Student Loan Debt
š·š·š·Should I Payoff My Student Loans During The Pandemic?š·š·š·
šHow To Cope With Stress: $1,799.04 Left | Original Balance $85,308.07š
Trump just waived interest on student loans
March 19, 2020
Aarthi Swaminathan, Yahoo Finance
In response to theĀ coronavirus, U.S. President Donald Trump has just waived interest on all student loans.Ā
āI am announcing the following emergency actions today: to help our students and their families, Iāve waived interest on all student loans held by federal government agencies and that will be until further notice,ā he said during a press conference on Friday.
Experts reacted quickly, and they were divided on the announcement.
āDealing with interest is an important start and Iām glad they recognized the need for action to help borrowers,ā Ben Miller, vice president for postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress, told Yahoo Finance. āBut they need to do more to make it easier for borrowers to pause payments, automatically prevent individuals from going delinquent, and immediately stop the seizure of tax refunds, security, and wages for defaulted loans.ā
āNo one should fall behind on their student debts because of this national crisis,ā James Kvaal, former PresidentĀ Obama’sĀ topĀ higher education adviser, told Yahoo Finance. āWaiving interest is welcome, but the key question is whetherĀ students and parents can reduce or halt their monthly paymentsā. Pausing payments and stopping punitive loan collections wouldĀ give immediate relief to students and parents facing economic hardship and uncertainty.ā
Ā
President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference about the coronavirus in the Rose Garden of the White House, Friday, March 13, 2020, in Washington. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, right, and Vice President Mike Pence listen. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Ā
To be clear, Trump has not yet elaborated on how exactly this will take place, and whether this is for all loans or just for federal student debt, which one expert alluded to.
To Read More, Click Link Below:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-waive-interest-on-student-loans-210904377.html
š«7 Strategies To Destroy Your Student Loans: $3,588.18 Left | Original Balance $85,308.07š«
It’s Been A Long Time Coming: $81,023.37 Paid, $4,284.70 Till Payoff
First off, none of this would be possible without God. Jesus Christ!Ā Wowā¦ I canāt believe it. This doesnāt feel real, someone slap me, pinch me because this canāt be real yaāll. I have really paid off my Fedloan student loan account. When starting this repayment journey 8 years ago, I thought I would die with my student loans.Ā Below is an update of my student loan balance.
I would like to provide 7 tips that have helped me pay off Fedloan.Ā I’m not out the woods yet, as I have one loan left to pay… Nelnet.Ā Let’s get to the tips.
1. Grace Period is not a chill period.
Fedloan gave me 6 months of grace period.Ā A Grace period is the length of time you are allowed to go without making your first loan payment.Ā After securing my first job out of school, I didn’t think about interest accruing each month.Ā Boy was I sorry for not paying towards my debt sooner, as my loan balance grew.
2. Get into a repayment plan that works for your situation.
I lost my job after 3 months and had a hard to finding work that matched that same pay. Quite frankly, no job have I had since has matched that pay. Iāve had to work multiple jobs to match it.
Therefore, my main jobs havenāt paid that well. So Iāve been in the IBR program for the last 8 years.
Your payment is reduced however you must renew year. Donāt forget to renew.
3. Pay as much as you can as often as you can.Ā
To do so I lived like a college student, I didnāt eat out much, and didnāt take frequent vacations, itās been 2 years since my last vacation. Anyways…As for myself, I used my tax return to pay the remaining balance of $4,333.13 from my Fedloan account.Ā I count myself blessed to receive a tax return, as I know how difficult tax season can be for many people. My first year out of college, I owed 1,200. I cried for real yall. But I got through that uncomfortable time, and you can too. Please consult with an expert, because I am not a tax professional.
4. Pay every 2 weeks.
Donāt take my word for it, do an internet search for bi-weekly loan calculators. Use mortgage repayment calculators to see the impact of paying every two weeks.
5.Keep updated spreadsheet of balances.
Previous servicer ACS added an extra $200 in interest, instead of reducing my principal after 2nd payment of $200. You better believe I argued with them over the phone and email.
I may have said some nice so nice words. Forgive meā¦.
6. With that said…Keep contact info current and stay in contact with servicers.
You may move or your loan may get transferred (Brazos transferred my loan to Fedloan, adding to the total)
It can be scary not knowing whatās going on. Especially if you have a payment due and the servicer canāt reach you.
7. Be aware of processing speeds.
Fedloan usually takes 2-3 business days to process payments. So I never pay my accounts on near the weekend such as Thursday/Friday or on the weekends. Doing so will help you avoid late fees. Yes, loan servicers charge late fees.
My debt is paid always on a Monday or Tuesday to give the servicer more than enough time throughout the week to process my payments.
I also never pay a loan account during holidays such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, or New Year Eve or Day.
We all just get lazy around these times and want to relax. Right before a holiday break is the best time to send a payment, the workers are in a mad dash to get out of town.
Bonus Tip: Celebrate! As you pay your debt down, take a day off, treat yourself to a meal. Before I was married, I took myself out to many dinners and movies. You must be able to celebrate and love yourself for your accomplishments first, before others can. Now that Iām married with kids, I celebrated my Fedloan payoff by taking my daughter to the movies.
Until next time everyone!Ā Stay strong…šŖ fight on…š„š„š„ and have not debt but love! Peace and Blessings.
š°It’s Tax Time: Student Loans Update | $9,507.77š°
Should your student loans and your spouseās get hitched?
February 7, 2020
By Ryan Lane, NerdWallet
Multiple studies have shown that student debt can cause borrowers to delay getting married. For some borrowers, though, marriage could actually be a gateway to paying less.
You can save money by refinancing student loans, but not everyone qualifies. If your better half has a better financial profile, you can share the benefits of refinancing in two ways:
ā REFINANCE TOGETHER. You combine your student loans with your partner’s into one spousal loan with a lower interest rate.
ā CO-SIGN FOR YOU. Your spouse co-signs a loan refinancing your debt, getting you a lower rate on the back of his or her finances.
If you’re considering getting hitched to your partnerās loans, here’s how to decide if you should.
REFINANCING āFOR BETTERā
Refinancing makes the most sense to save money on higher-interest private and graduate school loans.
For example, by refinancing a $60,000 loan from 7% interest to 5%, youād save roughly $7,200 over a 10-year term.
Typically, youāll need robust finances and a good credit score to qualify and get the best rate.
Spouses may āincrease (their) chances at getting a better rate together,ā says Andrew Zoeller, digital program director for Purefy, which refinances loans for Pentagon Federal Credit Union, or PenFed.
For joint spousal loans and loans that spouses co-sign, PenFed evaluates the couple based on their combined income and counts shared debts, like mortgages, only once. This allows more individuals ā such as stay-at-home parents with good credit ā to meet PenFedās lending criteria.
Other lenders may evaluate spouses separately. Ask a lender about its policy before applying.
In 2019, 67% of co-signed PenFed student loan refinances were spousal loans, according to Zoeller.
āItās something our program is known for,ā he says.
REFINANCING āFOR WORSEā
If you co-sign a refinancing loan or combine debts with your spouse, youāre equally responsible for repaying the balance ā even after a divorce.
āThere is no exit ramp,ā says Joshua R.I. Cohen, a lawyer in West Dover, Vermont, who operates TheStudentLoanLawyer.com.
To Read More, Click Link Below:
https://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/wireStory/student-loans-spouses-hitched-68798108
Colorado would repay first 2 years of student loans for grads who stay in state under āGet On Your Feetā
January 30, 2020
By Elizabeth Hernandez, The Denver Post
A bill in the works for Coloradoās upcoming legislative session would mandate the state pay for the first two years of student loans for new graduates of the stateās public colleges who commit to stay in Colorado and enroll in an income-based repayment program.
Students who qualify would have their monthly payment ā determined by an income-based repayment program ā paid in full by the state for their first two years out of college, relieving them of the financial responsibility as they get introduced to the workforce.
Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg, a Boulder Democrat, Rep. Leslie Herod, a Democrat representing District 9, and Rep. Julie McCluskie, a Democrat representing District 61, plan to sponsor the āGet On Your Feetā bill, modeled after a program established a few years ago in New York.
āStudents are graduating with so much debt that itās, frankly, overwhelming,ā Fenberg said. āPeople are going down a path or a career that isnāt what they even went to college for to start paying these off. They donāt have a chance to take a breath and figure out what they want to do. The concept is to give them two years of breathing room to actually be able to pursue the career they want to pursue.ā
More than 761,000 Coloradans are repaying $27.7 billion in student loan debt, according to household debt statistics from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
In 2018, 56% of Colorado graduates with a certificate or associate degree left school with debt ā the average debt amounting to $13,300. For a bachelorās degree during the same time frame, 69% of graduates ended their academic career with debt, averaging $25,500, according to statistics from the Colorado Department of Higher Education.
Gov. Jared Polisā budget earmarked $14 million to advance-fund the program for three years, āserving approximately 5,300 Coloradans who graduate from a state institution of higher education, live in Colorado and participate in a federal income-based repayment plan.ā
Charley Olena, an advocacy consultant with the left-leaning organization New Era Colorado, is helping with the āGet On Your Feetā bill this session.
āOne of the reasons why this is so exciting for Colorado and the reason why the governorās office has been so enthusiastic is because studentsā loans are depressing entrepreneurship,ā Olena said. āThe total percentage of people under 30 who own their businesses has fallen about 65% since the 1980s. Millennials were overwhelmingly citing student loan debt as the thing holding them back from starting their own business. As Coloradoās economy continues to grow, entrepreneurship is something we want to be able to foster.ā
To Read More, Click Link Below:
New Year, Same Good Fight: $74,735.31 Paid, $10,572.76 Till Payoff
My God is so big, so strong and so mighty
There’s nothing my God cannot do
These are the lyrics to one of my daughterās favorite worship songs. This past holiday season was tough for me. I refused to delight in the Lord and trust that he would give me the desires of my heart as found in Psalm 37:4-5.
The Backstory
We had our first born after our fifth year of marriage and I wouldnāt have it any other way. To be frank, I miss the alone time we had, and our uninterrupted sleep. We are approaching 9 years of marriage; diaper changes and potty visits rule the night. 
Praise the Lord for our sonās healthy lungs and daughterās early taking to potty training. I understand this is just the season we are in.
With all these blessings, I was still unhappy. Dear Lord, I am sorry. I complained about the daycare costs, the cost of diapers, and rising medical bills. There are people out there who literally impersonate medical staff to kidnap newborns. Check out a story of such catch provided through the link below.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/08/us/florida-kamiyah-mobley-kidnapping/index.html
Blessed, Just Not Always Feeling Like It
Iāve been blessed with two little lives who share my DNA. Now comes the desire to leave property and wealth for my children in the event I pass. My belief is we are all going to die if the Lord doesnāt come get us first. It would be unfortunate to leave my children empty handed; with the parting gifts of funeral and burial expenses. So off to work I go to pay off debt, and to have something to invest after what remains after monthly expenses.
Iām fortunate to have made it this far in my student loan debt repayment. I do wonder what I couldāve done with $85,308.07. The total amount is $106,811.84 when accounting for interest. This is INSANE. Below is an update of my Fedloan and Nelnet accounts.
I hope to have this saga of debt completed by the end of April this year. As a society we must stop buying into the lie that if you grew up poor, then getting an education at all costs will get you out of poverty. My financial situation was made worse after college graduation than after high school graduation. Be wise parents in what decisions you allow your children to make.
Chasing After Something Else
An education will NOT get you out of poverty alone. It takes discipline, sacrifice, and being okay with going without for a period of time-contentment. What got me in this whole student loan mess was wanting what others had (houses, cars, fancy clothes). Not knowing that, āResentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simpleā -Job 5:2.
My true desire is peace in my household. I refuse to sell myself for things others say I must have. Iām only chasing what God has for me. He doesnāt want me to worry, I trust him with my future.Ā On a lighter note, the Lord can take our mistakes and work it out to bring Him glory.Ā But please everyone, let’s be obedient haha.Ā There’s nothing our God cannot do!
Until next time everyone! Stay strongā¦šŖfight onā¦š„š„š„ and have no debt but love! Peace and Blessings.
No Debt But Love 