[dewilson58]

Can't blame the kids for all the delinquent student loans!!!

When they should be worrying about affording retirement, a growing number of seniors are drowning in student loan debt instead.

Senior citizens owe $18 billion in student loan debt - Sep. 10, 2014

[billethkid]

I was one of the honest ones and paid for mine.....AS PROMISED!!!!

The shear magnitude only underscores a growing issue in this country getting worse everyday....ENFORCEMENT! The very obvious lack of it in almost everything that gets done (OR NOT!)

[janmcn]

Student loans are loans that are never forgiven. The article doesn't state anything about enforcement. It's inconceivable that someone could get to senior status and still have this hanging over their heads. What did these people do all these years when they were denied mortgages and credit cards? Every penny a person makes is subject to being garnished, including social security checks and tax refunds.

[tedquick]

Originally Posted by billethkid

I was one of the honest ones and paid for mine.....AS PROMISED!!!!

The shear magnitude only underscores a growing issue in this country getting worse everyday....ENFORCEMENT! The very obvious lack of it in almost everything that gets done (OR NOT!)

Amen, Kid. Amen!! I, too, paid mine, on time, every time, even though I had to give up many things, for a number of years, in order to get that done. While you and I do not need pats on our backs for doing that which we had agreed to do, it is unlikely that we will ever understand those who decide NOT to do what they had agreed to do. "Enforcement" is a quite applicable word.

[VT2TV]

It's not to late to start enforcing them. I am sure there are people who can't afford to repay their loans on a retirement income, but planty of people who are retired can certainly pay. For those who can't.....I can be nice and say to just let the loans go, or to start paying 1.00-10.00/month. Or I can be hard core and say...when the person passes away to have the government be paid first before the heirs.If they are not going to start enforcing them, they should stop giving them out-it is not fair to others to have some people get free money that way. My opinion.

[Indydealmaker]

I wonder how many of these loans are the result of student loans co-signed by parents?

[KeepingItReal]

Originally Posted by Indydealmaker

I wonder how many of these loans are the result of student loans co-signed by parents?

No doubt some to many are but does it really matter? If you sign for it you should be prepared to pay it and you are saying you will pay it if someone else does not..

[Indydealmaker]

Originally Posted by KeepingItReal

No doubt some to many are but does it really matter? If you sign for it you should be prepared to pay it and you are saying you will pay it if someone else does not..

It only matters from the standpoint that, by non-payment of their loans, the students are putting their parents in financial hardship. That seems to get glossed over in this issue.

More needs to be done to insure that those who benefited from the loans are more pressured to pay rather than turning so quickly to the guarantors. After all, the kids have more years to satisfy the debt.

The average student loan debt is around $25k (price of a modest new car). This is manageable if the kids had the discipline to forgo the fun things until their debts were handled, particular if that discipline got their parents off the hook.

[Bubble Gum]

So what happens when a parent signs for his son or daughter's student loan and the parent dies?

[Indydealmaker]

Originally Posted by Bubble Gum

So what happens when a parent signs for his son or daughter's student loan and the parent dies?

Kid remains on the hook until he dies. If the loan was a government loan, you get to pay.

[Taltarzac725]

I am still paying off my Law School student loans little-by-little. I graduated 25 years ago in 1989 from the University of Minnesota. My 224 613 Project is a hobby and takes up time and money. It did allow me to request that the holder of my Stipend Grant-- the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education (WICHE)-- apply the time and work I did for this Project to the loan I owed them for going to the University of Denver Graduate School of Librarianship and Information Management in 1983-1984. I had done this 224 613 Project from Minnesota, Florida, Illinois and California but showed WICHE how it had affected Nevadans by writing WICHE a number of letters from 1998 through 2000 or so.

I should have this loan paid off through by the time I turn 65. Little by little though.

If I could just turn this worthwhile hobby of the 224 613 Project into some way of also making some money. So far, it has just cost me a lot of money, contacts, and time to do this.

[graciegirl]

When you don't pay a bill, it is the same as stealing.

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

When you don't pay a bill, it is the same as stealing.

That is a little simplistic approach. There are people who get into various problems for whatever reason who cannot pay some of their bills. I remember representing a man who defrauded a bunch of friends of their life savings. This was while I was a Student Attorney. They sued, the Yale educated lawyer from one of the biggest firms in the Twin Cities pitched a very clever argument, and the people got nothing. I cannot go into the details even if I actually remembered them because of lawyer/client confidentiality.

My role was just to listen to the Yale lawyer argue as his client had been the employer of my client the released prisoner.

Basically these people just trusted the wrong friend. I will bet there are other stories like this of people making bad choices often because they lacked the education or contacts to make better choices.

[Chi-Town]

I paid off my student loan and thought nothing about it. I just assumed that it was a thing you do. When I started to hear about all the defaults and people were saying don't bother to pay them back, I thought what deadbeats they are.

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by Chi-Town

I paid off my student loan and thought nothing about it. I just assumed that it was a thing you do. When I started to hear about all the defaults and people were saying don't bother to pay them back, I thought what deadbeats they are.

If they have the money, I agree with you. Another of my law school stories.

I flew into the Twin Cities for the first time around August 20, 1986. What happened do you think that first night? I get into an airport van carrying a group of people. The driver and I are alone after she drops various people off at their hotels and then takes me near the University of Minnesota. She asks me what I am going to study. I say law. Which she answers by going into an extremely long spiel about how she had been a nurse with a team of surgeons and nurses whom a lawyer had been able to successfully sue for medical malpractice. She had to find a new career due to the malpractice suit against her. I have no idea if this was judgment was justified or not. I will bet this former nurse had a lot of bills she no longer could afford. Her anger though kind of gave me the impression that she had been wronged in the malpractice case. It probably happens a lot more than justice would require that the better lawyer wins in a case even if the case is not all the strong.