Expect Biden To Forgive Student Loans

Why?  Because I just paid mine off.

If he does make some blanket forgiveness now, I'm going to be all sorts of annoyed.

It is nice to finally have them done. 

But, we'll be throwing that monthly payment into the kids' college funds so no change to the monthly budget.

This has advantages and disadvantages.

On the one had, it is saving for, and paying for college, so they should theoretically have less debt at the end of it and we're helping pay for their education.

On the other hand, saving for college makes you less eligible for financial aid and actually increases your expected family contribution for college, which increases the cost of going to college.  This means you will be paying more and potentially incur more student debt than if you had gone off and spent the money on frivolities instead of saving.

The higher education system's cost and payment system is almost as opaque and broken as our medical system's, mainly due to the same problem of government intervention in both.   The sticker price in both cases isn't really the sticker price.

For example, and its not quite as straightforward as this, but if your child works before going to college and earns say $6,000 and saves it rather than spending it all before applying, then $3,000 of that becomes part of the EFC raising the cost each year that she's expected to pay by that $3,000.  This is because many if not most universities tend to reduce their tuition and/or cover the cost that exists beyond the EFC amount. So, if she hadn't worked she would not have been expected to provide that and her cost would go down.   Lots of other assets and income from parents get counted as well and its rather hard to tell where you stand and how much college may actually cost.

There's lots of bad incentives against savings in the educational financing system.

Three Certainties: Death, Taxes, And Having To Repay Your Student Loans

Student Loan Debt is non-dischargeable in bankruptcy, which means you can't get rid of it once you incur it.

Considering the rough economic times here in Michigan, its no wonder we rank up there in student loans in default.

Te Federal government under Obama, courtesy of a section in the Obamacare bill (yes, really), have taken over student loans with the expected efficient results from such a government takeover.

Now Ex-students with loans who are in poor financial health are going before, shall we say, death panels that seek to recover on the non-performing loans.

The Detroit Free Press: Beware, metro Detroit: The feds are out -- and looking for payback on late student loans

If you live in eastern Michigan and owe the federal government money from a student loan, your chances of being hauled into federal court are greater than anywhere else in the country, except the Los Angeles area.

Over the past two decades, eastern Michigan has accounted for, on average, 13% of all federal student loan recovery lawsuits nationwide.

With Americans carrying more than $1 trillion in college debt -- and $76 billion of that delinquent -- some economists fear the huge debt burden will be the nation's next devastating economic crisis, much like the mortgage bubble that sparked the recession. So the federal government is adopting eastern Michigan's get-tough tactics in other parts of the U.S.

One bit of non-legal advice to anyone with a student loan in default - do something. Putting your head in the sand and trying to avoid service doesn't help. Instead contact the loan servicer and document your problem. There probably is some deferment or different repayment options that may help you and help you avoid being sued.

As Instapundit has been known to say regarding student loans: Something that can’t go on forever, won’t. This can’t go on forever.

Unfortunately, due to its featured non-dischargeability, your obligation to repay your student loan will last at least your lifetime even though that only feels like forever.