.

I have friends that were recruited in 1996 from UNI to teach in TX. The contact included SL payoff after 5-7 years of service. They took it, earned a Masters (paid for by district), worked 3 more years in TX then took a principle job in CR. 10 years in TX, SL debt free and a Masters degree. Its been around for a long time ... and it is about leveraging yourself when you graduate.
 
Also, there are plenty of jobs that reimburse and / or pay off SL debt in the private sector too.

These things happen all the time. Just not to everybody.
 
My wife and I have no more student loans so it is a nice peace of mind. Last night we were talking to another teacher who said her loans just got paid off from the 10 year public service repayment plan. This made me think about what my wife did and how we might have set up her tuition better to take full advantage of the opportunities for public servants. What I found was basically max out your student loans and teach for 10 years.

Can someone with some financial aid experience tell me if I'm right or wrong here.

Here total cost of attendance was approx $75,000 for undergrad including room and board. Say she gets $50,000 of federal loans (which is the max of $12,500/year). With an average income of $45k per year her discretionary income based on federal guidelines (which is what repayment is based on) would be $2,300/month. Repayment plans require a 10% payment on discretionary income, or $2,734.56 per year. Pay this amount for 10 years and your total is $27345.60. After 10 years, because she is a teacher, the rest is forgiven with no tax consequences. Basically she would have gotten $22k of loans forgiven.

We left free money on the table. Yes, numbers would slightly change as she makes more money and we may have delayed marriage for a few years to reduce household income, but the point remains - if you're going to become a teacher - max the heck out of those federal loans.
The person rankled about how military members recieve too many benefits posts something like this? Your hypocrisy is complete.
 
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I can't imagine the feeling of being trapped in a position for 10 years based on something like this.
 
It only works for certain types of federal student loans, so read the fine print first.

There's also a similar program for people who work for local, state, or federal government, or for non-profits for 10 years. However, my federal student loans that qualify will be almost paid off by then, so I won't benefit much. The feds will still make quite a bit of money off of the loans.
 
My wife is eligible for some loan forgiveness for teaching in a high risk area for 5 years. Her Masters degree is on hold for a while with the baby on the way though.
 
Why go to the personal attack ???
You shouldn't be able to claim a group of federal employees who have enormous suicide rates due to the trauma experienced in their service are overcompensated, and then come out with a post on how to fleece the government.
 
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You have to qualify for those repayment programs and far from everyone will qualify. What happens when you don't? You're ****ed.
 
My wife and I have no more student loans so it is a nice peace of mind. Last night we were talking to another teacher who said her loans just got paid off from the 10 year public service repayment plan. This made me think about what my wife did and how we might have set up her tuition better to take full advantage of the opportunities for public servants. What I found was basically max out your student loans and teach for 10 years.

Can someone with some financial aid experience tell me if I'm right or wrong here.

Here total cost of attendance was approx $75,000 for undergrad including room and board. Say she gets $50,000 of federal loans (which is the max of $12,500/year). With an average income of $45k per year her discretionary income based on federal guidelines (which is what repayment is based on) would be $2,300/month. Repayment plans require a 10% payment on discretionary income, or $2,734.56 per year. Pay this amount for 10 years and your total is $27345.60. After 10 years, because she is a teacher, the rest is forgiven with no tax consequences. Basically she would have gotten $22k of loans forgiven.

We left free money on the table. Yes, numbers would slightly change as she makes more money and we may have delayed marriage for a few years to reduce household income, but the point remains - if you're going to become a teacher - max the heck out of those federal loans.
... there are a lot of hoops that you need to jump through for that stuff. There's the "Teacher Loan Forgiveness" program, but that only covers a max of $5K or $15K depending on your content area. It also stipulates that you need to work in low SES schools.

I also remember Fed Loans being difficult if you're listed as a dependent under your parents, but that could also have been me not knowing what I was doing. I remember looking into the public service plan at one point, but found out that I wouldn't qualify for it for one reason or another. Probably because my repayment would have been completed by the time 10 years rolled around.
 
There are also programs that pay off education debt for doctors who will practice in a small town for a certain period of time. There are several states that do this.
 
I'll give a bit more clarity to this.

https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service

The idea is to keep as many people out of default and possible. My wife use to work for a student loan collection company and getting people back off default is virtually impossible.

It was designed to help support non profits and teachers, and unfortunately government workers (I'm sure government workers was the main group because why should someone who gets paid, on average 15% more for the exact same job (outside of the Engineering and Medical Fields) have to pay back their loan.

Only thing I am confused about is that this particular program started in 2007 and only payments made after that date counted so I am not sure how your friend got things paid off in 2016 since there are not 120 monthly payments between 2007 and 2016. It sounds more like how Iowa was setup in the past. If you are in a high need area or an income poor school district there is loan forgiveness for working in those area.

The way to manipulate it:
1) Get on Income Contingent Repayment (Basically the government can only take 15% of your income to repay a loan. 2) Make 120 monthly payments while being employed for at least 30 hours by one employer and your loan gets forgiven, tax free. There is a whole department and specific loan organization that controls those loans and tracks things for you.

The more honest way to approach it:
I approached mine as a I did my 30 year fixed mortgage. Get on both things so that the minimum payment is manageable in case you are out of a job, but while employed put in double payments or the full payment and your loan is typically gone in 10 years anyway, This way if life kicks you in the pants you have a fall back and don't default or don't have to go into forbearance (which just drags out how long you owe the government). Next year is my 10 year mark and although I won't have all my loans paid off, the forgiven amount is going to be $1500ish. However, that is because I did have 2 months where I straight up wasn't making any money, and being able to put together $200 was much easier than putting together $700 when we were in an extreme pinch.

That said, I do have co-workers who are going to hit 10 years and they had $70K of loans, were paying income contingent minimums which barely covered interest. Next June, the government is going to write off $70K because they were working full time and made all 120 payments. Tax free.

Side note: If you are on ICR for 25 years, the loan is also forgiven but in that situation the forgiven amount is taxed so it is more like settlement.
 
I don't think it is only teachers. I have a friend who's wife works for the USDA in Ames. His wife does photography for weddings on the side and that business was getting to the point where she could almost do it full time and take care of the kids. They decided not to because of a program like this, may even be the same. The plan was to work until her student loans are paid off then quite to do wedding photography I think.
 
I've got a friend who has a buttload ($200,000+) of law school debt.

Good thing is, though, she's got a federal job lined up when she's done.

They've got some 8-10 year loan forgiveness thing. She's not going to be making much by lawyer standards, but it's a super chill and they won't fire you fed job, so, yeah, she's not actually going to end up paying much of that.

The system has these games in them, if you hit very particular circumstances.

I could ask her more details if anybody likes.
 

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