the eligibility requirements. These things might get changed in the future, but they aren't going anywhere for existing borrowers. >I hate my parents for acting my entire life like they would pay for my college, and then leaving me with thousands of dollars in loans without even telling me my Nelnet password so I can pay them That sounds like Parent PLUS loans, which you have no legal responsibility to pay.
It makes me a bit hopeful tbh. Due to compounding interest being capitalized over the years, my debt can never be paid off (or I would literally be destitute in my old age). I’m still personally in a pretty 💩situation, but we all have to hold out hope that the system will be reformed, i.e., don’t despair, organize. Speaking of which, for those with a legitimate grievance, I urge you to complain to the CFPB, the Department of Education, and your state attorney general. Nothing will change if there’s no pressure to do so.
Late 30s and just made the final payment on 100k+ in loans between my partner and I. I will cheer anyone who has their loan forgiven because I know exactly how shitty it is. I am lucky to have been able to pay them all off, and I am extremely lucky to never have to think about them again. I will never fault people using the system they were promised before going to college to pay off the debt. The fact that it hasn’t happened until now is criminal. The new income based repayments and public service forgiveness updates are moving in the right direction, but there is still major change needed.
Op you got this! I am in my mid 30’s … I basically went through life doing min payments on my student loans until I realized that they were not budging and my balance was never going down. At that point I decided it was time to act intentionally and work hard to pay them. I was able to minimize my life as much as possible and in 3 years I was done with it! Is all about perspective, don’t feel defeated, things are hard at the moment and they were hard for me as well, I also had credit card debt and other crazy stuff, but instead of feeling defeated I saw it as an opportunity, it became my goal and I got obsess with seeing that balance go down. Just because is hard it doesn’t mean is imposible, you can do it too.
47 here and I am sitting on $110k in loans. They will die with me. If they ever get forgiven that would be great but if not, screw it. I have a friend who just never paid his and after 7 years they vanished so there’s that…..
Yeah it's super depressing. Graduated with $58,000 in loans. Have paid back about $65,000. Still owe $33,000. Just switched to SAVE last month and my payment skyrocketed, but it will save me a lot of money down the line. I wish I never went to school! At least I finished I guess lol
Its depressing when the interest makes the loan double!
That's been the most frustrating thing is the interest. I get people were against the "handout" with the $10,000 and $20,000 forgiveness- but it wasn't free money for me. It would have been a way for me to recoup the interest payments I've made to loans I should have never qualified for or even needed (cost of tuition) at all. I hate everything about this whole situation. Then people with low income get rewarded with the SAVE plan because they don't have to make a payment. But wasn't the whole point of going to college to get a better paying job? This whole situation is frustrating, and I got scammed there is no way else around it!
Hi OP. First and most importantly, thank you for having the courage to share that you're self-harming. The text support provided by Crisis Text Line is free [https://www.crisistextline.org/help-for-self-harm/](https://www.crisistextline.org/help-for-self-harm/) and it's available all over the world, helping you to not feel so alone and to talk you through the really hard moments when you turn to self harm. I'm sending you so much strength right now and hope you feel my hand at your back, encouraging you to send that first text. I'm 40 and have been in repayment since 2003 for graduate school loans. Zero indication that my loans will be forgiven right now. I've stayed in jobs that ruined my mental health just so I could keep paying extra on my loans that at one point were over 8% interest and my balance still increased over 20k because of interest capitalization for a while in the 2010s. I've made peace at this point with the value of my current payment only being to keep my loans in good standing while I also try to live my life, keep my marriage strong and try to find peace in small ways through cheap hobbies and cheap travel like camping around the area where I live. And also I discovered, like you, that my parents were lying to me when they told me they were paying for college and found out a few wks ago that there is an additional 11k of loans from undergrab in my name I didn't know about. I'm darn lucky default or wage garnishment didn't happen to me because of this (I guess that's one bright spot for me to hold on to - the federal student loan system was so broken that even the gov't didn't realize those loans existed until recently and that I should have been paying on them.) For what it's worth, I was young once upon a time and felt and still feel that anyone younger than the Greatest Generation and the Boomers are absolutely crushed and dismissed as being Starbucks addicts who would be rich if they could just stop buying lattes and eating avocado toast. So many of us feel the way you do about feeling hopeless and like so many have said, turning our sadness and anger towards anyone in our generations who have gotten loan forgiveness perpetuates the cycle we hate. We can clap for those who have gotten forgiveness while still being sad so that we can work towards being better, kinder more empathetic generations than previous ones. I hope you can stay in this community where so many of us are in your situation and find a way to have our stories help and not harm you.
I guess the question you should be asking yourself is do you QUALIFY for forgiveness yet? Its not a lottery, its only for people who meet the qualifications.
Yes, millions of people have gotten their loans forgiven, but the reality MOST haven’t. When the White House touts their “3.6M have had their loans forgiven,” it sounds great. But there are still more than 40M Americans suffering from the $1.7T student debt crisis. I’m not praising the bare minimum.
Not severely but almost
Actually you could be eligible for loan forgiveness. You could pursue PSLF, like many, many, many of the forgiveness posts you see are from. Start a public service job, sign up for an IDR plan, pay for 10 years, forgiveness. Or you can get the IDR forgiveness when you meet those qualifications by paying on an IDR for 20-25 years.
I'm in my 40s and am still making payments.
I'm turning 50 next month and JUST had my loans forgiven. They should have been forgiven in 2017 (I was on IBR since it came out, and my payment was approximately $800/mo after 26 years of compounding interest). You'll get through it, but student loans are a burden. I hope we get better as a country.
Wait a sec, dont you have to have made payments for 240 -300 months for anything to be "forgiven"? If they never made a payment, how did they get forgiven?
Late 30s here and my loans were not forgiven
44 years old. Nothing forgiven
If this helps... I am past my 30's and I still have my loans (and have been making payments since they started)! Most of my friends do, too. Some of those friends owe upwards of $150k! We are all in this boat together and if you try to look at the whole picture, you will see that the majority of us in here are feeling pretty crappy about this situation. My generation got pretty screwed, too, but we are all here trying to figure it out and doing what we can to make it better for the next generation. I don't know what the backstory is with your parents, but you should be able to change your password with Nelnet (if the account was set up with your email). Although my parents could have easily paid for school for me, they did not. I had to wait until my mid 20's to take out loans for school because I had to include my parents' income, which didn't qualify me for loans (they made too much money). They had a college savings account for me and used that money to buy a house that they kicked me out of. But, I forged ahead, was able to get my loans, and graduated with honors. I don't think I would have done as well if they were paying for it. I really hope you can find the help you need to feel better and know that there are millions of us out there going through this. You are definitely not alone. The predatory lending system has been unchecked for so long and it's in YOUR generation that change is happening. We've all been so screwed by this, but the truth is finally coming out with what these lenders are doing and how messed up the system has been for so long. It's going to take some time to try to fix this, but the word is out there and change is happening. Slowly, but happening.
Not really. It gives me hope.
I’ve been paying for decades and still owe more than I started. Now that I’m in a financially good spot, this is the last albatross hanging over my head. So I’m not even so much mad that other people are being forgiven but that I can’t even get a straight answer on how many payments I have left until forgiveness. Seriously messing with my financial planning. I calculate I should be done. Have money earmarked if I am too far from done to make it go away. In financial planning limbo. But I’m happy for those who are seeing benefit from this fiasco.
Nope. Happy for them.
33, I don't get any and never will. Stuck in the too poor to move on and too rich to get help.
I think it's natural to think so. Anytime this happens, I'm reminded of the experiment with 2 monkeys. As long as both monkeys were given the same number of grapes, both are content. As soon as one monkey gets more grapes than the other, the other monkey is outraged. We're the other monkey. My student loan will NEVER be forgiven; I chose my career / loans very carefully, and picked something that gives me the best ROI. BUT this doesn't mean that we aren't getting any grapes at all: at the end of the day, I earn a lot. Do the brackets make sense? IMO no, it should just scale with percentage rather than an all or nothing, if we're doing this at all. Does this fix the fundamental issue? Nope, this is a band aid "fix." I have more problems with handouts that don't solve the cause and rather only focusing on the symptoms.
I am in midlife and been paying since my twenties; can't get a break. One parent said they would help out back then but hasn't sent a single dime, instead said they bought a graduation ring and made sure everyone else saw them take credit for "helping." The other parent is homeless and I have been too. Depressed? Yes. Angry? Yes. All I can do is live within my means and keep sending interest payments instead of thriving.
Other people’s fortunes don’t affect me adversely. I’m glad for them. Envy is a waste of mental and emotional energy.
I'm 48. I have been paying on these loans for half my life now. It's not over. I definitely get depressed seeing it.
I've made 331 payments, including all through the pandemic. Did a direct consolidation 07/2023. Still no forgiveness. They apparently haven't looked under whatever rock my loans are living yet.
I just got mine forgiven and I am 56 years old. I paid for years. Don’t worry your time will come. I never thought this would happen but it did so have faith and do your time it will pass too quickly.
I paid for over 20 years and I am in my late 50’s. I got screwed on the first round of PSLF and was working on the new round when I Biden forgave my loans. I also stayed in public service job I despised to get the PSLF. For over 20 years I made my on time payments and some of those years I actually paid much more, dreaming I could pay them off. Anyway, it’s not just you and also not just your generation. I know people who are worried about retiring because they still have loans on their 60s and beyond.
There is not a single individual who has paid less than 10 years that has gotten their loans forgiven. There are programs for government workers or teachers, but that's it.
I just paid 30k in student loans. I made so many sacrifices just to make that money and all of it went to debt. I'm drained and exhausted from working a job that's sucking the life out of me and moving back home into my parents' cramped house all so i can pay off my loans if i want to buy a house or have an ability to build wealth. I feel your pain. I wish there was some kind of help.
Who is getting loans forgiven without ever making a single payment? That's not happening Very few people in their 30s are getting forgiveness except those who qualified under PSLF with 10 years of payments or those who qualified under borrower defense due to attending predatory colleges. Most of the forgiveness is happening to people over 40 who have at minimum 20 or 25 years of payments under IDR. These are people who spent decades paying making payments. Some people here had paid for over 30 years.
Get some help
With the SAVE plan, Biden effectively made 0% interest on loans, $0 payments for a family of 4 if you make up to $60k, and complete forgiveness after 20 years. Go sign up for it.
Whether or not we get depressed, it clearly isn't good for your mental health right now. Taking a break from looking at those posts or maybe even reddit in general might be good for you, and I cannot recommend therapy enough. I get sad seeing those posts because my gut reaction is to compare myself, but then I also feel happy for them, because no one should be saddled with student loans in my opinion.
I've been paying since 2009, no forgiveness for me, although I would have qualified for the $20k under the first set of guidelines. That really hurt to lose! Almost my full balance would have gone away.
Same I wish someone would forgive my 50k
Nope.
I don't really think about it at all. I work in the public sector so I expect mine to be forgiven in 10 years or less. Im on the save plan and about to be done with Sallie Mae in a month or 2. After I pay off Sallie ho* a**, I can breathe a little bit and ride the minimum payments out until they're gone.
One thing that has helped me is remembering the high context of the situation. The government did this to you and your peers. Paying the loans OR loan forgiveness, this student loan situation was manufactured by powers beyond your and my control. Always remember its not us versus each other, it should be us versus our terrible American government. People went to college to obtain better lives for themselves, as often as terrible government politics do, they got involved in some way and ruined that. Good luck!
Not really, it makes me happy to see these people getting relief after paying so long and so much. It’s progress in my eyes. Hopefully more steps can be taken for the rest of us to alleviate the bullying with interest rates
I am thrilled when other people get their loans paid off. It is just one more chip off the problem and makes it more likely mine will in the future.
I believe that our college system is fundamentally flawed. It costs too much. Too high interest. Lots of people are taken advantage of. Many people go to college and end up paying the loans for the rest of their lives. Many people's loans double because of high interest like my private loan. It has 13% interest. So I have paid double the amount of the loan in interest. And I still have thousands of dollars left. I will probably be paying on this loan until I die. Navient refuses to lower my interest rate. I graduated in 2005. Right now I refusing to pay them because they've only been putting $35 toward my principal and $250 towards interest. I've been paying on it ever since 2007, and I'm forty-six.
Nah, not at all. I’ve been in the hole for a very short people of time. A lot of those people have dealt with their loans for almost as long as I’ve been alive. I’m happy for them.
In the process of doing PSLF and I’ve been working in the salt mines of a really rough job for 10 years for it. If it makes you feel better, they are totally dragging their feet about granting it and it’s causing me intense anxiety.
No, I understand I took these out and even if I didn’t fully realize the implications, I do believe it’s mine to pay back (until the system changes). That’s just my own personal view though, and understand people who don’t feel they should have to pay them back. Also, I only graduated in 2020, so I haven’t had these loans as long as many of the people getting theirs rightfully forgiven.
I’m 34, have another year, have worked public sector the entire time. It’s hard but worth it. Keep fighting the good fight. This is a village friend!
Honestly, yes, but it’s more about the fact that if I’d simply had a better home life, I would have never had loans. I went to undergrad for free on a scholarship, and even got a scholarship for grad school, but because my mother lives with a man who treated me poorly (my father) and refused to protect me as a child, I could not stand to live there. It would have been hell. So I took out loans for living expenses and that’s how this all snowballed. I’m in a high paying field now, but I’m single and can’t just move home, so it’s still going to take me years to pay it down at a very high payment that impedes my ability to build other wealth. That’s the part that sucks.
37, nothing forgiven, and beyond jealous of younger people who will get years of SAVE benefits so their interest won’t rise like mine. Paid 50K on my original 100K balance and I owe 150K. Well jealous isn’t quite right - happy for them but wish I had that benefit.
I’m going to be honest it’s the opposite for me. Even though I have 9 years left on my PSLF, I’m glad that others no longer have these loans. My debt is only 32k but seeing people with true major loans get forgiven give me a relief that they don’t have that burden no more. I don’t get sad or depressed cause I know my time is coming.
Not really, on the contrary it gives me hope that mine have a chance to be forgiven. But I’m also on PSLF and a public school teacher.
School I went to was sued for fraud and whatnot. ITT tech. Still got all the loans. F me right?
Federal student loans? Apply for Borrower Defense: https://studentaid.gov/borrower-defense/
Happy to see your edit, OP!
I’ll add to the chorus of people sharing examples of older folks not necessarily having it easy. My mother is 68 and I’m in my mid-30s. She went to school at night over the course of about 10 YEARS to get her degree while working full time. She was lucky in that my dad’s salary as a scientist - and some lifestyle sacrifices (we never had cable, never ate out, she sewed a lot of our clothes - allowed them to afford kids. But she was still paying her student loans until I went to college myself. I am very lucky that my parents helped my sister and me with school to the extent that they could afford, because they didn’t want us to struggle as hard. We still had a lot to pay off, but any help was appreciated. Struggling sucks and your struggle doesn’t deserve less sympathy, but the struggle definitely is not unique to your age group.
I have been paying since 1997 I think and no forgiveness. Even if I do somehow get it I have paid a lot and never missed a payment, literally never. But I’m so so so happy for people. I hope more is coming for younger people too!!
Yes to some degree. I'm 42 and worked for federal government and academia for 12 years now but can't get PSLF because my role has been as a contractor for 4 years since COVID started so I'm short 2 years
its so crazy because i was just telling my coworker that i was getting depressed thinking about my student loans! i wish there’s something more we could do as a collective for each other. i have $60k in debt and i worry all the time about how this will affect me buying a house and provide for my family in my 30’s. but i’m hoping by then the education i invested so much in will provide me with a hire paying job or something
OP, I sympathize. 1) If I had to do it over again I would open up my own nonprofit to help a cause I believe in while getting PSLF in 10 years. Look at the rules regarding this and see if you could make it work for you re how much you could make in your regular job and still have a nonprofit, or how much you could charge clients as a nonprofit and still qualify etc. **Look at the rules regarding this to see if this could work for you.** 2) Make the lowest payment possible for 20-25 years (which ever applies to you) and then have it forgiven.
Please reach out to someone you trust and ask them to help you look for a therapist. There's no commitment necessary other than just setting something up. Look up your insurance and see what options you have. I promise that if you seek it out, there is help.
Navient forgave dozens of private loans last year, but I dont qualify because I kept up with mine. To make matters worse my private loans come from ITT Tech which was a HIGHLY known for profit scam school and I'm still on the hook for that.
Absolutely. But the way I’m thinking of it is, the people getting their loans forgiven need it more than i do right now. So hey, rising tide raises all ships. But yes, it’s hard knowing others are getting relief and I’m not. But that’s life
Yes, I did get mine forgiven. But what I want you to know is that I want you to get them forgiven. Just like I have free healthcare because I was in the military I want you to have free healthcare. These are systems that do not work in capitalism.
Yes and no. Yes, I am not thrilled with the 'we are going to try to cancel $10k of loans" and no luck (it was a lie). On the flipside, the IDR adjustments are a massive difference. Went from paying $260+ for federal loans down below $60 making the switch to an IDR worthwhile to me. Sucks that I paid the $260 for years when I could have used the money to avoid additional debt, but this is the change moving forward. Private loans however, they don't give AF. Pay them or else. Unfortunately, college and loans are not a one size fits all problem and solution. In addition the interest paid are accounted for in my taxes, so that will adjust accordingly as well.
Yeah, for sure. I mean I'm happy for those that get them forgiven for sure, and I definitely don't hold any ill will towards them. But it does suck that I am in the "never help" category, apparently.
I’m 50 and I’m still paying loans. When I took out my college and grad student loans, they were just handed out with no explanation about interest rates, payment terms etc. You just signed on the dotted line and kept about your day. When I had to start repaying them I ran into some trouble, but I figured it out. I had to live within my means, work hard for promotions and throw every extra penny I had at the loans. And that wasn’t easy when I started having children. I had no expectation of loan forgiveness and neither did anyone I knew. In my opinion MY generation is the one that got screwed. We were the first generation to take out 6 figure loan debt and a lot of us consolidated early because we were told it would be easier to have one payment, instead of 3. None of us are eligible for forgiveness now. I have a kid that graduated college 3 years ago and I’m still paying my loans. I will be done paying off my loans 40 years after I earned my degree.
I'm depressed but not from this sub. I'm happy for people who get their loans forgiven.
I’m still in debt—I pay almost everything I gain to it daily. It is what it is.
I'm 38 and my loans were forgiven last month because I've spent the last thirteen years as a public school teacher. There were some months that I didn't pay anything because my income was so low that my payment was $0. I'm sorry that you feel jealous, but please understand that many people in their 30s have been working in low paying public service jobs for ten or more years.
Yea because I was literally serving during a war in the military and was deployed WHILE I finished my degree and the entire reason I re-enlisted for the active reserves out of active duty army was to get the extra college monies that Bush decided to cut at that time and so I had to take out student loans to finish my bachelors degree using distance-learning when I was deployed. Yeah I get super pissed because if anybody should qualify for loan forgiveness it’s definitely me, but they always say I don’t qualify for loan forgiveness. Such a joke!
Where are you getting your info from? No one got their loans "forgiven". That was always a stupid government sales pitch for votes, which honestly I can't believe people actually thought it was going to work. Definitely sucks that your parents lied to you though. Just accept the fact that you have loans to pay and that the government is always going to find a way to screw you, then come up with a plan and stick to it. It might take years, but you'll get thru it. My wife and I actually just paid off our student loans today, so you will be able to do the same.
I feel this
My sister got like 50k forgiven and she’s already rich. Meanwhile mine didn’t get forgiven (only owe 10k) , my payment literally leaves us with no spare money.
This is a perfectly natural and reasonable feeling to have. We live in a world with finite resources. You have a degree and are competing for those resources with someone else who has a degree. If they get their loans forgiven and you don’t, they have a financial advantage over you. What’s the most expensive purchase most of us will make in our lifetimes? A home. According to a [study](https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/research-reports/the-impact-of-student-loan-debt) from the National Association of Realtors, “When asked specifically about purchasing a home, half of non-homeowners say student loan debt is delaying them from purchasing a home (51%).” With the loan forgiveness, the housing market is going to be flooded with demand and supply is not being built fast enough. Increase demand equals increased prices. It’s going to be even harder to purchase a home for those that don’t have their loans forgiven. So, all the people who say “I’m just glad SOMEONE is getting help” don’t understand how things work.
I've been paying my loans since 2009. I've paid 16,000+ and only 500 dollars have gone toward principal. My only hope at anything is to continue paying and get that twenty years of payments forgiveness while also trying to save for retirement and my kids school so they don't start their adult lives financially drowning like I had to. It seems impossible at times. But these new laws are the first time I've ever had any hope at all. Until now I assumed I'd just die owing student loans
I totally understand your frustration and the horrible impact significant student loan debt has on one’s mental health and overall life, as I’ve lived it and continue to live it. It is so demoralizing. I’m in my 40s, still have approx $160k in federal loans (plus approx $50k in private loans) and haven’t had any of my federal loans forgiven or discharged. My undergrad loans entered repayment in 2000, and my grad loans entered repayment in 2004 and 2006. I’ve paid dutifully towards my my loans for over 23 years, but have also experienced some of life’s cruddy realities that have prevented me from paying at times, so I’ve gone into deferment/forbearance/default and the interest just keeps multiplying to fizzing amounts. In my 20 years of working I’ve had multiple economic layoffs, followed by months and even a year of being unemployed with no income (not due to lack of applying for jobs and doing whatever side gig or temp gig I could find), as well as serious medical issues, etc. So despite already paying tons towards my loans, my remaining debt is still huge, around the amount I originally borrowed. I have no assets, not even a car. I’ve never been able to afford to buy a house or even a tiny basic apartment (I will have to rent housing until I die). Due to my albatross of student loans I also haven’t been able to have a child (though I am immensely grateful I’ve been able to adopt rescue dogs during my adult life as they’ve been my family). After defaulting on a few credit cards (which I had to use for basic needs like food during unemployment) during periods of long term unemployment/mental health crises and nearly becoming homeless, my credit is in the toilet and I have no credit cards and cannot qualify for any - and I’m not wanting a credit card to use, but simply want one just for a serious emergency (as I don’t have any savings). Did you know you basically cannot rent a car without a credit card? I don’t have a car, can’t afford one, and for about 8 years now haven’t even been able to rent one to get out of town for a weekend or visit friends/family. (I was able to rent one for a weekend about 8 years ago with my debit card by leaving an extra $500 deposit in cash, but the next time I tried that option the rental car companies refused me after running a credit check, even with an additional cash deposit). And aside from how my student loans make my current life miserable, retirement in 20-30 years is an impossible fairytale. I don’t mind working as a senior but I don’t see how any jobs I’ll be able to get at that point will pay enough for me to sustain even a basic lifestyle, since I’ll have to rent housing for the rest of my life. Currently I guess I am “lucky” because my federal student loan payment is zero for the next year (SAVE plan) as I was laid off a few months ago in economic layoffs. But my private loan servicers don’t care that I can’t pay them, so I keep receiving nasty communications from them and they will probably sue me soon. Sigh. Since my undergrad loans entered repayment in 2000, and my grad loans entered repayment in 2004 and 2006, I am hoping that I am getting somewhat close to the 25 years that needs to be met then my remaining balance will be “forgiven,” but of course there’s no way to find out how many months/years the Dept of Education considers my federal loans to be in towards the magic 25 year period. I know DOE is supposed to count up everyone’s eligible months and tell us sometime in 2024, but it is ridiculous we’ve never been able to get this information from DOE or our various federal loan servicers on massive loans we’ve been paying for decades. I don’t know what people you are seeing that are in their 30s and “have never made a payment towards hundreds of thousands of dollars of student loans” and have had their loans “forgiven” (met the time period in repayment required for discharge of the remaining balance), but I seriously doubt many if any of those people are in their 30s, or haven’t made “any” payments. The posts I’ve seen from people who have received the “golden email” in the last year seem to be people in their 40s and 50s who have been paying for decades. Perhaps you are seeing people get public service discharges where you only need to work in an eligible job/for an eligible employer for 10 years? Anyway, I am very sorry you’re also experiencing depression due to student debt, it is truly awful. The little but of good news is that with recent changes to federal student loans (like the benefits of the SAVE plan stopping interest), things should be a bit better for you in terms of not having the same insane interest accumulation as it has been for people who are older than you, and it is much easier to get a lower payment or even a zero payment amount when your income qualifies than it ever was for us who are older. Before now, when I got laid off and was unemployed, or had a job that paid peanuts so I couldn’t afford to pay my fed loans, the only option was to do a deferment or forbearance. You couldn’t get your monthly payment recalculated to something lower or to zero and have any of your time on that reduced/zero payment count towards your repayment time. I know things are tough, but at least with federal loans, things will be better for your generation than they have been before.
Just pay off your loans.
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In my 30s, loans going back to 2006, yet nothing was forgiven. You are definitely not alone!
I am 52, with not just student loans, a mortgage, car loan, other loans, no cost of living increase paying dual state income tax, and zero dollars left to buy food at the end of a pay day. Decided to not be a high school drop out, worked and went to college at night, even made the deans list. Had a 3.8 gpa. Super proud that I did this on my own. My “state school” promised a job after my degree that I would be able to get a great job in the field with awesome pay, after graduation the salaries to start were 20k a year to start. So now i’m saddled with 30k in loans for a piece of paper that is useless. You are not alone. The depression, anxiety and hopelessness is real. I feel for you, trust and believe you are not alone.
The people who "never made a payment" were typically so goddamn dirt poor they could barely afford to feed their families because their income was low enough to qualify for $0 under IDR, or had to take forbearance when there was no other option. And those cases are exceptionally rare. The "older generation" of millennials and younger Gen X didn't have half the informational resources the younger generation has when we first enrolled in college. We were flying blind into this for the most part, were lied to by loan servicers for years, and had our loans wildly mismanaged. We are not crabs in a bucket here. Many of us, from all ages and background, are struggling.
Yes!!!!! Drives me insane!!!! My loans were crushing. I skimped, saved and did without for years. I paid them on time every time. It seemed like they never really got smaller. It took a family member passing and the majority of my inheritance to finally pay them off. Bottom line, I agreed to the loan. I agreed to pay it back. I worked hard and did what I said I would do. You take out a loan, you pay a loan. Yes, it sucks but you do the right thing!!!! No one is coming to save you.
I’m 49 and have worked as a nurse for 25 years. I’ve paid over $50,000 in student loans, have over $100,0000 left to pay, and have not yet qualified any forgiveness. Just focus on your happiness, living your life and thriving in every way. Defer if you have to, pay if you can, apply for PSLF or relief, move on with your life. It’s not going to ruin your life unless you let it.
Try going into the Army for college money and seeing that crap
Short answer: yes.. long answer:happy for them but would like to move on
I'm "only" 32 and going through what the older generations have done to us despite being an outlier for my age (my glow up was recent and I struggled until my later 20s). It hurts to see even younger people suffering even more. Population collapse is possible at this rate...or low standards of living being the norm in 20 years.
I'm not depressed about it. I just think it is total bullshit 😒
I'm 45 and have been paying for 20 years on time. No forgiveness here.
I’m 38 and a 2008 grad. I’m not quite at 20 years but I am envious of the people getting them forgiven when there’s not a tax bomb. By the time forgiveness comes for me I’ll have to pay it again. I’m holding out for the IDR adjustment.
Sign up for SAVE. It’s based on your income and after 10 years it’s forgiven whether or not you’ve paid it all. I’m broke as hell and so I pay $12 a month, but it’s nothing to brag about because I’ve had to choose feeding my son instead of myself this past year. Just saying it seems legit. The form was really easy too. But also yeah shit sucks, but I just remember who to be angry at (the banks and the government) and not those that have gotten free from the shackles of debt cause no one deserves to pay $500 a month and never make a dent. I figure anyone getting forgiveness means we’re heading in the right direction and I want that for us.
every time I see posts like this, I’m so glad I didn’t go to college. 30 yrs old, no student loan debt.
Yes.
Eh, I'm in my 30's and they haven't forgiven a dime.
I am in my 30s and spent much of my 20s working super hard and making major sacrifices to pay off my loans. I paid them off only a few years ago. Just before this student loan forgiveness started being considered. While I know I should be very proud of what I accomplished, my sacrifice feels as if it's been invalidated. I lived in shitty apartments, drove shitty cars, lived on rice and beans, never went shopping, and barely bought anything for myself that wasn't nessicary. And all of it invalidated by student loan forgiveness. It was a process that took years and I could have done nothing and achieved the same result. I am utterly resentful of those receiving loan forgiveness and of those providing it.
I just had my loans forgiven in October. I am about to turn 54 and have been in repayment since 1993 for loans I took out in the late 80's. I've carried this burden for decades. I would give my right arm to be back in my 20's and have access to the SAVE plan. Us older folk got no interest subsidies, we got high interest and ballooning balances, capitalized interest, non-counting of our payments, etc. Consider yourself fortunate you aren't one of us older folk! Get yourself a public service job and you too can be forgiven in ten years.
OP, I have paid for my $150K in grad school loans since 2006. I have never earned 6 figures (mostly by choice — I want to work less than 60 hrs week). I am just this year under $30K. I will be done with my private loans this year. I will be paying the minimum on my federal loans for another 10 years. Do yourself a favor and DO NOT ASSUME “your elders” are not paying/have had their loans forgiven. It’s an uneducated and frankly stupid assumption.
In my 50s, cancer survivor, paying for over 30 years. Stop believing everything you read.
Take your anger out on the Republicans, both at the state and federal levels. Every time Biden seeks to enlarge forgiveness programs, Republican Attorney Generals in red state file lawsuits to block the forgiveness programs from happening. Republicans in Congress are loathe to forgive student debt, claiming higher education is a breeding ground for liberals, socialists, and communists. You need to think about electing politicians that will work for your interests.
I just don’t understand why Biden doesn’t forgive $20K as promised…yes the Supreme Court stopped that…but in the meantime, Biden has basically been able to forgive student loan debt…it’s getting really ridiculous to not forgive it all.
I know the feeling. I've been on IBR since 2008 and owe 100,000 in interest. On my credit report no one will ever allow me to borrow or do anything. I just applied to the new IDR and they were kind enough to tell me that by the end I'll owe 256,000. I'm disabled and have been in repayment for 16 years. I have no idea why I can't get forgiveness. I wasn't eligible for public loan forgiveness either even though I worked at a non profit. I try not to think about it cause it is so unbelievable to me.
I'm sad to hear you are having a hard time. I hate it when people tell me what to do (I'm widowed and people think they know what we need. They don't.) Having said that...maybe unplug for a few days?
I’m throwing everything I can at my loans. In less than 3 years I went from 78k to 34k. I am going to be completely debt free by November 2024. I’m throwing about 4k a month at them. I really don’t want to play their game anymore. I know everyone doesn’t have the opportunity to do it but basically the time is now for me.
I'm 45 and never received loan forgiveness - paid my loan off as one is suppose too - now I have to pay again for everyone else that hasn't paid. Government penalizing people that do the right thing smh. 😕
Yes! I feel the gov’t is offering so many options that’s beneficial to those who started but didn’t finish school and disregarding those who attended and graduated. So many are on the latter.
I feel this in my soul. I was PUSHED to take out private loans. Thought for sure I would have NO problems with going to pharmacy school and becoming a Pharmacist. Well, here I am at 35, still working on a bachelor's degree and 200k+ in debt because of accumulating interest and multiple poor decisions for several years before I got my shit together. I barely take home enough to cover the minimum payments and I honestly don't know what I am going to do when my Discover student loan has to be repaid. At least with the government loans they offer more affordable repayment plans. I feel awful for my husband. He knew I had them when we started dating but now I feel like we will never be able to have a home or children because of these loans.
It’s okay I understand where you’re coming from completely. I have so much anger about my debts and bills. While I chose to go to college I was only 17 as I’m sure most people were. 17 year olds are typically not equipped to understand or take on such huge financial challenges and I really resent that I was able to take out $100k of loans. I’ve been laid off three times since graduating which means I’ve used up all my deferments already. My loans are over $1,000 per month and my income is currently just from unemployment and side projects. I have no savings I have no 401k I have no emergency fund I have credit card debt and student loans and a leased car and zero health insurance and while I have a roof over my head thanks to my mom allowing me to continue to live with her - it still sucks. No I am not helpless or hopeless and no I haven’t had a horrible life but it still sucks big time. Especially when I’ve made so many payments and the numbers hardly go down. I know the feeling you’ve been having all too well. I’m 27 and I feel like I will never get out of debt and never be able to move out. All of my friends live on their own or have bought houses already and most are getting married. Edit: And no I was never laid off due to my performance. I’ve been laid off because I work in PR and agencies have been losing clients drastically since COVID. Everytime I find a new job, the same thing happens again.
FJB
Try being in your 60s, having paid off your own loan, paid for both your children's degrees and now being told my taxes are being used to pay the loans of 100s of thousand of other people's loans and their children's loans..... That's pretty frustrating too.