<p>"If you look at the numbers closely, [the Pay as You Earn program] saves you money only if you borrowed big and earn little."</p>
<p>How much relief does the Pay as You Earn program truly provide for students dealing with debt?</p>
<p>But if you didn’t borrow big and if you don’t earn little, you don’t need relief, do you???</p>
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<p>is this example of 100k debt for undergrad of fed student loans? these dont exist do they?? Plus dont qualify, right?</p>
<p>Maybe that $100,000 includes Direct Loans for graduate school as well as undergrad. That could easily be $100,000.</p>
<p>Yes, I would buy $100k with undergrad + grad loans (Grad PLUS can be included in income driven repayment plans - so can Perkins, if they are consolidated into a Direct Consolidation Loan).</p>
<p>Slightly different topic, but as for the 25 year forgiveness, the amount forgiven is counted as taxable income. That is after 25 years of compound interest. And the IRS does not do forbearances. </p>
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<p>Well, yes, that was the intent of the program. It was to help give relief to borrowers who had educational debt that was large relative to their income, not to simply lower debt payments for everyone.</p>
<p>There is a very handy calculator on the federal website that shows you what you pay in every federal repayment program. It’s a very simple and easy way to figure out the most financially feasible plan for you. Some people would rather pay more over the long term and have more disposable income every month (and for some people, they don’t really have a choice because the standard payments would make it difficult for them to survive every month).</p>
<p>Well, if the payments are the same regardless of debt then nothing is unaffordable. That is crazy. But, I agree this is largely deceptive because of the tax situation. Not surprisingly.</p>
<p>What is the purpose fo this thread? Of course the program benefits those who borrowed big and earn little. </p>
<p>Agreed. If you borrowed big and are earning big, you don’t have a problem. If you borrowed small and are earning enough to pay back, you don’t have a problem. If you borrowed nothing…you really don’t have a problem.</p>
<p>Also wondering why a new poster would have a username that starts with “CCadmin.”</p>
<p>@sally305: That same question has been asked on other threads that CCadmin_Lydia has started, but then those posts mysteriously disappear from the thread.</p>
<p>Because she is new with CC. It is no different than Dave Berry or Roger Dooley starting threads.</p>
<p>I think the point of the article is to alert people in that fairly large “middle ground” that there are loopholes or nuances or whatever you want to call them that might be easily overlooked. Like the potential tax liability after the 20 year time limit. I get the feeling that it is rather like the issue of the middle class being the one that gets squeezed when it comes to financial aid.</p>
<p>To me the real issue is the one that always seems to happen when government gets involved. They are treating the symptom of the disease that has been progressing without treatment for years, but are they doing anything meaningful to make sure people don’t get the disease to begin with? Now before anyone says that it isn’t the government’s job to limit people that way, I would point out that you can’t have it both ways. You shouldn’t be able to say on one hand it is the government’s role to bail people out, and then say the government has no role in preventing it from happening in the first place. So not saying which way I believe, just saying they should be consistent whichever way it goes.</p>
<p>Dave Berry and Roger Dooley are long time leaders of this forum. Most “new” members don’t start in by posting links to articles. They start by asking for opinions or advice about college issues.</p>
<p>The CCadmin start indicates that this is a CC administrator. Which is fine. But that is an explanation that on,y was put on the community issues area of this forum. Some folks never venture that far!</p>
<p>Then we have the reality of student debt. <a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/24/upshot/the-reality-of-student-debt-is-different-from-the-cliches.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0”>http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/24/upshot/the-reality-of-student-debt-is-different-from-the-cliches.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0</a><br>
I think this is one of the more balanced articles I’ve read about student debt.</p>
<p>But do the statistics in this article take into account (any increase in) debt that parents are on the hook for related to their children’s education?</p>
<p>It would be interesting to learn about trends in the amount of debt parents have taken on for their kids.</p>
<p>^^^I read that article yesterday and I went on to look at the actual report. A couple of things jumped out at me.</p>
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<li> The definition of young adult households. From page 4 of the study (emphasis mine):
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<p>Stop right there. If they’re not including the kids living in mom and dad’s basement because they can’t afford to move out, this report is worthless with a capital W.</p>
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<li><p>Second, the average amount of time it took to repay student loans. The authors note that they are only dealing with monthly payments, not total loan amount. The study states “the repayment time for many loans has become longer.” Oh my goodness, what a statement to gloss over.</p></li>
<li><p>The study only included people actually making payments. What about the folks in deferment?</p></li>
<li><p>Bad sample. The study itself was only on 1800 people and it included people who were well into their 30’s. </p></li>
<li><p>The author of the study is in a battle with Sen. Elizabeth Warren over this very topic. Where was the full disclosure?</p></li>
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<p>There may well be more problems with this study but I’d need some hip waders to read through it more closely. </p>
<p>@thumper1 - To be fair, if you look right below the CCAdmin_Lydia name, you see the title of CC Admin Team, like where yours says Registered User and mine says Super Moderator. I am having a bit of trouble understanding why people are having an issue with this, but no matter. She is on the team. Can’t announce it everywhere. Well, we can, and do by putting titles right there for all to see.</p>
<p>When I look under CCAdmin_Lydia’s name, it says ‘New Member’, that’s why I was initially confused several days ago. You are saying that it says ‘CC Admin Team’??</p>