Canceling Student Loan Debt - Episode 379

Crushing Debt Podcast

There's been a bit of news lately on President Biden's plan to cancel student loan debt, especially after the United States Supreme Court ruled that the President has no authority to cancel the debt without Congressional action.

What are your thoughts? Are you in favor of cancelling debt? Against it?

Recently, the New York Times came under fire for suggesting that "death" is a way to cancel student debt. Unfortunately, they are correct. Note that neither the article, nor Shawn & George are suggesting that people hurt themselves in any way to avoid paying back student loan. From a legal and contractual perspective, if a student loan borrower (any borrower really) passes and there is no co-signor on the debt, then the debt is eliminated - subject to the borrower's estate having no money.

What are some of the other ways the New York Times suggests cancelling student loan debt:

1. Income Driven Repayment Plans (IDR)
2. Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)
3. Bankruptcy (which is a better option after input from the US Dept of Education)
4. Consolidate the loans
5. Forbearance plans

Interstingly, the LA Times followed up that article by suggesting that student loan borrowers could move back in with mom & dad, or skip meals to save money ...

One other way to tackle student loan debt is to save money for college, and also explore scholarships. You can listen to an old Crushing Debt Podcast episode about that if you follow this link: https://yesnerlawpodcast.libsyn.com/episode-77-the-scholarship-system

The two articles Shawn & George discuss can be found with the following links:

• The New York Times Really Listed 'Death' as a Way to Cancel Student Debt (yahoo.com)
• Student loan borrowers panic over money after Supreme Court decision - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)

Remember, we're now two full weeks into the Crushing Debt No Spend Challenge. How are you doing? How many points have you earned? What have you learned about yourself, and about your spending habits?

You can find a link to the challenge here: Crushing Debt Spending Challenge | Facebook

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To contact George Curbelo, you can email him at [e-mail] or follow his Tiktok channel - https://www.tiktok.com/@curbelofinancialcoach

To contact Shawn Yesner, you can email him at [e-mail] or visit www.YesnerLaw.com.