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Student loan forgiveness

Today, Serena from Queercents asked, "could student loan forgiveness stimulate the economy?"

One of the reasons I am in such a hurry to pay off my credit card/LOC debt is because, after more than two years on Interest Relief, I could be called on to start paying back my loans as early as this May. I plan to keep applying for Interest Relief for as long as I can, and hopefully make it through to the Debt Reduction in Repayment program, but there is no guarantee that I will continue with my special status past this spring (fingers crossed).

My loan payments will be in between $350 and $400 a month, for 14 years. During this time I would only be able to make the minimums on the other debts, if that. This means that I will be debt-free by the time I am fifty. FIFTY!! Forget ever buying a house then. Forget having any disposable income either, and that's not good for the economy.

Why should my loans be forgiven? I borrowed the money, I should pay it back right? Yes, but in the context of billions of dollars of bailout payments, what is my $32 000? Mind you, I'm in Canada and as far as I know we haven't had to bail anyone out yet, but our economies are globally linked and we are being affected here as well. If the Canadian government wants us to spend to save the economy, then some of us are going to need a little help freeing up some disposable income. For me, forgiving my student loan will help dramatically. I'll pay off the consumer loan ... I just need a little help with the other one.


Seriously,
Karissa


Comments

  1. I was fortunate enough to have finished my schooling during the last year there was loan forgiveness. My tuition for grad school was $10000/yr 11 yrs ago so it added up fast.

    With loan forgiveness, I ended up owing around $25000 which I gratefully paid for and though I'm not sure I stimulated the economy very much at the time, I sure appreciated the head start compared to some of my peers!

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  2. Anonymous10:24 PM

    It is a tough line, because as you said you borrowed the money. Then again, we all get ourselves into situations now and again, that we can't quite dig ourselves out of.

    The only opinion I have to offer is that hopefully in the next 14 years your income will increase substantially, thus being able to pay off both loans.

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  3. I'm tempted to enroll back in school just to stop paying back my student loans for a while. But too lazy so far to actually do it.

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  4. Actually, that IS one of my strategies. If student loans come after me too soon, I may just pick one of those career paths and get myself re-educated :)

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