Minor victory thread

bhamv3

bhamv3

You know what's even better than taking three days off work?

Coming back to find that there are no emergency fires you need to put out as a result of your absence.

Well, okay, taking three more days off work would've been nice too. But I'll take the minor victory.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Not sure whether to put this in the minor rant or minor victory. It remains to be seen.

I have student loan debt. When I finally graduated with my SECOND Master's I found myself unemployed, then under-employed. I went into default, my wages started getting garnished and there it is. So I'm trying to get out from under the massive and crippling debt and called the collection agency to send me information. What I'm going to TR and do is roll up my two loans into one, but that is going to be a massive undertaking. Still, after paying ALL bills (including a $467 a month garnishment) I still have about $600 left out of my check so I'll be able to pay a little more. But, I don't know if I want to do this. Here are the pros/cons of consolidating.

Pro:
  • I'd be in more firm control of my debt and could pay extra. Up until today I had no idea to whom I was paying. I thought it was Nelnet but it was bought by Regional Adjustment Bureau.
  • Paying on a debt looks better on your credit than getting garnished. Even though I'd be paying a comparable amount, credit companies see garnishments as a negative. I do and don't understand this.
Con:
  • If I go income based there's a chance I might have to pay more than I'm comfortable.
  • Come December I'll no longer be salaried thanks to a new law that says you have to make over $50,000 or so to be able to be salaried. I know they say this is for our protection, but it hurts more than helps me. So if I set up an auto payment and my checks are bi-weekly instead of once a month, how often would I screw myself?
Those are the main ones, but I think you get the gist of it. When I first finished school I was living paycheck to paycheck and just plain couldn't pay. Now I'm in a more comfortable position but it's going to be a bitch to take care of. But I'm 50 now and consolidating will stretch the loans out 25 years. That's 75 to you & me. THEN I'll be able to retire.

But it's a plan, isn't it?
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Dave said:
it's a plan, isn't it?
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We can make all our bills right now, we just have next to nothing left over.
I sat down one day and wrote out how long we'd have to pay everything, snowballing the larger ones as the smaller ones were paid off, until everything was paid and we could start saving for retirement. I think I figured out we would finally be able to start saving once I turned 64...IF we didn't need a new car loan/mortgage/etc before then.

So want to get rid of this house.

--Patrick
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
PatrThom said:
We can make all our bills right now, we just have next to nothing left over.
I sat down one day and wrote out how long we'd have to pay everything, snowballing the larger ones as the smaller ones were paid off, until everything was paid and we could start saving for retirement. I think I figured out we would finally be able to start saving once I turned 64...IF we didn't need a new car loan/mortgage/etc before then.

So want to get rid of this house.

--Patrick
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The difference is, if you owe on a house they can take it back (trust me on this one!) and you can still start getting social security. None of that with student loans. With a house loan you can declare bankruptcy (I DECLARE BANKRUPTCY!!) and have that discharged. Not so for student loans. They are the cockroaches of debt.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Dave said:
The difference is, if you owe on a house they can take it back (trust me on this one!) and you can still start getting social security. None of that with student loans. With a house loan you can declare bankruptcy (I DECLARE BANKRUPTCY!!) and have that discharged. Not so for student loans. They are the cockroaches of debt.
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Oh, believe me, I know. You can have them discharged, but you have to prove that they will still bring you hardship even after all your other debt has been discharged.
We debated this year whether to keep paying Kati's loans. They're on IBR, but even though we've been paying on them for > 10yrs, they are now > 200% their original amount. So I called 'em up and said look, we're never going to get out of this, she has no income and is not going to have any for the rest of her life, so we're going to stop paying you. They replied that since it's a government loan, so long as we have X years of unbroken payments, they can eventually be discharged (I don't remember the details at the moment). Ok fine, we'll keep paying them.
I also ran the numbers on whether we should file jointly or separately this year, because then the IBR calculation would show she has no income (rather than being calculated on my income), but it turns out that the hit to my refund from filing separately would actually be NOTICEABLY MORE than it would be to just pay her payments all year. So stupid.

--Patrick
 
Cog

Cog

This reminds me of my own student loans. Exactly one month after I was supposed to start paying, we changed the local currency with dollars. With an exchange rate on 25000 sucres per dollar, I paid all the debt with my first salary.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Cog said:
This reminds me of my own student loans. Exactly one month after I was supposed to start paying, we changed the local currency with dollars. With an exchange rate on 25000 sucres per dollar, I paid all the debt with my first salary.
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I don't like you any more.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Underling #2 is quitting.

So why is this a minor victory?

She's the one that they basically took away from me/reassigned her to other duties for 90% of her day, and I only got that remaining 10% because I fought tooth and nail for it.

So right now she's training her replacement, and he isn't suited for the other crap they had her doing, so chances are he's going to be my new Underling #2 full time. Well, he's part time because he's a student, but at least he won't be splitting that time with other departments.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Gruebeard said:
Dave, Patrick, you make me happy my only debt is my mortgage. Thank you for that minor victory.
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I've been paying down my debt, but it's not the way I want to and I have no control. So I'm happy to be paying $467 a month. I can afford it.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Cog said:
This reminds me of my own student loans. Exactly one month after I was supposed to start paying, we changed the local currency with dollars. With an exchange rate on 25000 sucres per dollar, I paid all the debt with my first salary.
Click to expand...
Man, student loans. I'm so sad I live in this semi-socialist paradise where university tuition is €480 per year, and even that gets reduced for people with lower income...Of course, our uni's' quality is crappy as....No wait, all of our universities are in the world's top 500. Huh. Guess this isn't the worst place in the world, after all*....



*Second worst - we all know nothing beats New Jersey
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Bubble181 said:
Man, student loans. I'm so sad I live in this semi-socialist paradise where university tuition is €480 per year, and even that gets reduced for people with lower income...Of course, our uni's' quality is crappy as....No wait, all of our universities are in the world's top 500. Huh. Guess this isn't the worst place in the world, after all*....



*Second worst - we all know nothing beats New Jersey
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*pats head* yes, Belgium, you're a big real country just like the rest of us, yes you are :rolleyes:
 
fade

fade

Staff member
Man, I'm glad I had academic scholarships in undergrad and assistantships in grad school. I had some loans, but they're all paid off. Take that, high school bullies. Who all seem to be living in mansions and driving nice cars, because the same skillset that let them get away with bullying got them ahead in life even without school. Stupid lying after school specials never counted on Facebook revealing their lies.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
fade said:
Man, I'm glad I had academic scholarships in undergrad and assistantships in grad school. I had some loans, but they're all paid off. Take that, high school bullies. Who all seem to be living in mansions and driving nice cars, because the same skillset that let them get away with bullying got them ahead in life even without school. Stupid lying after school specials never counted on Facebook revealing their lies.
Click to expand...


Heh, I had the extreme good fortune to have my father be out of work the entire year before I had to fill out my FAFSA, but even still, those stafford loans, oigh.

But hey, A&M's just finishing up building yet another $3000/spot per semester parking garage! Can't wait for the next notification of a fee/tuition hike, right?
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Yeah, I had no student loans either...until I married into them.
It wasn't kept secret when we started dating.
Yes, I liked her that much. Still do.

--Patrick
 
Sparhawk

Sparhawk

We kept my wife's college paid up each semester, while I was in the military, got out of a 4 year degree in Education debt free. I attended college some, I didn't fit in, they were still moving too slow, used what I could of my GI Bill monies. Daughter graduated with an Associate of Science just over a year ago, debt free. Got certified and found a great job as a Phlebotomist with a local doctor's group, they'll help her pay for getting up to a LVN level. We were in debt for a few years because of stupid decisions and unfortunate timing on credit card debt, but we've gotten much better since then.
 
Sparhawk

Sparhawk

My wife signed up for a produce co-op at the local farmers market. Today was her first day to pick up her basket. In the basket were romaine lettuce, large white onions, corn, celery, green apples, lemons, kiwi, honeydew melon, pineapple, bananas, bell pepper, cucumber, asparagus, carrots, potatoes, and oranges. She added some yellow squash and strawberries. This is the haul...
 
HCGLNS

HCGLNS

Sparhawk said:
My wife signed up for a produce co-op at the local farmers market. Today was her first day to pick up her basket. In the basket were romaine lettuce, large white onions, corn, celery, green apples, lemons, kiwi, honeydew melon, pineapple, bananas, bell pepper, cucumber, asparagus, carrots, potatoes, and oranges. She added some yellow squash and strawberries. This is the haul...
Click to expand...
=Yoink!=
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

I paid off my then-girlfriend-now-wife's student loans while we were dating, using revenues generated only from the interpretation cases I took as a grad student. It was the manliest I'd ever felt in my life.

Although I think it sort of made her feel obligated to marry me afterwards, which is kinda... I dunno how to describe it.
 
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