Private College Student Loan

How to pay student loans you can not afford?

I owe nearly 54000 in student loans and I have 2 children and work 50-60 hours a week making barely above minimum wage. They are currently in deferrment and I'm not paying anything on them now, but they've been deferred for almost 2 years now and I know you cannot continue to defer student loans forever. I know I will probably never be able to afford a student loan payment, as I can barely make ends meet as it is. What does one do in this situation?

Public Comments

1. Believe it or not you have many options. But what you ultimately do is dependent upon what you value the most, and the least. These are just some suggestions. You can do one or I would recommend a combination of several. But the most important thing to remember is that you must pay your student loans first, before ANY AND ALL other bills are paid. This is the one that is the most important and the one that will ruin your and your kids quality of life the most if you don't repay it. Student loans never go away. Ever. So... here goes. 1. Work more hours per week than what you are already. 2. Get a second job (or a third) if you must.. in order to accomplish this. 3. Get a higher paying job, min wage is horrible for someone with 54K in debt. 4. Simplify. Get rid of anything that takes away from the approx 600 a month in student loan payments you will be making. This means sell the car, get rid of the house... move in with relatives and turn off the internet. You certainly don't need a cell phone. Food, clothing and shelter... this is what you need to survive. 5. Manage your money very wisely. Account for every penny and again... simplify. Example: Many people think this means cutting out excess like not buying those things like dryer sheets to get your clothes soft... but I'm talking about a totally different approach here. Don't use your dryer.! 6. Remember that if you don't make your loan payments they will garnish your wages. If you think you are not making money now... just wait til that happens. Don't let it. If you do it willingly at least its willing. Once you go into default that loan of 54K could easily skyrocket to a debt of 75K or more depending on how long you don't pay on it, because the lender can (and will) charge you all kinds of penalties and fees for defaulting and hike your interest rates to double what you are paying now. They will start seizing your income tax returns (say goodbye to the EIC) and any other money you might get from the IRS. Seek assistance (even non-monetary) from relatives, esp those who may have cosigned on those loans for you. A relative may be unable to give you cash, but more than willing to babysit for you to help out.. or better yet, let you crash in the basement for the next.... well... until the loans are paid off or you get a higher paying job to where you CAN afford the payments.