Ahhh, New Year's, the time when old men's thoughts return to financial survival! At least mine do!
As usual, I am stressing big time over huge college costs and the resulting student loans for my kids. Throw in that I am nearing retirement age, so as Homer Simpson says, it just gets worse and worse! But time for the tough to get going, I suppose!
As much as you can get involved in a philosophical debate about how long to support your progeny (20s? 30s? OK, 40s and they are out!), to me it sort of comes down to survival. So far I have followed the usual advice to consider your own retirement first, but it kills me to see my daughter head into 5 years of low paying residency and letting those loans compound like a cancer if she has to do income based repayment. So my original plan was to cover the payments for those 5 years, but now that it is nearly time, I am getting a little sticker shock here! But mainly it is the fruitlessness of just paying a ton of interest every month. In retrospect, I certainly wish we had entered an "austerity" budget 4 or more years ago and paid as we went, but the costs were just so high that I guess I froze up and took the easy way out. So the only thing it looks like we can do now are somehow refinance and/or just try to pay them down.
I am bothering the forums asking about this, and I am getting some good input, like the loan forgiveness plan that was apparently put in place around 2007 for people in public service occupations, so I am doing some research, but it appears that most of the residencies my daughter is considering do not meet the requirements for that plan.
OK, sorry for such a bummer post to start the new ear, but I need to work on this and you guys are one of the best support systems around! Thanks for listening, if anyone is still reading, that is. 
Oh yeah, to add a touch of positivity, I did FINALLY manage to lose about 10 pounds last year, so that proves that longstanding problems CAN be successfully addressed. Like finance, it is a matter of simple math, but both can still seem to be wicked problems!
Happy 2016! My yearly NYD entry
January 1st, 2016 at 05:05 pm
January 1st, 2016 at 05:13 pm 1451668388
January 1st, 2016 at 05:16 pm 1451668582
January 1st, 2016 at 05:17 pm 1451668674
The amount we are working together is sort of open right now. Of course her and her mother think I should help a ton, but that makes me nervous, to sink all my available income into helping her when I should be finishing strong on retirement saving.
January 1st, 2016 at 05:23 pm 1451668984
January 1st, 2016 at 06:10 pm 1451671857
January 1st, 2016 at 06:13 pm 1451672018
January 1st, 2016 at 06:20 pm 1451672409
Even selling some excess stuff in your home could net a little assistance. Those are the type of side gigs I'm referring to. Credit card rewards for spending you do anyway could be funneled to the debt. It may seem like a drop in the bucket, but it has to help a little.
January 1st, 2016 at 09:24 pm 1451683453
January 1st, 2016 at 09:54 pm 1451685289
January 1st, 2016 at 10:44 pm 1451688268
For instance, "it appears that most of the residencies my daughter is considering do not meet the requirements for that plan."
Given the stress you're experiencing and the sacrifices you are considering, might it not be better if your daughter at least thought about changing her residency so it would qualify for the loan forgiveness program? It's all well and good if your daughter is pursuing her dreams, but if she's saddling dear old dad with the burden of repayments, that doesn't sit right with me.
January 3rd, 2016 at 02:20 am 1451787627
January 5th, 2016 at 08:21 pm 1452025270
https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancell...
February 27th, 2016 at 03:16 pm 1456586189
I think we have have a dead end on finding a residency that qualifies for forgiveness. It is very hard to find out that information for hospitals, but I'll make another run at it.
As in a lot of finance, diversification might be a good idea. I have heard that Citizen's Bank, for one, offers a pretty good refinance, so I might take some of it on, but they have a limit, so that can't be the whole answer. OK, I won;t get too involved in this answer, but I'll try to make a future post on the status. Thanks again for listening and caring - I love you guys.
February 27th, 2016 at 03:17 pm 1456586251
I think we have have a dead end on finding a residency that qualifies for forgiveness. It is very hard to find out that information for hospitals, but I'll make another run at it.
As in a lot of finance, diversification might be a good idea. I have heard that Citizen's Bank, for one, offers a pretty good refinancing, so I might take some of it on, but they have a limit, so that can't be the whole answer. OK, I won't get too involved in this answer, but I'll try to make a future post on the status. Thanks again for listening and caring - I love you guys.
February 27th, 2016 at 07:46 pm 1456602374
February 27th, 2016 at 10:26 pm 1456611989
[urlhttps://services.aamc.org/fed_loan_pub/index.cfm?fuseaction=public.welcome&CFID=1&CFTOKEN=D3ADCE60-B544-6679-82EB218E8D3F6455[/url]
February 27th, 2016 at 10:27 pm 1456612021
https://services.aamc.org/fed_loan_pub/index.cfm?fuseaction=...
I messed up the url the first time.
July 13th, 2018 at 06:50 am 1531464641
dell customer service