Student loans killing me!! stressed!

Oldmahubbard · May 23, 2018

I have a friend who has been trying to qualify for loan forgiveness for nearly 20 years, with various employers. They deliberately make it nearly impossible, is my impression.

NurseBlaq · May 23, 2018

Hey guys,
so im in a ton of student loan debt about $110k to be exact. Found out last week debt of edu disqualified me from the loan forgiveness program TWO years ago despite turning in all my paperwork. I never got any letter/email stating they were disqualifying me either. I just happened to stumble upon some small print after I logged in to my account last week to make a payment. Needless to say I've been extremely stressed and feel like I'm drowning. I almost made a couple mistakes while at work because I think subconsciously I'm so stressed and distracted about my loans...then that made me even more stressed thinking about how I could've potentially harmed a patient (looking at the wrong patients lab results and almost replacing potassium when it was
already elevated). Thankfully I caught myself before giving it but I feel stuck. Plus I'm a travel nurse so I feel like my license is even more on the line at times. Always wanted to move out of the country or do a mission trip overseas for 6 months, but feel like I can't even do what I've always dreamed about because of my loans.
On top of it my car broke down and my travel agency won't help me out. They said they would take the cost out of my paycheck. So I went and rented a car myself and ended up denting it on a short pole that I couldnt see when backing out of a driveway. ðŸ¤¯
Any advice on loans, how you deal with stress, etc would be helpful!
thanks all

Get on the IBR (Income Based Repayment) plan and pay based on your income. You have to recertify each year. Make payments on time for 10 years and the rest should be forgiven.

Sith Lady Oma · May 23, 2018

I am sorry this debt and other unfortunate events are causing such a burden on you. I know that you are a travel nurse but you might consider applying and working for a hospital that offers loan repayment as part of their benefits package. Some even offer an additional loan forgiveness for the remainder of the balance along with the repayment assistance. It may not be ideal but it could knock out a nice chunk to help you move forward and chase your dreams of working/traveling abroad. Remember that the time will pass anyway; you may as well make the best of it by working toward your goals, unsavory sacrifices and all. Best of luck with everything!

SmilingBluEyes · May 23, 2018

Try rural or Native American reservation nursing if you can. There are a lot of high-needs areas that are desperate for nurses and include loan payment assistance/forgiveness if you choose to work there. Military another option if you are young and healthy enough.

This is why I taught my kids not to rack up student debt for any reason. One did the vocational route and owes nothing. The other is working her way through school in a company that has tuition assistance. Her goal is to have zero debt for her education but in case she does, she is squirreling away money each pay period, building up a huge savings to help with school expenses. We only help her by providing food, housing and necessities.

Neither child will end up yoked for 20 years to student debt. Nor did I. I used my GI Bill to get school paid for as did my husband. Military is great for education and advancement and their training is tops.

You have options, but you might not like those I suggested....until you consider what your loans will do to your finances for the next decade or two. My brother in law racked up 10s of thousands of dollars in debt back in the 1990s and it took him 15 years of budgeting and planning to finally pay them off....only to not end up using the degree he earned. He ended up having to have vocational rehab. That is the story I told my kids when they considered getting loans for school. A real life cautionary tale saved them money, grief and their sanity.

You could benefit others by helping them avoid what happened to you. Our young generation today needs to understand that spending 100s of thousands of dollars in college may net them very little, but a huge repayment coming at them.

Kooky Korky, BSN, RN · May 23, 2018

What sort of privileged life have you lived? I would love for my student loans to disappear so I can travel out of the country. An employer paying for my car maintenance and repairs sounds pretty good, too. I can't imagine those things happening, though ...not even in my wildest dreams.

I don't think someone leading a privileged life would have to have borrowed all that money. She is just saying things she'd like to do.

She specifically said that her employer is going to take car repair costs out of her check, not that the employer is going to pay for them.

Sometimes we get our dreams to come true, so change your dreams, friend.

Kooky Korky, BSN, RN · May 23, 2018

I'm sorry to hear you are so stressed about this. I also find myself stressed out about my loans sometimes and they're only $30k. Lesson learned though, nobody cares where you went to school so it's not worth it to go into massive debt for a nursing degree. What is helping me find peace is having a solid plan for repayment, working OT as I am able and budgeting like a mad woman. I'm following Dave Ramsey's baby steps and it's helping me tremendously! Highly recommend the book Total Money Makeover to help you set a plan for repayment of your debt.
Good luck!

And do not buy the book. Get it at the library for free.

Do not buy new clothes, household items, or anything you can get free or for a lot less at thrift shops and yard/garage/estate sales.

Ramen noodles, peanut butter, crackers, beans, soup, pasta, cheapest cuts of meat. Learn to cook, don't eat out.

Take the bus instead of having to pay for and insure a car.

Food pantries. These also often have hygiene items - soap, shampoo, deodorant (use corn starch or zinc oxide cream), etc., and household soaps, bleach, and so on.

No beauty shops or nail salons, tanning salons, subscriptions, memberships, even donating to anything; no buying girl scout cookies or any other items being sold by coworkers (maybe you should buy from the boss, though if that ever comes up).

Join the Y to exercise and shower if you have to join anything. Get financial aid there.

Ask local charities for help with utilities and any other expenses.

Someone above posted that travel nursing doesn't help with PSLF loan forgiveness. Do look into this.

Find a church or other group where you can make friends, maybe receive some counseling.

Just be patient and be smart, discipline yourself. Best wishes.

Just pinch every penny 10 times before you spend it, is my point.

Oldmahubbard · May 23, 2018

I was doing "staycations" before that was even a word. 8 years of staycations.

No material object, or experience is better than having all my bills paid. Nothing comes close.

Tough road, but 100% worth it.

bec16, BSN, RN · May 23, 2018

Do you make income-based repayments?

klone, MSN, RN · May 24, 2018

If you're not familiar with Dave Ramsey, be aware that he is extremely religious.

His "Total Money Makeover" is the secular version of his religious-based finance program (Financial Peace, I think it's called). TMM not religious. My atheist husband and I got a LOT of benefit from it, and recommend it to many many people.

Joe33 · May 24, 2018

One of the biggest expenses is housing. I would cut that down by living with roommates (search craigslist for rooms to rent).

Second, I would make sure you can get the most lucrative travel contracts you can find. That's means Hawaii, New York, Northern California, etc. You should be getting minimum $40/hr if not $50/hr or more. If you move to Northern California most nursing jobs will give you at least $40-50 an hr and any hospital job should give you $55+ per hour. If you rent a room on Craigslist and work in Northern California, assuming your room is rented for $1,000 and your other expenses are $1,500 monthly, you should be able to save bucketloads of money. ($40-$50,000+ yearly, or certainly at least $3,000 monthly)

Zhuriel, MSN · May 24, 2018

Just graduating out of highschool I had no idea what I was getting myself in to and now looking back regret not going to a school in my state or even a community college. Learning my lesson now so really don't need to be to be lectured on that. No I did not ask them to pay to fix my car I'm a traveling nurse and most travel agencies will help you with a rental car since you are traveling for your assignments. That being said my company is not one of those. In regards to the "what sort of privileged life have you lived" comment makes me laugh because my family grew up with nothing and lived off of food stamps for the first part of my childhood.
I went to school at the university of Arkansas. Most of my family are not college graduates so I didn't have a lot of guidance with what to do with my fianances and college.
Would appreciate some constructive criticism instead of the rude comments from some you. Everyone is brought up differently and everyone makes mistakes. All we can do is learn from them.

I'm first generation American citizen and my family immigrated fr. a 3rd world country. When you don't have guidance when it comes to education we find it ourselves. The first though to bettering your life wasn't how much it was going to cost right? You wanted an education and thought the American opportunity will help you. That's too bad you didn't qualify for the forgiveness loan or even some of it. Keep trying though! Make sure they are federal govt. loans because if its private sallie mae/navient they won't pay for that.

As for Dave Ramsey he helped me pay 70K in debt in 1.5 years. there are a lot of people who follow his steps to a debt free life. I wish you the best!

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · May 24, 2018

As for Dave Ramsey he helped me pay 70K in debt in 1.5 years. there are a lot of people who follow his steps to a debt free life. I wish you the best!

Impressive!