Student loans killing me!! stressed!

Nurselyfe92 · May 22, 2018

This is a warning to all those who are counting on federal student loan forgiveness. From what I've read it's common to be disqualified and few get the loan forgiveness in the end, resulting in even more debt to be paid back due to negative amortization where the interest capitalizes increasing the loan when you make income based payments that are less than the monthly accumulated interest.
I'm surprised you would think you would qualify for loan forgiveness if you are working as a traveler because my understanding is you must work for a non-profit and I don't think travel agencies are non profit.
Is it working for the travel agency that disqualified you? I suggest you look for further advice from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to see if it is possible to restart the loan forgiveness option if you get a nursing job working for a non-profit hospital. Unfortunately even if this is possible, the years you've already paid in most likely won't count; also Trump and the republicans want to get rid of loan forgiveness altogether.

I just started traveling a couple months ago but before that I was at a non-profit hospital for three years. At my last job we also had travelers come and work with us. I think you just have to make sure with the travel agency that the hospital is non profit. I called the dept of edu today and they told me I was re-enrolled. What happened was I was paying a company to help me do the paperwork before I understood it all... turns out they weren't reliable and apparently putting my loan in forebearance more than just the couple months they told me about. Therefore, I'm going to talk to a family friend of my that's a contract lawyer to see if she can do anything. I cancelled their service. It's a long story but basically it was a huge scam it turns out. Now that I'm doing my own paperwork (the company I was paying told me I wouldn't be able to get into the loan forgiveness program without paying for their service) it shouldn't happen. Only up from here I suppose!

Nurselyfe92 · May 22, 2018

Someone previously mentioned Dave Ramsey. This is SO WORTH GETTING INTO!!!!! I broke my back, was in bed 18months, over 300k medical, lost health ins....husband then got laid off, all 5weeks after purchasing a home. Medical ate our savings and "safety net". My middle name is Unexpected.
Dave Ramsey has some really great guidelines for how to #1 Get Crap Under Control. This will lessen ulcer growth rates LOL and let you get some sleep at night.
We dumped all credit cards (I mean, didn't have many and they were for emergencies only and were used as such). We got sued by one, and made payment arrangements. The rest will settle later. I am scared of student loans, but will figure it out. We sold our nice truck, and bought a beater with cash for 3500$ to get out from under the debt. Changed insurance companies. No TV. Dropped phone data plan. Changed internet plan. Used firewood instead of propane this winter. Cut down our own trees for next year. I have an Ebay store where I sell anything too nice to sell at a yard sale. Sold all textbooks. Cleaned out closet and sold all Victoria Secret sweatshirts, Coach bags, Puma shoes, Gucci heels... cried a bit. And I am cash-flowing my BSN (RN bridge) and got a job at a spot that does tuition reimbursement. I pay cash for EVERYTHING. If you use a card AT ALL (even bank card) you will impulse buy....cash keeps you honest. TRIM ALL FAT and when there's no more to trim, sell more stuff. DVDs, CDs, books, compression socks, tennis rackets, mountain bike (Gary Fisher if anyone's interested LOL).... SELL SELL SELL, and cry cry cry. But do it. And believe, you'll be fine if you put in the work.
xoxo

Thanks for the advice!! I still don't have a credit card... some people get on to me for that but I don't trust myself with one!! As for the cash approach I like that idea I will try it. I just donated almost all my leftover clothes so i could travel in a little car with all my stuff. Sleeping on an air mattress haha doesn't bother me!

Looks like I'll make a budget and take out cash for each thing. I was thinking about setting up a separate checking account but not get a debit card for it and auto drafting $1000 towards my loans each month from that account.

Nurselyfe92 · May 22, 2018

Were you working as a traveler when it was first approved? All I know about the forgiveness program is you have to work for a qualified non-profit and have to renew every year.
I would suggest you learn about personal finance, some good books are Deal with your debt by Liz Weston and Personal Finace for Dummies by Eric Tyson. A useful budget is 50% needs, 20% savings & debt repayment and 30% wants, but in your case I would reverse it and do 30% for debt repayment instead.
I imagine you have private as well as public loans. Look at the interest rates and pay the higher interest rate loans first which I assume would be private loans. Have you consolidated your govt public loans? Doing so you could stretch out the repayment period beyond the standard 10 years. Granted the downside is paying more interest. Your student loans must be your first priority, pay at least the minimum. Public student loans have options of deferment or forbearance but these will only postpone the inevitable repayment and increase your debt from the capitalized interest so do this as only a last resort. Bankrate.com has calculators that can show you how much interest each loan is accruing monthly and how much your payment will reduce the principal (student loan itself).
Also if you have any co-signers it is essential that you make the payments and you may have to take out a life insurance policy with your co-signer as the beneficiary for the private loans because if something happened to you, they would still be expected to pay off the loan.
Be aware that there are no bankruptcy options for student loans. If you stop making payments you will default within 9 months and then the fees and penalties are around 25% of the loan which can double or triple the loan, plus your pay can be garnished and tax refunds taken and even your social security garnished to repay the loan. Worse some states will take away your license to work as a nurse if you default! Frankly, it is the worst debt out there and it makes me sick that everyone pushes young inexperienced teens to go to college without even a personal finance class and the knowledge of how dangerous this debt can be.
On the brighter side, at least you chose a useful degree and nursing pays well compared to most jobs that college grads get. Plus you have the option for overtime.
You might want to check out Dave Ramsey too and his advice could help jumpstart your way of out of student loan debt sooner than later, but take him with a grain of salt and compare Liz Weston's advice and see which suits you best!
Good luck to you!

Yes I wish I would've had a finance class I highschool because I wouldn't have mad this mistake if I understood what I was doing. I was not working as a traveler when it was first approved but after talking to them today it turns out I am qualified still. So that's some good news! Not sure about how it'll work with me traveling now though. I'll try to call back or do some research tonight to figure that out.

I have both private and federal.. the private are the ones I'm focusing on now. I did consolidate my loans too! I made sure today that when I've paid extra it is going to the principal and they reassured me it was.

Thanks!

brandy1017, ASN, RN · May 22, 2018

I just started traveling a couple months ago but before that I was at a non-profit hospital for three years. At my last job we also had travelers come and work with us. I think you just have to make sure with the travel agency that the hospital is non profit. I called the dept of edu today and they told me I was re-enrolled. What happened was I was paying a company to help me do the paperwork before I understood it all... turns out they weren't reliable and apparently putting my loan in forebearance more than just the couple months they told me about. Therefore, I'm going to talk to a family friend of my that's a contract lawyer to see if she can do anything. I cancelled their service. It's a long story but basically it was a huge scam it turns out. Now that I'm doing my own paperwork (the company I was paying told me I wouldn't be able to get into the loan forgiveness program without paying for their service) it shouldn't happen. Only up from here I suppose!

Even the student loan companies like Navient formerly Sallie Mae have been notorious about steering people into forbearance instead of loan forgiveness probably because it increases their profit margins as the interest accumulates and capitalizes on the debt.

Personally I don't trust the student loan forgiveness route and would consider other options in case it doesn't work out. Joining the military or the VA comes with significant student loan debt repayment as a perk.

Swellz · May 22, 2018

I would make sure you do indeed qualify as a traveler. You work for the travel nurse agency, not the hospital. That distinction may be a problem, but I honestly don't know anything about it. It just sounds too good to be true and I wouldn't want you to get burned again because someone you're talking to doesn't understand how traveling works.

abugrey · May 22, 2018

the simplest advise I can make is to cut out on personal expense and focus on the roots. you have to have a realistic target (within a year maybe) that that amount will go down, slowly and gradually.

missmollie, ADN, BSN, RN · May 22, 2018

I have both private and federal.. the private are the ones I'm focusing on now. I did consolidate my loans too! I made sure today that when I've paid extra it is going to the principal and they reassured me it was.

Just be sure to double check your statement. Hopefully they were honest when they told you that.

RobotechTD · May 22, 2018

You could hire a lawyer to help you. I knew someone who paid for his education using credit cards. He had 2 credit cards with a debt of $20,000 each for a total of $40,000. He hired a lawyer who threatened the credit card companies with bankruptcy; therefore, they should each take a final $2,000 payment or get nothing if he declares bankruptcy. One of the credit card companies accepted and the other took a final payment of $5,000. This savvy man eventually became a VP of a major hospital system. I know someone else who tried this without using a lawyer and it did not work for him.

I am working on my fourth degree and I never had student loans. My first degree cost less than $10,000 from a state school in the early 1990's. My family was too poor to co-sign a loan and I was too stupid to know how to obtain the right loan. I was fortunate to marry the right woman who paid for my other degrees without needing student loans.

So my different options are to threaten bankruptcy or marry someone with money.

connielgl · May 22, 2018

You are right, the rude comments are uncalled for as all of us have 20-20 vision after the fact. I am doing the debt-snow-ball from Financial Peace University. It does work. You can make this work. Try to find a class nearest you or go online to Dave Ramsey. He was bankrupt after being stupid as well, and we have all been stupid. He hates student loans the most, and preaches against them constantly on his radio show. I am also in student-loan debt, and credit-card debt, but I do see a light at the end of the tunnel. Focus on your work while at work. Leave your baggage at home. It takes time and maturity to leave it all behind while you enter those doors to work, but for the safety of all who matters you must do it. We had a nurse at our local hospital give a baby a potassium overdose in the ER. He was a traveling nurse as well, and mostly sleep-deprived. He just grabbed the wrong IV bag, and it cost him and us everything. The baby died. Not only was he fired, but the rest of us nurses have paid the price as the hospital is so paranoid of medical errors that you can be fired for making just one mistake. Focus on your finances later. They are not going anywhere. Live only one day at a time and do your best today to make as much money as you can. You can do this. Stay focused and think positive. Some day this too will be behind you.

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · May 22, 2018

You could hire a lawyer to help you. I knew someone who paid for his education using credit cards. He had 2 credit cards with a debt of $20,000 each for a total of $40,000. He hired a lawyer who threatened the credit card companies with bankruptcy; therefore, they should each take a final $2,000 payment or get nothing if he declares bankruptcy. One of the credit card companies accepted and the other took a final payment of $5,000. This savvy man eventually became a VP of a major hospital system.

Wow, what an ethical guy they have running the show there...why am I not surprised.

I am working on my fourth degree and I never had student loans. My first degree cost less than $10,000 from a state school in the early 1990's. My family was too poor to co-sign a loan and I was too stupid to know how to obtain the right loan. I was fortunate to marry the right woman who paid for my other degrees without needing student loans.
So my different options are to threaten bankruptcy or marry someone with money.

Well, at least you got your degrees honestly.

allnurses Guide · May 22, 2018

Money stress sucks and living with poor (misguided, naÃ¯ve) decisions is super hard. I just wanted to put on here that you can get out of this. Dave Ramsey is an excellent money management program. I am not religious and his program is, but didn't let that stop me from doing it. In 2002 I was divorcing, filing bankruptcy and our home was foreclosed on. My credit score was in the dirt and stayed that way a long time. Now it is 820, I made it through ASN, BSN and MSN. My husband of 9 years and I just paid off the mortgage on our house 21 years ahead of schedule and we literally carry zero debt. None. Not cars. Not the house. Not credit cards. Not school loans. None.

You can do this and it will not always feel this gray and dark. There will be time for your trips after you straighten this all out. Make getting financially square your number one goal and go from there. I am wishing you all the best. It gets better. You just have to work hard at it for a while. Sometimes quite a while.

chacha82, ADN, BSN · May 22, 2018

Since you asked...and since I am AN's self-appointed negative nancy regarding all things fiscal:

First of all, I am so sorry that you don't qualify for the program you were planning on. I am sure that is VERY stressful. Do not, during this time, fall for "consolidation" programs that make promises that end up damaging your credit.

-Make a list of all of your REQUIRED expenses. This includes rent, insurance, pet care, etc. Those are REQUIRED.

-Reduce expenses like fancy cell phone, cable, gym, gifts, going out etc. Those are nice but not REQUIRED.

-Start an emergency fund in a savings account you can get to. $1,000 is a good starting point. This is EMERGENCY money and you don't touch it except for things like car repairs, sickness, emergency vet care if you need it. Add on to it as you can. The idea is that your emergency money doesn't deplete your savings.

-Start making payments NOW to put a dent in your debt. If you can, pick up an extra shift every month and sock that money right away towards your debt. Don't even look at it, just make the payment.

-Consider taking a position with a debt repayment program.

-Whatever you have to do to pay your debt off, do it. If it means eating sandwiches at home, do it. If it means wearing the same outfit to three weddings, do it. If it means not going on the trip other people are going on, sadly, do it or work an extra shift. You will never get out of this kind of debt without extreme change.