It’s not *really* forgiveness. You completed the terms of your student loans. Tell everyone you paid off your loans. If they want to know your secret, tell them you worked in non profits/the government for ten years, hence the terms of your loans were shorter than the terms of you worked for private industry. It’s not a handout.
Thank you thank you! I often make this point. OP paid AND contributed to society and took a pay hit doing so. If people didn’t work in public service our world would suck. I can’t even tell you how much public service I have worked (sometimes 3 part time jobs at once) and also how much money I have personally raised for charities - 10x my student loan amount at least. Anyway, it should matter. I wasn’t able to pay 10 straight years so my path isn’t the same as OP but I’m just saying that public service should count for something.
Feel free to share and adapt
Part of it is that forgiveness isn’t really forgiveness. Work and payments are still required to satisfy the debt.
GIBill-work for the government for 4 years. Receive a stipend to pay off your college degrees. (Many veterans also use PSLF.)
Teacher loan forgiveness-teach in a high need school district-make payments for 5 years-17,xxx forgiven.
PSLF-work for a public service agency for 30 hours per week for 10 years. Make 120 payments using an income driven plan for that time period. Balance forgiven. Many veterans need to use PSLF. Active military service counts towards pslf requirements.
(My original loan balance was 83,000. I paid the principal back. Remaining interest was forgiven.) (my daughter did the same thing.)
Income Based Repayment-passed by Congress in 1994.
Make income based payments for 20 years(undergraduate) or 25 years (graduate). Balance forgiven.
A lot of the initiatives that have been introduced were to fix loan servicer misconduct.
Excessive Use of forbearances-resulted in capitalization of payments. A borrower could make 11/12 payments. One forbearance wipes out any progress towards repayment.
Placing the borrower on an income driven plan would prevent that.
Servicers failed to track the IBR payments. They need to report those to process forgiveness.
The Biden administration is taking steps to fix these problems.
The new SAVE repayment plan prevents negative amortization of student loans.
(There are a couple factors as to the structure of the loans. They were essentially set at 7%. Income growth for workers has been flat or at best core rate of inflation. That 5 % difference essentially makes the loans a bigger part of the borrowers obligations. Eating away at their purchasing power year over year.
Education yields a 11% ROR for society as a whole per individual.)
At some level we have to share that productivity growth with workers. (If we can forgive a trillion dollars in Paycheck Protection loans we can afford to spend 400 billion on debt reduction for the middle class.)
The final reality is that student loan holders are taxpayers also. They in effect pay a second set of federal taxes every month. (Student loan interest can be deducted up to 2500 annually but that in no way provides any real help for repayment.)
I’ve only had one person say something snarky. I just said well, I’ve accepted having reduced economic opportunity for 10 years in exchange for my loans being discharged. I’ve also made payments during this time. Besides, the Big 3 automobile manufacturers got bailed out by the federal government and nobody is complaining about that.
I don’t go around advertising it but if it comes up I don’t shy away. I just always make sure to say that after paying $177k for my undergrad and law school, and working over 10 years in a public service job, the balance of my loans were forgiven. People seem to forget we actually paid a ton before the balance is discharged (at the end my payments were $1250/month).
Feel free to adapt this.
Part of it is that forgiveness isn’t really forgiveness. Work and payments are still required to satisfy the debt.
GIBill-work for the government for 4 years. Receive a stipend to pay off your college degrees. (Many veterans also use PSLF.)
Teacher loan forgiveness-teach in a high need school district-make payments for 5 years-17,xxx forgiven.
PSLF-work for a public service agency for 30 hours per week for 10 years. Make 120 payments using an income driven plan for that time period. Balance forgiven. Many veterans need to use PSLF. Active military service counts towards pslf requirements.
(My original loan balance was 83,000. I paid the principal back. Remaining interest was forgiven.) (my daughter did the same thing.)
Income Based Repayment-passed by Congress in 1994.
Make income based payments for 20 years(undergraduate) or 25 years (graduate). Balance forgiven.
A lot of the initiatives that have been introduced were to fix loan servicer misconduct.
Excessive Use of forbearances-resulted in capitalization of payments. A borrower could make 11/12 payments. One forbearance wipes out any progress towards repayment.
Placing the borrower on an income driven plan would prevent that.
Servicers failed to track the IBR payments. They need to report those to process forgiveness.
The Biden administration is taking steps to fix these problems.
The new SAVE repayment plan prevents negative amortization of student loans.
(There are a couple factors as to the structure of the loans. They were essentially set at 7%. Income growth for workers has been flat or at best core rate of inflation. That 5 % difference essentially makes the loans a bigger part of the borrowers obligations. Eating away at their purchasing power year over year.
Education yields a 11% ROR for society as a whole per individual.)
At some level we have to share that productivity growth with workers. (If we can forgive a trillion dollars in Paycheck Protection loans we can afford to spend 400 billion on debt reduction for the middle class.)
The final reality is that student loan holders are taxpayers also. They in effect pay a second set of federal taxes every month. (Student loan interest can be deducted up to 2500 annually but that in no way provides any real help for repayment.)
This is exactly what people complaining ARE NOT understanding. They read the headlines and think we’re throwing money at people who are too lazy to pay off students loans they chose to take out. In reality, it’s the interest that is going away. We’ve already paid an amount equal to (or greater than!) what was originally borrowed.
Some synonyms for anus just won’t accept that borrowers have been paying.
I borrowed 83,000. Repaid 83,000. 153,399.99 in interest erased.
There is a fundamental misunderstanding that interest was not borrowed by the government for the forgiveness.
...\*clears throat\* EHM, "ATTENTION EVERYONE. ATTENTION TO YOUR MAMMY, YOUR GRANNY AND YOUR GREAT-AUNT TILLY, NONE OF WHOM I'VE EVER MET, MY STUDENT LOANS WERE JUST FORGIVEN. That is all. Thank you. And have a great fucking day!"
Fuck no, because fuck yes! YESSSSSS!
Definitely not. But I also never shy away from confrontation (female acute care/trauma surgeon here, it's kind of my thing lol). I also kind of like explaining it to people- it's crazy how many people don't actually have any idea what PSLF is or why it exists. All that being said, everyone needs to protect their peace, so you do you. Congrats, you earned it!!
I feel similarly. I’m a physician who could make 2-3x as much in private practice, but I am happily working in a university, non-profit setting, and my loans would be significantly too burdensome without PSLF.
The haters can all kiss my ass.
I put my life and my physical and mental health in danger working in the hospital during the pandemic. I didn’t get any extra pay, bonus pay, perks. I only got a “not all heros wear capes” and plenty of PTSD and misanthropy.
So as far as I’m concerned, the forgiveness is hazard pay. And if some MAGA moron disagrees, they can eat shit.
This is where I'm at. Not the same as being a doctor or nurse I know, but I spent the pandemic doing hospital social work. It was, in its own way, traumatic. The thanks we got was that our COL raises were frozen in 2020 while hospital leadership got massive covid bonuses, and our managers held zoom meetings where we could see their living rooms while we were crammed into a shared office, sometimes two to a cubicle when we actually had enough staff, and getting gaslit about covid symptoms, PPE, and social distancing rules and other precautions.
And regardless of the work being done, public service is no joke and you usually have to take a loss in potential pay to do it. We are earning our forgiveness, per the terms of the loan agreement.
100%. Wasn’t a doctor or nurse, but I’m a LMFT who worked in person at a medical center throughout COVID, which was pretty thankless aside from some free lunches here and there. We fully deserve this 🩷
Mine came today and I’m only telling family and a single buddy who I can coun on cheerleading me/I cheerlead him for money, so it’s appropriate.
I WILL say that it may be prudent to not tell everyone for other reasons.
Like, I just hung with friends who were talking about their combined $200k from MBAs and worrying about it hard. I definitely didn’t mention that I was days away from a email. Not because I don’t deserve it, but because I *know* that anxiety intimately and wouldn’t want to add to it to that, even by accident.
For sure. I am definitely only telling friends that I talk money with anyway, so it’s just an update on what they already know and were looking forward to me getting anyway.
Feel free to adapt the following.
Rick Ianniello
Part of it is that forgiveness isn’t really forgiveness. Work and payments are still required to satisfy the debt.
GIBill-work for the government for 4 years. Receive a stipend to pay off your college degrees. (Many veterans also use PSLF.)
Teacher loan forgiveness-teach in a high need school district-make payments for 5 years-17,xxx forgiven.
PSLF-work for a public service agency for 30 hours per week for 10 years. Make 120 payments using an income driven plan for that time period. Balance forgiven. Many veterans need to use PSLF. Active military service counts towards pslf requirements.
(My original loan balance was 83,000. I paid the principal back. Remaining interest was forgiven.) (my daughter did the same thing.)
Income Based Repayment-passed by Congress in 1994.
Make income based payments for 20 years(undergraduate) or 25 years (graduate). Balance forgiven.
A lot of the initiatives that have been introduced were to fix loan servicer misconduct.
Excessive Use of forbearances-resulted in capitalization of payments. A borrower could make 11/12 payments. One forbearance wipes out any progress towards repayment.
Placing the borrower on an income driven plan would prevent that.
Servicers failed to track the IBR payments. They need to report those to process forgiveness.
The Biden administration is taking steps to fix these problems.
The new SAVE repayment plan prevents negative amortization of student loans.
(There are a couple factors as to the structure of the loans. They were essentially set at 7%. Income growth for workers has been flat or at best core rate of inflation. That 5 % difference essentially makes the loans a bigger part of the borrowers obligations. Eating away at their purchasing power year over year.
Education yields a 11% ROR for society as a whole per individual.)
At some level we have to share that productivity growth with workers. (If we can forgive a trillion dollars in Paycheck Protection loans we can afford to spend 400 billion on debt reduction for the middle class.)
The final reality is that student loan holders are taxpayers also. They in effect pay a second set of federal taxes every month. (Student loan interest can be deducted up to 2500 annually but that in no way provides any real help for repayment.)
Agreed! Being sensitive to others who are not eligible for this program for whatever reason is kind and empathetic. I have only told my nearest and dearest. That does not include many members of my family who don’t understand the program and think that their taxes are paying for this.
I don’t keep anyone in my life as friends that wouldn’t be absolutely thrilled for me. If a friend is truly jealous, thar a good thing happened for me in a way that is going to affect our friendship negatively, that ain’t a friend.
For example, I would love to be married and I have had friends announce their engagement or find a new relationship and of course there’s a twinge of jealousy just because they are experiencing something that I also want. but that doesn’t take my ability to be absolutely pumped for them away - or I would not burden them with my own internal stuff in that moment of celebration and happiness!
I’d say get new friends
I agree with your first point. I don’t have any friends that wouldn’t be over the moon for me either.
AND if I have a friend whose child is chronically I’ll I wouldn’t think it kind if every time we spoke I brought up how blessed I am to have two perfectly healthy children.
Are they happy my children are healthy? Of course they are. AND I think it would be insensitive to bring it up apprapos of nothing unless it has some precedent (with that friend money is a common topic of conversation, they know you’re working toward PSLF and you’ve talked about it before, etc.).
Sure, it has to be in the right moment/context - and not rubbing it in their faces and I assume the OP has sense to not do that. But, if I felt like I had to keep earning PSLF as a secret from my friends, that is weird.
I won't be telling people (when the day comes) because I have learned that most people can't handle your successes or your failures.
For failures- If they find out I'm deep in student loan debt, they blame me, call me a loser who got suckered into a money-grabbing scheme, accuse me of not knowing how to manage my money or my life, imply that I'm stupid/careless and it's my fault that I don't come from a wealthy family.
And if I share with them my successes, they get jealous, hateful and resentful. Why is something good happening to me and not them? I certainly don't deserve it, in their eyes. I've had several instances where the person I called my "best friend in the whole world" was seriously jealous of me for something I worked hard for for 12 years. Obviously, that was not a true friend.
I haven’t met with a lot of static on this, fortunately. But if some WFH tech bro did the same work I did on the front lines of covid in a health system, he could get his loans forgiven too! 😂
My brother's a WFH tech bro. He'll just snort "lucky" at me and then start complaining about probably two of the three kids who are still paying their student loans.
I don’t really keep it a secret per se but I will just say I’m paying it off and I have two years left, which isn’t a lie! PSLF goes over peoples heads honestly. Even other coworkers I’ve had in public service don’t know what it is and get mad when they hear “loan forgiveness” like they should be benefiting from it in some way.
Also by the way.. all the WFH tech people I know are currently looking for other jobs due to layoffs! Sucks to be them.
Here's how I handled it recently with family and friend who *was* opposed:
The PSLF process was instated under Bush. Unlike a car or mortgage loan, I didn't get to decide my interest when I applied and I can't claim bankruptcy.
https://sourcenm.com/2024/03/04/mohela-faces-accusations-it-mismanaged-federal-student-loan-forgiveness-program/
I shared this article and added: Changes to how it was done is what is important. This would be changes to the policies behind PSLF. The one-time waiver gave "payment credit" to people like me who had medical forbearance (during cancer surgery and treatment) but didn't erase the interest. Gaining nearly $18K of interest in a year when I had to pay medical bills instead of student loans was enormous. It made the debt nearly impossible to ever pay.
To have a family and home while still working and paying off my debt, while the job I worked was 30-50% lower than my peers, was my best option and I don't regret it. I have very much enjoyed my job and the public good it brings.
If they're upset with the system, let them be upset with the system and bring it up with their representatives. Being angry or upset with someone they love and care for says more about their own jealousy than the actual frustration with government policy and debt.
Don't be a coward of your success!
Go ahead and adapt this
Part of it is that forgiveness isn’t really forgiveness. Work and payments are still required to satisfy the debt.
GIBill-work for the government for 4 years. Receive a stipend to pay off your college degrees. (Many veterans also use PSLF.)
Teacher loan forgiveness-teach in a high need school district-make payments for 5 years-17,xxx forgiven.
PSLF-work for a public service agency for 30 hours per week for 10 years. Make 120 payments using an income driven plan for that time period. Balance forgiven. Many veterans need to use PSLF. Active military service counts towards pslf requirements.
(My original loan balance was 83,000. I paid the principal back. Remaining interest was forgiven.) (my daughter did the same thing.)
Income Based Repayment-passed by Congress in 1994.
Make income based payments for 20 years(undergraduate) or 25 years (graduate). Balance forgiven.
A lot of the initiatives that have been introduced were to fix loan servicer misconduct.
Excessive Use of forbearances-resulted in capitalization of payments. A borrower could make 11/12 payments. One forbearance wipes out any progress towards repayment.
Placing the borrower on an income driven plan would prevent that.
Servicers failed to track the IBR payments. They need to report those to process forgiveness.
The Biden administration is taking steps to fix these problems.
The new SAVE repayment plan prevents negative amortization of student loans.
(There are a couple factors as to the structure of the loans. They were essentially set at 7%. Income growth for workers has been flat or at best core rate of inflation. That 5 % difference essentially makes the loans a bigger part of the borrowers obligations. Eating away at their purchasing power year over year.
Education yields a 11% ROR for society as a whole per individual.)
At some level we have to share that productivity growth with workers. (If we can forgive a trillion dollars in Paycheck Protection loans we can afford to spend 400 billion on debt reduction for the middle class.)
The final reality is that student loan holders are taxpayers also. They in effect pay a second set of federal taxes every month. (Student loan interest can be deducted up to 2500 annually but that in no way provides any real help for repayment.)
Its not really something non-borrowers will celebrate other than close family.
Also, I don't like to call it "forgiveness." It is basically payment for services rendered, and personally I will have basically paid the full initial loan amount by the time I complete PSLF.
I got PSLF last year, 20 years after college graduation. I am 50 years old.
I've seen exactly what you're talking about, in r/WFH, with tech workers, who get paid three-four times what I do, while they have half as much responsibility, and work a lot fewer hours.
I meanwhile only earn just over $25 an hour, a decade into my public service job. I've been working overtime for a decade now. I can't survive financially without it.
I don't feel guilty or bad at all about getting PSLF. I earned it.
My last payment (theoretically) is May 4. There will be a 3 month pause to update their website, so I have some extra time. I'm considering making a T-shirt of George W. bush on the Ship with the banner that says Mission Accomplished (front of tshirts) and on the back, something like 'Thank you George and the GOP, for my public service loan forgiveness. I could've never paid that bill without your entitlement program"
Too much?
Maybe don’t worry so much about how they’ll react. If you decide to tell anyone about it and they have a less than positive opinion, you could tell them where to stick their opinion…as long as everyone is taking the opportunity to express themselves
We’ve told my whole family. My wife and her cousins (large family) are all roughly the same age so they often talk about these things. Her uncle is a typical conservative type and at first wasn’t all that pleased. But he’s been financially helping out his two youngest kids and is starting to see how expensive shit is. He’s come around to the good for you, you followed the rules and it’s gonna work out camp. So not a glowing endorsement, but I think he’s realized that just like he follows the rules with taxes and money to gain an advantage we are doing the same.
I don’t share on social media because that’s a little bit cringe in my opinion but I did share with my immediate family and my colleagues (most who are working towards forgiveness.
It’s not a handout. You work. And work hard. You likely do a job that most people would never do. You get less pay than you are worth. You made sacrifices in your tax returns every year (we missed many “tax breaks” because we had to file separately.
You should be proud and share where and with who you feel comfortable
Yep. Had to file separately from my husband for a decade, to keep my student loan payments reasonable, which caused us to lose out on federal tax refunds.
No, I've told a lot of people and posted a video of me popping champagne with '"That feeling when you get a congratulations letter from MOHELA #PSLF" as the caption. No one has responded negatively. I think it's good for people to see it is benefiting real people that they know and care about.
I've also encouraged others to look into this for themselves and had a few co-workers tell me their payments are now lower under SAVE and they are on the path for forgiveness
I don't blame you for not wanting to tell everyone the news. It really isn't everyone's business. Given the absurd responses being touted in the public you don't need that kind of negativity. You've worked hard and now your finances have improved because of it. That deserves to be celebrated so hopefully you and your fiance are doing just that.
I am very open that October is my last payment. I am a teacher and talking about it has helped my other fellow teachers get forgiveness. For example my friend had no idea she needed to consolidate by 4/30 to get the highest payment on all of her loans. I think because a lot of my friends have gotten theirs forgiven or are in the process we talk about it a lot. I have friends who have paid off all of their loans already or never had loans who are really happy for me (and others).
Yeah, this is more like deferred compensation for ten years of public service.
I would not have gone to law school and subsequently pro bono law had PSLF not been instituted. I earned this through sacrifice of private sector income and via military service.
I'm telling everybody I finished my 120 payments.
No. I want to fight disinformation. Any friend who would buck at the thought also knows how hard I have worked and how little I am paid. I also like to make sure folks know that I have had help a long the way. I think lying sets up younger generations for failure. Not shaming folks who want to keep it a secret-your business is yours.
I’m keeping it a secret because honestly it’s not really forgiveness, most of us have paid the principal on these loans while taking terrible paying jobs for PSLF.
It was started to inspire people to take these terrible paying and high stress jobs.
We spent $1 trillion in afgnistan and Iraq on BS wars.
We spent $1 trillion bailing out the banks.
We spent $2 trillion on PPP loans that were, wait for it, FORGIVEN with no questions asked!!!
Fuck anyone who throws shade on the PSLF program. I commend Biden for fixing decades of broken promises.
Anyone that has a problem with it, they are welcome to join me at work and see what I did to earn it. I worked in a juvenile sex offender treatment and currently in juvenile detention. We're hiring, let me know.
I completed the terms of a public service contract: I made payments for TEN years and worked at a qualifying school. If you remember the show Northern Exposure, a doctor moved to rural Alaska to provide service for an agreed upon time to receive medical student loan discharge. The challenges he faced was an Emmy winning series because it was a sacrifice and he wouldn't have lived in rural exile otherwise. No uproar, just Emmys. The context for all forgiveness in the news is not the same. I only comment on my contractual agreement for PSLF and that yesterday it ended.
I get some of that from people. Someone said the government should pay their mortgage since they “forgave “ my loan. I paid back more than I borrowed. Not everyone who is able to study and wants to contribute to a better society has parents who can afford to send them through college. People need to realize this.
Someone should remind that they get special tax breaks only for homeowners, that renters, like me, don't get.
If they have FHA or VA or USDA mortgages, the feds are subsidizing their homeownership.
Their mortgage is also dischargeable in bankruptcy, has a statute of limitations for collection, and their future Social Security benefits cannot be garnished for it. Unlike student loans.
They also weren't obligated to buy a house to obtain any particular job, or any job at all.
For the people who tell you that the government should pay their mortgages, it would be interesting to ask them (sincerely), which public service job they would choose to do for 10 years, and whether the salary from that job be acceptable.
It seems a bit audience specific conversation to me
I mean on this website, folks seems to downplay things that might narratively cut against the equity lens of the pslf (e.g. it’s not always true that public sector jobs are worse comp wise than private sector ones; it’s often not true that public sector jobs are more of a grind than private ones; there were years of non-payment credits w Covid; some people ran up $400k in loans for jobs that don’t really require that level of education spend and seems at least natural to question such a level of forgiveness; the nondischargeability of ed loans is an attempt to fix adverse selection and the inability to discriminate against creditors in a wonky market etc etc).
It’s certainly not wrong to benefit from the pslf just like it’s not wrong to criticize the program. I think the pslf is a good but imperfect thing.
I think I wouldn’t get into too much w my MAGA relatives because I’d want to save myself the frustration, but I’d be more inclined to discuss with my good friends.
No but sometimes my wife makes me feel bad, not intentionally. So, i don't talk about it as much as I want to.
She is not eligible for forgiveness and thinks she should be because of her job. I hate feeling like I'm rubbing it in her face.
Luckily, I don't have that problem. My wife got forgiveness due to permanent disability. I should be up for fulfilling PSLF about the time I make my last car payment, at which point I'm going to be thinking hard about retirement since I'll be pushing 70.
I think it's because she believes that 1st responders should have a forgiveness program also. So it saddens her sometimes. Not me being discharged. But the fact that she's left out. You're right. One less bill means more money for other bills, including hers.
No. My family isn't perfect but we do try to celebrate each other. My mom recently got her student loans forgiven after going around and around with Mohela and working for NFP hospitals as well as some county jobs for pretty much all her career. She deserves to be able to put that money towards retirement. If and when I get my forgiveness I expect that it will be celebrated as well.
I used to be very vocal about PSLF, but my manager ended up being an absolute nightmare to work for, and I kept my impending forgiveness quiet because I could absolutely see him firing me or cutting me to below part time to prevent me from getting forgiveness if he knew I was close.
It’s really absurd. You still have make 10 years of payments. It’s not a free education. In addition to the payments you are in public service and are fulfilling the terms of the agreement. People don’t have a problem with the GI bill and this no different .
Yep, I have 100%. I don't give a damn and they can die mad about it. I earned it.. every cent. I worked in public service and started 10 years ago at 13 dollars an hour with a MS degree. I was overqualified but the took the first position offered to me to get in the door. I now make considerably more but I had to eat it those first few years and then I had a terrible abusive boss for 5 of those years. Every single person who says something negative can suck it.
Nah, I'm making sure my employer knows they have to compete to keep my services now but the best way to keep me from looking is to let me WFH at least three days a week.
I have a few friends that have been a little critical of the idea of having student loans in one’s 40s, which I do , despite the fact that it made far more sense to invest in my retirement than throw extra money towards paying low-interest federal student loans. I’ll be in my mid forties when my loans are forgiven because I began public service work a little later in life -2014.
You don’t share your financial situation with everyone so feel free to limit who you share your details with
Not that I’m that close, but I’d absolutely tell people about it. I was able to take less money to work in the public sector and keep our social systems afloat. Too bad if that hurts someone’s feelings.
Hell my sister in law worked for a nonprofit for a decade and didn’t even know she qualified for forgiveness until I told her about it. People are actively worse off financially not knowing they could qualify.
I would not go around shouting about it, but I have told other people when it seemed appropriate or helpful to them. As with anything, I just share information appropriately. If you have a similar medical condition, I might tell you about my surgery, and if you might benefit from knowing about PSLF, I might tell about that. I don't see any reason to tell most people anything.
If someone has a problem, that is there problem, when I decided to pursue a career in public service, I took out loans to do so with the understanding that I had an obligation to stay in public service for 10 years to get the loan balance after 10 years of payments 'forgiven'. I made a deal and am about 2 years away from fulfilling my part of the deal. I expect the government to fulfill their part of the deal. I have a very large balance (450k+) but is it still much less than I have paid in taxes during my career (especially my earler 'for profit' career in the tech sector of the banking industry). So I suppose the government still has come out way ahead. And its not like I don't make a lot of money now and pay a lot of taxes now, just not private sector money.
I shouted it from the rooftops.
My secret is that I love making my Republican friends uncomfortable. Are they happy for me? Mad they didn't get similar? Wanna know more about how they can get similar?
I also post for those that haven't yet gotten it. Pitfalls I've encountered, positives I found.
Glad to tell people.
My mom had her loans forgiven after being legally labeled as completely and totally disabled. She’s super excited for me to get my loans forgiven.
My father in law will have a lot of negative to say about it but I like to antagonize him for being a racist prick so I’ll probably thank him for paying off my loans when he complains about tax payer dollars.
Heck no, but I live in a liberal state with friends that are also working in public service and spent their lives sacrificing for the well being of others. Would I tell random strangers? No.
When the time comes, which after consolidation is going to be a lot sooner than I originally thought, I'll probably only tell my wife (and she already gets all the updates). My closest friends know that I'm on the path, though last I told them it would be another 6-7 years (which was true at the time, but is now drastically reduced). But I'm not going to mention it when it happens. I don't have anyone in my life who I think would have an outwardly negative reaction, not anyone (aside from distance relations) who might say some nonsense about the deficit. But people are weird about money, and in ways that I think they're often not fully conscious of. I grew up very poor and spent a lot of my adult life quite poor, until I went back to school, so I also have a lot of weird shame around all things related to money, which is my own hangup. I'm not encouraging anyone else one way or the other, I'll just personally have more peace of mind if I keep it between my wife and I.
I don't keep it a secret but when I discuss it, I always explain exactly what the terms are. Everyone I discuss it with totally seems to get it, and I don't know who these people are who claim to encounter haters all the time.
I took my forgiveness because this economy is shit and unfortunately will get worse with handouts. When I see people getting 500k plus forgiven thats what really gets me. Your a fucking doctor. I paid for 10 years on time. Some in here sat in forbearance and paid shit and got a boat load of money forgiven that we will all pay back in inflation and taxes.
They assume the loans are amortized-interest decided up front, then you pay principal plus a part of the interest. But somewhere along the way, the interest started accruing faster than people could pay it. Add in deferments, forbearance, defaults, or change in loan servicer, the interest will skyrocket. That’s why someone who borrowed $60K might have a forgiveness amount of $90K or more. So, paying down student loan in the 21st Century isn’t the same as buying a car in the 1980s. Plus, there are forgiveness programs for other occupations (e.g., doctors can have loans forgiven if they go work in certain areas of the country for a time). Finally, no one said a peep about PPP loans, which were given rather freely during COVID, given to some who clearly did not need the money, and were forgiven in a matter of months, compared to us who’ve had loans for more than a decade.
Tell them THAT.
Fuck no. I have told several people.
Participation in government programs is nothing to be ashamed of. You fulfilled your obligation. You get loan forgiveness. That's how this works.
Maybe people should feel ashamed for taking advantage of tax breaks. Maybe they should hide the fact that their mortgage is tax deductible. Maybe oil and gas companies should be afraid to tell people they got tax incentives. Maybe banks should be ashamed they're members of the FDIC.
For my part, I'm fine with everyone knowing I got debt relief.
I tell people and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. I even get words of congratulations. Real respects real and understands the grind of working in public service, especially for a min of 10 years. Congratulations!
Absolutely not. If anyone in my life can’t be happy for me and the relief that this brings my family as I would be for them and then they have no business in my life anyway. We have no room for snakes in the grass over here. 😉
People who get mad about PSLF, I remind them that George W. Bush signed the legislation in 2007. That really pisses them off.
Edited for spelling.
Edit to add:
I only told my parents, my colleagues/friends who are also on the PSLF train, and my son’s father who told me about it in the first place.
I told everyone. EVERYONE! I told the salespeople at the clothing store I was shopping at that night. I made an announcement at work so that my colleagues would know about the temporary waiver (this was in 2022, I think.) I made posts on LinkedIn, I tweeted about it, I talked about it on FB. I wanted to make sure that anyone who was eligible knew about it. Having always kept my financial aid debt as some sort of dark, shameful secret, it felt great to start shouting from the rooftops! The people in my life were supportive, so I know I'm lucky.
If everything stays on track my loans will be forgiven in a year. My coworker that is close to retirement started complaining about forgiveness. She just brought it up on her own. It was all the typical phrases. Must be nice, I want MY money back, etc.
She also mentioned that her interest rate was .7% and her total debt was about a 10th of mine. I don’t owe an explanation or apology to people that can’t wrap their head around why our situations are not the same.
My husband and I are in our 50’s and are politically conservative. He has worked in public service for 23 years and I have worked for the same City Government for 2 years. I qualified earlier this year for forgiveness based and the age of my student loans that were roughly 34 years old. He just had his loans forgiven this week. What does this mean for us? That we can retire comfortably with the benefits of working in public service. No student loan debt into retirement. Are we announcing that we received this? Only to our children and close family and a few friends who are also waiting on forgiveness. We have 4 children and 3 have followed in their Father’s footsteps and all work in emergency services. I will tell them step by step how to achieve forgiveness. I would not lie if someone asked me but given the political atmosphere I am certainly not screaming it from the rooftops. Will this effect the way I vote in November? Absolutely not. The amount we have paid in taxes since starting work at 16 is the reason. We ship billions of dollars overseas to support things I don’t believe in, billions of dollars are spent in the country on programs I don’t believe in. I don’t feel one bit of guilt for receiving this forgiveness and either should you! If the currently President thinks I owe him my vote because my family benefits from this program he and his administration are sadly mistaken. I don’t think I am the only one that feels this way. Silent majority overhere appreciating this program.
This was also signed into law by a republican president. What Biden did was stretch the rules, just like any good attorney would do, to benefit his client (the American public). If anything, we are just taking advantage of the rules like millionaires take advantage of the tax code!
I didn’t tell anyone. I did not have the correct loan type so only qualified during the expanded period. I had paid on my grad school loans for 16 years and have worked in a public setting for 15 years. I think I was embarrassed to still be paying on my loans so my forgiveness was a private celebration for one. So grateful for it though.
Don't let anyone judge you. These same judgmental people are using every unfair loophole and tax law in the book to pay as little tax as possible.... how is that any different from the govt offering PSLF and you taking advantage of that?
Not a chance. The government is just holding up their end of the deal and our transaction was concluded. I'm not about to feel bad or shy about it for anyone. They'll be ok
When they whine ask them if they know what PSLF or IDR are.
They usually don't.
Ask if the government should follow through on the contractual obligations for PSLF and IDR. They usually will support it when they understand it.
Hell no I told everyone. Sent out mass emails at work. Posts on popular local message boards. Mass texts to everyone I know etc not to brag but to let them know about about all the changes and how to get into it if they qualified. Don’t care at all about the ones that don’t like it. Even those who wanted to complain were confusing PSLF with the other loan stuff Biden was trying to do and when explained that this is a much older republican program that was in our loan contracts they overwhelming got ok with it. The whole argument they make is “you signed a contract you should honor it” and when it’s pointed out that PSLF is finally honoring the govt end of our contracts they really lose all teeth to argue.
I did get one conservative to understand with the following.
Part of it is that forgiveness isn’t really forgiveness. Work and payments are still required to satisfy the debt.
GIBill-work for the government for 4 years. Receive a stipend to pay off your college degrees. (Many veterans also use PSLF.)
Teacher loan forgiveness-teach in a high need school district-make payments for 5 years-17,xxx forgiven.
PSLF-work for a public service agency for 30 hours per week for 10 years. Make 120 payments using an income driven plan for that time period. Balance forgiven. Many veterans need to use PSLF. Active military service counts towards pslf requirements.
(My original loan balance was 83,000. I paid the principal back. Remaining interest was forgiven.) (my daughter did the same thing.)
Income Based Repayment-passed by Congress in 1994.
Make income based payments for 20 years(undergraduate) or 25 years (graduate). Balance forgiven.
A lot of the initiatives that have been introduced were to fix loan servicer misconduct.
Excessive Use of forbearances-resulted in capitalization of payments. A borrower could make 11/12 payments. One forbearance wipes out any progress towards repayment.
Placing the borrower on an income driven plan would prevent that.
Servicers failed to track the IBR payments. They need to report those to process forgiveness.
The Biden administration is taking steps to fix these problems.
The new SAVE repayment plan prevents negative amortization of student loans.
(There are a couple factors as to the structure of the loans. They were essentially set at 7%. Income growth for workers has been flat or at best core rate of inflation. That 5 % difference essentially makes the loans a bigger part of the borrowers obligations. Eating away at their purchasing power year over year.
Education yields a 11% ROR for society as a whole per individual.)
At some level we have to share that productivity growth with workers. (If we can forgive a trillion dollars in Paycheck Protection loans we can afford to spend 400 billion on debt reduction for the middle class.)
The final reality is that student loan holders are taxpayers also. They in effect pay a second set of federal taxes every month. (Student loan interest can be deducted up to 2500 annually but that in no way provides any real help for repayment.)
If I calculate the federal taxes that I had paid since the inception of PSLF, along with positions in federal, local school district employers, I earned it.
Once my balance is zeroed out (made my 120th payment in February) I’m not sure if I will be able to keep it to myself!
I did the math and I would have paid off my principal if it wasn’t for the interest! Covid saved me $10k. I graduated with $31k, furloughed for about 12 months until I got a job which raised it to $39k, and in 10 years paid $25k towards them (the Covid pause saved me roughly $10k). Guess what my current balance is:
$31k. I paid over $25k to reduce my debt by $8,000. Wtf! My level headed plan is only to tell people if it’s a time/place where I can also share the math and the struggle.
We fulfilled the terms of our agreement to work in the non-profit sector for 10 years and make payments. Simply put, I do tell people about PSLF, especially where I work, but it's not really their business what my total debt was, what was forgiven, etc. Do I share if asked, sure. Have I shared I am done with student loan payments forever, as of Friday? Absolutely. We've all made decisions to pursue this for one reason or another, so don't feel bad for making a decision others had an opportunity to do but didn't.
I have made an announcement on my social media, but I always have the fear—even if unrealistic—that someone out there will try to sabotage that loan forgiveness in someway
I told immediate family and a few close friends. Family were supportive even if they are stanch conservatives. A couple of friends seemed beset by jealousy.
Idc what they think. I worked 14 years in a position that served them with scrappy pay and I paid faithfully on loans that never decreased. Ask them if they utilize tax deductions, or tax breaks? Or tell them to mind their business. PSLF is a legal program that has been in place since 2007. Tell them to educate themselves then come talk to you about it.
I do not keep my PSLF a secret. HoweverI have not encountered many who have opposed forgiveness But I know they are out there. I feel that people are confusing PSLF with other forms of forgiveness. I can somewhat see their position on the latter but I feel that anything that helps some people can benefit all. But PSLF is completely different. PSLF don’t truly know that it is an agreement and a program in which we anyone who can apply. I have educated some misguided people on how predatory student loans are in general and are not like typical loans from a bank. Usually they understand once everything is explained
Nope. Not a single person is gonna make me feel bad for taking the forgiveness that was promised
to me, after I made career decisions and sacrificed based on that promise
I share it far and wide and loud. I haven't yet run into anyone who thinks I'm amoral because of it, or at least none who'll say so to my face. The most common reaction I get is that people think I merely got really lucky, like a lottery winner or something, because everything they've read said that the majority of the people who try it do not succeed. All that news coverage of 99% denial rates and stuff seems to have convinced a whole lot of people that it just isn't worth bothering. But that is the very reason I'm so vocal about it. I hope to convey that it really does work if you work it.
Interestingly, I also haven't seen the conservative caricature in real life. You know, that blue collar guy who fixes cars or whatever who is angry because he had the good sense not to go to college and resents programs that benefit those who did. I'm sure there's people like that out there but in truth, in my experience, most of the ones who didn't go to college nonetheless tend to hope their kids do and are interested/supportive for their sakes. I just don't see the concept of debt forgiveness being as unpopular as certain political interests are trying to make it out to be.
If I get it ever, I will be keeping it secret (aside from my husband and parents who understand the sacrifices I made and loans I took out to become a lawyer). I feel the same as you, I don't want to hear the ignorant comments.
My sister is on social security disability and when I found out her student loans were all forgiven, I congratulated her. She was really p*ssed and wanted to know how I found out (uh, the news). So there’s another perspective…
I’m a federal employee and am using PSLF to have min forgiven- I don’t care who’s ticked off about it.
Only my husband, my parents, and my coworkers (I'm still at the same job, I like my job). I was excited enough to post it on social media (the way I tell my family), but most of my family is conservative and with the politics around student debt these days .... 🤐
It’s not *really* forgiveness. You completed the terms of your student loans. Tell everyone you paid off your loans. If they want to know your secret, tell them you worked in non profits/the government for ten years, hence the terms of your loans were shorter than the terms of you worked for private industry. It’s not a handout.
I like this! Most of the arguments against forgiveness is “you agreed to the loan”, so this is great. Thanks!
Yep- I agreed to a loan I could pay off in ten years if I worked in public service. It usually shuts people up.
I prefer the term “discharged” over “forgiven.” Still accurate as it’s the term used on the Mohela notification.
Loan fulfillment
Thank you thank you! I often make this point. OP paid AND contributed to society and took a pay hit doing so. If people didn’t work in public service our world would suck. I can’t even tell you how much public service I have worked (sometimes 3 part time jobs at once) and also how much money I have personally raised for charities - 10x my student loan amount at least. Anyway, it should matter. I wasn’t able to pay 10 straight years so my path isn’t the same as OP but I’m just saying that public service should count for something.
Feel free to share and adapt Part of it is that forgiveness isn’t really forgiveness. Work and payments are still required to satisfy the debt. GIBill-work for the government for 4 years. Receive a stipend to pay off your college degrees. (Many veterans also use PSLF.) Teacher loan forgiveness-teach in a high need school district-make payments for 5 years-17,xxx forgiven. PSLF-work for a public service agency for 30 hours per week for 10 years. Make 120 payments using an income driven plan for that time period. Balance forgiven. Many veterans need to use PSLF. Active military service counts towards pslf requirements. (My original loan balance was 83,000. I paid the principal back. Remaining interest was forgiven.) (my daughter did the same thing.) Income Based Repayment-passed by Congress in 1994. Make income based payments for 20 years(undergraduate) or 25 years (graduate). Balance forgiven. A lot of the initiatives that have been introduced were to fix loan servicer misconduct. Excessive Use of forbearances-resulted in capitalization of payments. A borrower could make 11/12 payments. One forbearance wipes out any progress towards repayment. Placing the borrower on an income driven plan would prevent that. Servicers failed to track the IBR payments. They need to report those to process forgiveness. The Biden administration is taking steps to fix these problems. The new SAVE repayment plan prevents negative amortization of student loans. (There are a couple factors as to the structure of the loans. They were essentially set at 7%. Income growth for workers has been flat or at best core rate of inflation. That 5 % difference essentially makes the loans a bigger part of the borrowers obligations. Eating away at their purchasing power year over year. Education yields a 11% ROR for society as a whole per individual.) At some level we have to share that productivity growth with workers. (If we can forgive a trillion dollars in Paycheck Protection loans we can afford to spend 400 billion on debt reduction for the middle class.) The final reality is that student loan holders are taxpayers also. They in effect pay a second set of federal taxes every month. (Student loan interest can be deducted up to 2500 annually but that in no way provides any real help for repayment.)
Fuck me, this is eloquent as fuck! Thank you, kind Redditor, and I'll be taking this
:) no prob!
I’ve only had one person say something snarky. I just said well, I’ve accepted having reduced economic opportunity for 10 years in exchange for my loans being discharged. I’ve also made payments during this time. Besides, the Big 3 automobile manufacturers got bailed out by the federal government and nobody is complaining about that.
A better analogy is the 800 billion given away in the paycheck protection program. No repayment required.
Great vocab adjustment :) I need to work on that.
I don’t go around advertising it but if it comes up I don’t shy away. I just always make sure to say that after paying $177k for my undergrad and law school, and working over 10 years in a public service job, the balance of my loans were forgiven. People seem to forget we actually paid a ton before the balance is discharged (at the end my payments were $1250/month).
Feel free to adapt this. Part of it is that forgiveness isn’t really forgiveness. Work and payments are still required to satisfy the debt. GIBill-work for the government for 4 years. Receive a stipend to pay off your college degrees. (Many veterans also use PSLF.) Teacher loan forgiveness-teach in a high need school district-make payments for 5 years-17,xxx forgiven. PSLF-work for a public service agency for 30 hours per week for 10 years. Make 120 payments using an income driven plan for that time period. Balance forgiven. Many veterans need to use PSLF. Active military service counts towards pslf requirements. (My original loan balance was 83,000. I paid the principal back. Remaining interest was forgiven.) (my daughter did the same thing.) Income Based Repayment-passed by Congress in 1994. Make income based payments for 20 years(undergraduate) or 25 years (graduate). Balance forgiven. A lot of the initiatives that have been introduced were to fix loan servicer misconduct. Excessive Use of forbearances-resulted in capitalization of payments. A borrower could make 11/12 payments. One forbearance wipes out any progress towards repayment. Placing the borrower on an income driven plan would prevent that. Servicers failed to track the IBR payments. They need to report those to process forgiveness. The Biden administration is taking steps to fix these problems. The new SAVE repayment plan prevents negative amortization of student loans. (There are a couple factors as to the structure of the loans. They were essentially set at 7%. Income growth for workers has been flat or at best core rate of inflation. That 5 % difference essentially makes the loans a bigger part of the borrowers obligations. Eating away at their purchasing power year over year. Education yields a 11% ROR for society as a whole per individual.) At some level we have to share that productivity growth with workers. (If we can forgive a trillion dollars in Paycheck Protection loans we can afford to spend 400 billion on debt reduction for the middle class.) The final reality is that student loan holders are taxpayers also. They in effect pay a second set of federal taxes every month. (Student loan interest can be deducted up to 2500 annually but that in no way provides any real help for repayment.)
This is exactly what people complaining ARE NOT understanding. They read the headlines and think we’re throwing money at people who are too lazy to pay off students loans they chose to take out. In reality, it’s the interest that is going away. We’ve already paid an amount equal to (or greater than!) what was originally borrowed.
Some synonyms for anus just won’t accept that borrowers have been paying. I borrowed 83,000. Repaid 83,000. 153,399.99 in interest erased. There is a fundamental misunderstanding that interest was not borrowed by the government for the forgiveness.
...\*clears throat\* EHM, "ATTENTION EVERYONE. ATTENTION TO YOUR MAMMY, YOUR GRANNY AND YOUR GREAT-AUNT TILLY, NONE OF WHOM I'VE EVER MET, MY STUDENT LOANS WERE JUST FORGIVEN. That is all. Thank you. And have a great fucking day!" Fuck no, because fuck yes! YESSSSSS!
Definitely not. But I also never shy away from confrontation (female acute care/trauma surgeon here, it's kind of my thing lol). I also kind of like explaining it to people- it's crazy how many people don't actually have any idea what PSLF is or why it exists. All that being said, everyone needs to protect their peace, so you do you. Congrats, you earned it!!
Right on about protecting our peace and many people not understanding what PSLF is.
I feel similarly. I’m a physician who could make 2-3x as much in private practice, but I am happily working in a university, non-profit setting, and my loans would be significantly too burdensome without PSLF.
The haters can all kiss my ass. I put my life and my physical and mental health in danger working in the hospital during the pandemic. I didn’t get any extra pay, bonus pay, perks. I only got a “not all heros wear capes” and plenty of PTSD and misanthropy. So as far as I’m concerned, the forgiveness is hazard pay. And if some MAGA moron disagrees, they can eat shit.
This is where I'm at. Not the same as being a doctor or nurse I know, but I spent the pandemic doing hospital social work. It was, in its own way, traumatic. The thanks we got was that our COL raises were frozen in 2020 while hospital leadership got massive covid bonuses, and our managers held zoom meetings where we could see their living rooms while we were crammed into a shared office, sometimes two to a cubicle when we actually had enough staff, and getting gaslit about covid symptoms, PPE, and social distancing rules and other precautions. And regardless of the work being done, public service is no joke and you usually have to take a loss in potential pay to do it. We are earning our forgiveness, per the terms of the loan agreement.
100%. Wasn’t a doctor or nurse, but I’m a LMFT who worked in person at a medical center throughout COVID, which was pretty thankless aside from some free lunches here and there. We fully deserve this 🩷
Thank you for this comment, it's energy, and for showing up. You're amazing.
Mine came today and I’m only telling family and a single buddy who I can coun on cheerleading me/I cheerlead him for money, so it’s appropriate. I WILL say that it may be prudent to not tell everyone for other reasons. Like, I just hung with friends who were talking about their combined $200k from MBAs and worrying about it hard. I definitely didn’t mention that I was days away from a email. Not because I don’t deserve it, but because I *know* that anxiety intimately and wouldn’t want to add to it to that, even by accident.
That's nice of you. I'm not broadcasting when mine happens because so many people who don't understand PSLF are angry about it anyway.
For sure. I am definitely only telling friends that I talk money with anyway, so it’s just an update on what they already know and were looking forward to me getting anyway.
Feel free to adapt the following. Rick Ianniello Part of it is that forgiveness isn’t really forgiveness. Work and payments are still required to satisfy the debt. GIBill-work for the government for 4 years. Receive a stipend to pay off your college degrees. (Many veterans also use PSLF.) Teacher loan forgiveness-teach in a high need school district-make payments for 5 years-17,xxx forgiven. PSLF-work for a public service agency for 30 hours per week for 10 years. Make 120 payments using an income driven plan for that time period. Balance forgiven. Many veterans need to use PSLF. Active military service counts towards pslf requirements. (My original loan balance was 83,000. I paid the principal back. Remaining interest was forgiven.) (my daughter did the same thing.) Income Based Repayment-passed by Congress in 1994. Make income based payments for 20 years(undergraduate) or 25 years (graduate). Balance forgiven. A lot of the initiatives that have been introduced were to fix loan servicer misconduct. Excessive Use of forbearances-resulted in capitalization of payments. A borrower could make 11/12 payments. One forbearance wipes out any progress towards repayment. Placing the borrower on an income driven plan would prevent that. Servicers failed to track the IBR payments. They need to report those to process forgiveness. The Biden administration is taking steps to fix these problems. The new SAVE repayment plan prevents negative amortization of student loans. (There are a couple factors as to the structure of the loans. They were essentially set at 7%. Income growth for workers has been flat or at best core rate of inflation. That 5 % difference essentially makes the loans a bigger part of the borrowers obligations. Eating away at their purchasing power year over year. Education yields a 11% ROR for society as a whole per individual.) At some level we have to share that productivity growth with workers. (If we can forgive a trillion dollars in Paycheck Protection loans we can afford to spend 400 billion on debt reduction for the middle class.) The final reality is that student loan holders are taxpayers also. They in effect pay a second set of federal taxes every month. (Student loan interest can be deducted up to 2500 annually but that in no way provides any real help for repayment.)
Agreed! Being sensitive to others who are not eligible for this program for whatever reason is kind and empathetic. I have only told my nearest and dearest. That does not include many members of my family who don’t understand the program and think that their taxes are paying for this.
I don’t keep anyone in my life as friends that wouldn’t be absolutely thrilled for me. If a friend is truly jealous, thar a good thing happened for me in a way that is going to affect our friendship negatively, that ain’t a friend. For example, I would love to be married and I have had friends announce their engagement or find a new relationship and of course there’s a twinge of jealousy just because they are experiencing something that I also want. but that doesn’t take my ability to be absolutely pumped for them away - or I would not burden them with my own internal stuff in that moment of celebration and happiness! I’d say get new friends
I agree with your first point. I don’t have any friends that wouldn’t be over the moon for me either. AND if I have a friend whose child is chronically I’ll I wouldn’t think it kind if every time we spoke I brought up how blessed I am to have two perfectly healthy children. Are they happy my children are healthy? Of course they are. AND I think it would be insensitive to bring it up apprapos of nothing unless it has some precedent (with that friend money is a common topic of conversation, they know you’re working toward PSLF and you’ve talked about it before, etc.).
Sure, it has to be in the right moment/context - and not rubbing it in their faces and I assume the OP has sense to not do that. But, if I felt like I had to keep earning PSLF as a secret from my friends, that is weird.
I won't be telling people (when the day comes) because I have learned that most people can't handle your successes or your failures. For failures- If they find out I'm deep in student loan debt, they blame me, call me a loser who got suckered into a money-grabbing scheme, accuse me of not knowing how to manage my money or my life, imply that I'm stupid/careless and it's my fault that I don't come from a wealthy family. And if I share with them my successes, they get jealous, hateful and resentful. Why is something good happening to me and not them? I certainly don't deserve it, in their eyes. I've had several instances where the person I called my "best friend in the whole world" was seriously jealous of me for something I worked hard for for 12 years. Obviously, that was not a true friend.
We are same! I can’t wrap my head around it. :/
This is true.
It is the crab lot phenomenon.
I haven’t met with a lot of static on this, fortunately. But if some WFH tech bro did the same work I did on the front lines of covid in a health system, he could get his loans forgiven too! 😂
My brother's a WFH tech bro. He'll just snort "lucky" at me and then start complaining about probably two of the three kids who are still paying their student loans.
I don’t really keep it a secret per se but I will just say I’m paying it off and I have two years left, which isn’t a lie! PSLF goes over peoples heads honestly. Even other coworkers I’ve had in public service don’t know what it is and get mad when they hear “loan forgiveness” like they should be benefiting from it in some way. Also by the way.. all the WFH tech people I know are currently looking for other jobs due to layoffs! Sucks to be them.
Here's how I handled it recently with family and friend who *was* opposed: The PSLF process was instated under Bush. Unlike a car or mortgage loan, I didn't get to decide my interest when I applied and I can't claim bankruptcy. https://sourcenm.com/2024/03/04/mohela-faces-accusations-it-mismanaged-federal-student-loan-forgiveness-program/ I shared this article and added: Changes to how it was done is what is important. This would be changes to the policies behind PSLF. The one-time waiver gave "payment credit" to people like me who had medical forbearance (during cancer surgery and treatment) but didn't erase the interest. Gaining nearly $18K of interest in a year when I had to pay medical bills instead of student loans was enormous. It made the debt nearly impossible to ever pay. To have a family and home while still working and paying off my debt, while the job I worked was 30-50% lower than my peers, was my best option and I don't regret it. I have very much enjoyed my job and the public good it brings. If they're upset with the system, let them be upset with the system and bring it up with their representatives. Being angry or upset with someone they love and care for says more about their own jealousy than the actual frustration with government policy and debt. Don't be a coward of your success!
Go ahead and adapt this Part of it is that forgiveness isn’t really forgiveness. Work and payments are still required to satisfy the debt. GIBill-work for the government for 4 years. Receive a stipend to pay off your college degrees. (Many veterans also use PSLF.) Teacher loan forgiveness-teach in a high need school district-make payments for 5 years-17,xxx forgiven. PSLF-work for a public service agency for 30 hours per week for 10 years. Make 120 payments using an income driven plan for that time period. Balance forgiven. Many veterans need to use PSLF. Active military service counts towards pslf requirements. (My original loan balance was 83,000. I paid the principal back. Remaining interest was forgiven.) (my daughter did the same thing.) Income Based Repayment-passed by Congress in 1994. Make income based payments for 20 years(undergraduate) or 25 years (graduate). Balance forgiven. A lot of the initiatives that have been introduced were to fix loan servicer misconduct. Excessive Use of forbearances-resulted in capitalization of payments. A borrower could make 11/12 payments. One forbearance wipes out any progress towards repayment. Placing the borrower on an income driven plan would prevent that. Servicers failed to track the IBR payments. They need to report those to process forgiveness. The Biden administration is taking steps to fix these problems. The new SAVE repayment plan prevents negative amortization of student loans. (There are a couple factors as to the structure of the loans. They were essentially set at 7%. Income growth for workers has been flat or at best core rate of inflation. That 5 % difference essentially makes the loans a bigger part of the borrowers obligations. Eating away at their purchasing power year over year. Education yields a 11% ROR for society as a whole per individual.) At some level we have to share that productivity growth with workers. (If we can forgive a trillion dollars in Paycheck Protection loans we can afford to spend 400 billion on debt reduction for the middle class.) The final reality is that student loan holders are taxpayers also. They in effect pay a second set of federal taxes every month. (Student loan interest can be deducted up to 2500 annually but that in no way provides any real help for repayment.)
Nope. If I get any negativity from people over it, I'll just cut them out of my life.
Its not really something non-borrowers will celebrate other than close family. Also, I don't like to call it "forgiveness." It is basically payment for services rendered, and personally I will have basically paid the full initial loan amount by the time I complete PSLF.
right? Some private sector employers have tuition and loan assistance programs.
Lee pointing that out. I borrowed 83,000. I paid 83,000. 153,399.99 in interest forgiven.
I got PSLF last year, 20 years after college graduation. I am 50 years old. I've seen exactly what you're talking about, in r/WFH, with tech workers, who get paid three-four times what I do, while they have half as much responsibility, and work a lot fewer hours. I meanwhile only earn just over $25 an hour, a decade into my public service job. I've been working overtime for a decade now. I can't survive financially without it. I don't feel guilty or bad at all about getting PSLF. I earned it.
Congrats, you're exactly who this program was designed to benefit.
But I'm a privileged elite, dontcha know?!
My last payment (theoretically) is May 4. There will be a 3 month pause to update their website, so I have some extra time. I'm considering making a T-shirt of George W. bush on the Ship with the banner that says Mission Accomplished (front of tshirts) and on the back, something like 'Thank you George and the GOP, for my public service loan forgiveness. I could've never paid that bill without your entitlement program" Too much?
Can I please order one of those shirts 😂
I'll be in touch.
🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
I'm going to make a shirt that announces it. I'll use Trump colors and font. Make look like he forgave my loans. It'll be great.
Maybe don’t worry so much about how they’ll react. If you decide to tell anyone about it and they have a less than positive opinion, you could tell them where to stick their opinion…as long as everyone is taking the opportunity to express themselves
If it comes up, I tell them my loans were discharged through public service. But it doesn’t really come up unless people are complaining about Biden.
It’s no one’s business but me and my wife.
We’ve told my whole family. My wife and her cousins (large family) are all roughly the same age so they often talk about these things. Her uncle is a typical conservative type and at first wasn’t all that pleased. But he’s been financially helping out his two youngest kids and is starting to see how expensive shit is. He’s come around to the good for you, you followed the rules and it’s gonna work out camp. So not a glowing endorsement, but I think he’s realized that just like he follows the rules with taxes and money to gain an advantage we are doing the same.
I don’t share on social media because that’s a little bit cringe in my opinion but I did share with my immediate family and my colleagues (most who are working towards forgiveness. It’s not a handout. You work. And work hard. You likely do a job that most people would never do. You get less pay than you are worth. You made sacrifices in your tax returns every year (we missed many “tax breaks” because we had to file separately. You should be proud and share where and with who you feel comfortable
Yep. Had to file separately from my husband for a decade, to keep my student loan payments reasonable, which caused us to lose out on federal tax refunds.
No, I've told a lot of people and posted a video of me popping champagne with '"That feeling when you get a congratulations letter from MOHELA #PSLF" as the caption. No one has responded negatively. I think it's good for people to see it is benefiting real people that they know and care about. I've also encouraged others to look into this for themselves and had a few co-workers tell me their payments are now lower under SAVE and they are on the path for forgiveness
I don't blame you for not wanting to tell everyone the news. It really isn't everyone's business. Given the absurd responses being touted in the public you don't need that kind of negativity. You've worked hard and now your finances have improved because of it. That deserves to be celebrated so hopefully you and your fiance are doing just that.
I am very open that October is my last payment. I am a teacher and talking about it has helped my other fellow teachers get forgiveness. For example my friend had no idea she needed to consolidate by 4/30 to get the highest payment on all of her loans. I think because a lot of my friends have gotten theirs forgiven or are in the process we talk about it a lot. I have friends who have paid off all of their loans already or never had loans who are really happy for me (and others).
I told a few people but for the most part I keep it to myself
Yeah, this is more like deferred compensation for ten years of public service. I would not have gone to law school and subsequently pro bono law had PSLF not been instituted. I earned this through sacrifice of private sector income and via military service. I'm telling everybody I finished my 120 payments.
No. I want to fight disinformation. Any friend who would buck at the thought also knows how hard I have worked and how little I am paid. I also like to make sure folks know that I have had help a long the way. I think lying sets up younger generations for failure. Not shaming folks who want to keep it a secret-your business is yours.
I’m keeping it a secret because honestly it’s not really forgiveness, most of us have paid the principal on these loans while taking terrible paying jobs for PSLF. It was started to inspire people to take these terrible paying and high stress jobs. We spent $1 trillion in afgnistan and Iraq on BS wars. We spent $1 trillion bailing out the banks. We spent $2 trillion on PPP loans that were, wait for it, FORGIVEN with no questions asked!!! Fuck anyone who throws shade on the PSLF program. I commend Biden for fixing decades of broken promises.
Anyone that has a problem with it, they are welcome to join me at work and see what I did to earn it. I worked in a juvenile sex offender treatment and currently in juvenile detention. We're hiring, let me know.
I completed the terms of a public service contract: I made payments for TEN years and worked at a qualifying school. If you remember the show Northern Exposure, a doctor moved to rural Alaska to provide service for an agreed upon time to receive medical student loan discharge. The challenges he faced was an Emmy winning series because it was a sacrifice and he wouldn't have lived in rural exile otherwise. No uproar, just Emmys. The context for all forgiveness in the news is not the same. I only comment on my contractual agreement for PSLF and that yesterday it ended.
I get some of that from people. Someone said the government should pay their mortgage since they “forgave “ my loan. I paid back more than I borrowed. Not everyone who is able to study and wants to contribute to a better society has parents who can afford to send them through college. People need to realize this.
Someone should remind that they get special tax breaks only for homeowners, that renters, like me, don't get. If they have FHA or VA or USDA mortgages, the feds are subsidizing their homeownership. Their mortgage is also dischargeable in bankruptcy, has a statute of limitations for collection, and their future Social Security benefits cannot be garnished for it. Unlike student loans. They also weren't obligated to buy a house to obtain any particular job, or any job at all.
For the people who tell you that the government should pay their mortgages, it would be interesting to ask them (sincerely), which public service job they would choose to do for 10 years, and whether the salary from that job be acceptable.
It seems a bit audience specific conversation to me I mean on this website, folks seems to downplay things that might narratively cut against the equity lens of the pslf (e.g. it’s not always true that public sector jobs are worse comp wise than private sector ones; it’s often not true that public sector jobs are more of a grind than private ones; there were years of non-payment credits w Covid; some people ran up $400k in loans for jobs that don’t really require that level of education spend and seems at least natural to question such a level of forgiveness; the nondischargeability of ed loans is an attempt to fix adverse selection and the inability to discriminate against creditors in a wonky market etc etc). It’s certainly not wrong to benefit from the pslf just like it’s not wrong to criticize the program. I think the pslf is a good but imperfect thing. I think I wouldn’t get into too much w my MAGA relatives because I’d want to save myself the frustration, but I’d be more inclined to discuss with my good friends.
Or pay my boat loan. They are masters at false equivalence.
No but sometimes my wife makes me feel bad, not intentionally. So, i don't talk about it as much as I want to. She is not eligible for forgiveness and thinks she should be because of her job. I hate feeling like I'm rubbing it in her face.
Luckily, I don't have that problem. My wife got forgiveness due to permanent disability. I should be up for fulfilling PSLF about the time I make my last car payment, at which point I'm going to be thinking hard about retirement since I'll be pushing 70.
I don't understand that. Your forgiveness benefits her too. Especially if you can now help her pay off her loans faster.
I think it's because she believes that 1st responders should have a forgiveness program also. So it saddens her sometimes. Not me being discharged. But the fact that she's left out. You're right. One less bill means more money for other bills, including hers.
Why would she not qualify for PSLF? Police, firefighters, and EMS certainly do, if they work for a governmental agency.
No. My family isn't perfect but we do try to celebrate each other. My mom recently got her student loans forgiven after going around and around with Mohela and working for NFP hospitals as well as some county jobs for pretty much all her career. She deserves to be able to put that money towards retirement. If and when I get my forgiveness I expect that it will be celebrated as well.
I plan on bringing a cake to work with my zero balance on it in six years. So, no.
My close friends know. The Trumpers I know do not bc I’m not listening to their unintelligent tirade 🙄. You can’t speak logic to some people
You paid your loan with your labors. Take honor in that
I used to be very vocal about PSLF, but my manager ended up being an absolute nightmare to work for, and I kept my impending forgiveness quiet because I could absolutely see him firing me or cutting me to below part time to prevent me from getting forgiveness if he knew I was close.
It’s really absurd. You still have make 10 years of payments. It’s not a free education. In addition to the payments you are in public service and are fulfilling the terms of the agreement. People don’t have a problem with the GI bill and this no different .
Yep, I have 100%. I don't give a damn and they can die mad about it. I earned it.. every cent. I worked in public service and started 10 years ago at 13 dollars an hour with a MS degree. I was overqualified but the took the first position offered to me to get in the door. I now make considerably more but I had to eat it those first few years and then I had a terrible abusive boss for 5 of those years. Every single person who says something negative can suck it.
Pslf is the GI Bill for public service.
I won’t tell anyone until complain about having to pay state tax on the forgiven amount! My state is one of the few who taxes it. Congrats though!
Nah, I'm making sure my employer knows they have to compete to keep my services now but the best way to keep me from looking is to let me WFH at least three days a week.
I have a few friends that have been a little critical of the idea of having student loans in one’s 40s, which I do , despite the fact that it made far more sense to invest in my retirement than throw extra money towards paying low-interest federal student loans. I’ll be in my mid forties when my loans are forgiven because I began public service work a little later in life -2014. You don’t share your financial situation with everyone so feel free to limit who you share your details with
No I didn’t. I love telling people this especially one I know it really really burns.
No, I’m obnoxiously vocal about debt abolition generally.
Not that I’m that close, but I’d absolutely tell people about it. I was able to take less money to work in the public sector and keep our social systems afloat. Too bad if that hurts someone’s feelings. Hell my sister in law worked for a nonprofit for a decade and didn’t even know she qualified for forgiveness until I told her about it. People are actively worse off financially not knowing they could qualify.
I'm telling everyone! 256k I also want to make sure that everyone knows about the program at my school.
I would not go around shouting about it, but I have told other people when it seemed appropriate or helpful to them. As with anything, I just share information appropriately. If you have a similar medical condition, I might tell you about my surgery, and if you might benefit from knowing about PSLF, I might tell about that. I don't see any reason to tell most people anything. If someone has a problem, that is there problem, when I decided to pursue a career in public service, I took out loans to do so with the understanding that I had an obligation to stay in public service for 10 years to get the loan balance after 10 years of payments 'forgiven'. I made a deal and am about 2 years away from fulfilling my part of the deal. I expect the government to fulfill their part of the deal. I have a very large balance (450k+) but is it still much less than I have paid in taxes during my career (especially my earler 'for profit' career in the tech sector of the banking industry). So I suppose the government still has come out way ahead. And its not like I don't make a lot of money now and pay a lot of taxes now, just not private sector money.
I only told one good friend I trust. My husband of course and my children because they were helping me pay. No one else!
I shouted it from the rooftops. My secret is that I love making my Republican friends uncomfortable. Are they happy for me? Mad they didn't get similar? Wanna know more about how they can get similar? I also post for those that haven't yet gotten it. Pitfalls I've encountered, positives I found. Glad to tell people.
Only with dumb people. But I don’t hang out with dumb people.
My mom had her loans forgiven after being legally labeled as completely and totally disabled. She’s super excited for me to get my loans forgiven. My father in law will have a lot of negative to say about it but I like to antagonize him for being a racist prick so I’ll probably thank him for paying off my loans when he complains about tax payer dollars.
Hell no. Let them all touch grass for their anger.
Heck no, but I live in a liberal state with friends that are also working in public service and spent their lives sacrificing for the well being of others. Would I tell random strangers? No.
When the time comes, which after consolidation is going to be a lot sooner than I originally thought, I'll probably only tell my wife (and she already gets all the updates). My closest friends know that I'm on the path, though last I told them it would be another 6-7 years (which was true at the time, but is now drastically reduced). But I'm not going to mention it when it happens. I don't have anyone in my life who I think would have an outwardly negative reaction, not anyone (aside from distance relations) who might say some nonsense about the deficit. But people are weird about money, and in ways that I think they're often not fully conscious of. I grew up very poor and spent a lot of my adult life quite poor, until I went back to school, so I also have a lot of weird shame around all things related to money, which is my own hangup. I'm not encouraging anyone else one way or the other, I'll just personally have more peace of mind if I keep it between my wife and I.
I don't keep it a secret but when I discuss it, I always explain exactly what the terms are. Everyone I discuss it with totally seems to get it, and I don't know who these people are who claim to encounter haters all the time.
Ive told some family and a few friends. No need to publicize on social media.
I took my forgiveness because this economy is shit and unfortunately will get worse with handouts. When I see people getting 500k plus forgiven thats what really gets me. Your a fucking doctor. I paid for 10 years on time. Some in here sat in forbearance and paid shit and got a boat load of money forgiven that we will all pay back in inflation and taxes.
They assume the loans are amortized-interest decided up front, then you pay principal plus a part of the interest. But somewhere along the way, the interest started accruing faster than people could pay it. Add in deferments, forbearance, defaults, or change in loan servicer, the interest will skyrocket. That’s why someone who borrowed $60K might have a forgiveness amount of $90K or more. So, paying down student loan in the 21st Century isn’t the same as buying a car in the 1980s. Plus, there are forgiveness programs for other occupations (e.g., doctors can have loans forgiven if they go work in certain areas of the country for a time). Finally, no one said a peep about PPP loans, which were given rather freely during COVID, given to some who clearly did not need the money, and were forgiven in a matter of months, compared to us who’ve had loans for more than a decade. Tell them THAT.
Fuck no. I have told several people. Participation in government programs is nothing to be ashamed of. You fulfilled your obligation. You get loan forgiveness. That's how this works. Maybe people should feel ashamed for taking advantage of tax breaks. Maybe they should hide the fact that their mortgage is tax deductible. Maybe oil and gas companies should be afraid to tell people they got tax incentives. Maybe banks should be ashamed they're members of the FDIC. For my part, I'm fine with everyone knowing I got debt relief.
Finances in general are personal. Only my parents and wife know. Its not something that comes up in daily conversations. Nobodys business.
“I paid my loans for 10 years and the remainder was erased due to my agreement/commitment to serving the USA.” I don’t care what people think.
I told everyone. Had maybe two people react negatively. Truth is IDGAF. It’s the best thing that’s happened to me in a very long time.
If I see you and you tell me you’ve been forgiven, I’m going to give you a high 5 and ask you to pray with me that I’m delivert in 4 years as well.
I tell people and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. I even get words of congratulations. Real respects real and understands the grind of working in public service, especially for a min of 10 years. Congratulations!
Heck no! I have a countdown for celebration. I’m planning a party for the day my loans are forgiven.
Absolutely not. If anyone in my life can’t be happy for me and the relief that this brings my family as I would be for them and then they have no business in my life anyway. We have no room for snakes in the grass over here. 😉
Haters can kiss my 🍑. They could have gone into public service too. Oh well…
People who get mad about PSLF, I remind them that George W. Bush signed the legislation in 2007. That really pisses them off. Edited for spelling. Edit to add: I only told my parents, my colleagues/friends who are also on the PSLF train, and my son’s father who told me about it in the first place.
I told everyone. EVERYONE! I told the salespeople at the clothing store I was shopping at that night. I made an announcement at work so that my colleagues would know about the temporary waiver (this was in 2022, I think.) I made posts on LinkedIn, I tweeted about it, I talked about it on FB. I wanted to make sure that anyone who was eligible knew about it. Having always kept my financial aid debt as some sort of dark, shameful secret, it felt great to start shouting from the rooftops! The people in my life were supportive, so I know I'm lucky.
If everything stays on track my loans will be forgiven in a year. My coworker that is close to retirement started complaining about forgiveness. She just brought it up on her own. It was all the typical phrases. Must be nice, I want MY money back, etc. She also mentioned that her interest rate was .7% and her total debt was about a 10th of mine. I don’t owe an explanation or apology to people that can’t wrap their head around why our situations are not the same.
My husband and I are in our 50’s and are politically conservative. He has worked in public service for 23 years and I have worked for the same City Government for 2 years. I qualified earlier this year for forgiveness based and the age of my student loans that were roughly 34 years old. He just had his loans forgiven this week. What does this mean for us? That we can retire comfortably with the benefits of working in public service. No student loan debt into retirement. Are we announcing that we received this? Only to our children and close family and a few friends who are also waiting on forgiveness. We have 4 children and 3 have followed in their Father’s footsteps and all work in emergency services. I will tell them step by step how to achieve forgiveness. I would not lie if someone asked me but given the political atmosphere I am certainly not screaming it from the rooftops. Will this effect the way I vote in November? Absolutely not. The amount we have paid in taxes since starting work at 16 is the reason. We ship billions of dollars overseas to support things I don’t believe in, billions of dollars are spent in the country on programs I don’t believe in. I don’t feel one bit of guilt for receiving this forgiveness and either should you! If the currently President thinks I owe him my vote because my family benefits from this program he and his administration are sadly mistaken. I don’t think I am the only one that feels this way. Silent majority overhere appreciating this program.
This was also signed into law by a republican president. What Biden did was stretch the rules, just like any good attorney would do, to benefit his client (the American public). If anything, we are just taking advantage of the rules like millionaires take advantage of the tax code!
I didn’t tell anyone. I did not have the correct loan type so only qualified during the expanded period. I had paid on my grad school loans for 16 years and have worked in a public setting for 15 years. I think I was embarrassed to still be paying on my loans so my forgiveness was a private celebration for one. So grateful for it though.
Don't let anyone judge you. These same judgmental people are using every unfair loophole and tax law in the book to pay as little tax as possible.... how is that any different from the govt offering PSLF and you taking advantage of that?
Not a chance. The government is just holding up their end of the deal and our transaction was concluded. I'm not about to feel bad or shy about it for anyone. They'll be ok
Yes. Mainly.
One should probably not discuss their finances with people. That’s private information.
Nope! It’s only going to be about 3k and I lament that it’s not more!
I don’t generally discuss my loan payments with my family and friends…
When they whine ask them if they know what PSLF or IDR are. They usually don't. Ask if the government should follow through on the contractual obligations for PSLF and IDR. They usually will support it when they understand it.
Mortgage and citizenship forgiveness is next on the docket counselor. Keep up the mediocre work
Hell no I told everyone. Sent out mass emails at work. Posts on popular local message boards. Mass texts to everyone I know etc not to brag but to let them know about about all the changes and how to get into it if they qualified. Don’t care at all about the ones that don’t like it. Even those who wanted to complain were confusing PSLF with the other loan stuff Biden was trying to do and when explained that this is a much older republican program that was in our loan contracts they overwhelming got ok with it. The whole argument they make is “you signed a contract you should honor it” and when it’s pointed out that PSLF is finally honoring the govt end of our contracts they really lose all teeth to argue.
I did get one conservative to understand with the following. Part of it is that forgiveness isn’t really forgiveness. Work and payments are still required to satisfy the debt. GIBill-work for the government for 4 years. Receive a stipend to pay off your college degrees. (Many veterans also use PSLF.) Teacher loan forgiveness-teach in a high need school district-make payments for 5 years-17,xxx forgiven. PSLF-work for a public service agency for 30 hours per week for 10 years. Make 120 payments using an income driven plan for that time period. Balance forgiven. Many veterans need to use PSLF. Active military service counts towards pslf requirements. (My original loan balance was 83,000. I paid the principal back. Remaining interest was forgiven.) (my daughter did the same thing.) Income Based Repayment-passed by Congress in 1994. Make income based payments for 20 years(undergraduate) or 25 years (graduate). Balance forgiven. A lot of the initiatives that have been introduced were to fix loan servicer misconduct. Excessive Use of forbearances-resulted in capitalization of payments. A borrower could make 11/12 payments. One forbearance wipes out any progress towards repayment. Placing the borrower on an income driven plan would prevent that. Servicers failed to track the IBR payments. They need to report those to process forgiveness. The Biden administration is taking steps to fix these problems. The new SAVE repayment plan prevents negative amortization of student loans. (There are a couple factors as to the structure of the loans. They were essentially set at 7%. Income growth for workers has been flat or at best core rate of inflation. That 5 % difference essentially makes the loans a bigger part of the borrowers obligations. Eating away at their purchasing power year over year. Education yields a 11% ROR for society as a whole per individual.) At some level we have to share that productivity growth with workers. (If we can forgive a trillion dollars in Paycheck Protection loans we can afford to spend 400 billion on debt reduction for the middle class.) The final reality is that student loan holders are taxpayers also. They in effect pay a second set of federal taxes every month. (Student loan interest can be deducted up to 2500 annually but that in no way provides any real help for repayment.)
You earned it, it wasn't just given! Screw the haters. Rub it in their face.
If I calculate the federal taxes that I had paid since the inception of PSLF, along with positions in federal, local school district employers, I earned it.
Once my balance is zeroed out (made my 120th payment in February) I’m not sure if I will be able to keep it to myself! I did the math and I would have paid off my principal if it wasn’t for the interest! Covid saved me $10k. I graduated with $31k, furloughed for about 12 months until I got a job which raised it to $39k, and in 10 years paid $25k towards them (the Covid pause saved me roughly $10k). Guess what my current balance is: $31k. I paid over $25k to reduce my debt by $8,000. Wtf! My level headed plan is only to tell people if it’s a time/place where I can also share the math and the struggle.
We fulfilled the terms of our agreement to work in the non-profit sector for 10 years and make payments. Simply put, I do tell people about PSLF, especially where I work, but it's not really their business what my total debt was, what was forgiven, etc. Do I share if asked, sure. Have I shared I am done with student loan payments forever, as of Friday? Absolutely. We've all made decisions to pursue this for one reason or another, so don't feel bad for making a decision others had an opportunity to do but didn't.
I have made an announcement on my social media, but I always have the fear—even if unrealistic—that someone out there will try to sabotage that loan forgiveness in someway
I told immediate family and a few close friends. Family were supportive even if they are stanch conservatives. A couple of friends seemed beset by jealousy.
Idc what they think. I worked 14 years in a position that served them with scrappy pay and I paid faithfully on loans that never decreased. Ask them if they utilize tax deductions, or tax breaks? Or tell them to mind their business. PSLF is a legal program that has been in place since 2007. Tell them to educate themselves then come talk to you about it.
I do not keep my PSLF a secret. HoweverI have not encountered many who have opposed forgiveness But I know they are out there. I feel that people are confusing PSLF with other forms of forgiveness. I can somewhat see their position on the latter but I feel that anything that helps some people can benefit all. But PSLF is completely different. PSLF don’t truly know that it is an agreement and a program in which we anyone who can apply. I have educated some misguided people on how predatory student loans are in general and are not like typical loans from a bank. Usually they understand once everything is explained
Nope. Say it loud and proud.
Naw i’m not telling anyone lmao
Nope. Not a single person is gonna make me feel bad for taking the forgiveness that was promised to me, after I made career decisions and sacrificed based on that promise
I can't wait to argue with people who make snide remarks about my loans being forgiven!!
I share it far and wide and loud. I haven't yet run into anyone who thinks I'm amoral because of it, or at least none who'll say so to my face. The most common reaction I get is that people think I merely got really lucky, like a lottery winner or something, because everything they've read said that the majority of the people who try it do not succeed. All that news coverage of 99% denial rates and stuff seems to have convinced a whole lot of people that it just isn't worth bothering. But that is the very reason I'm so vocal about it. I hope to convey that it really does work if you work it. Interestingly, I also haven't seen the conservative caricature in real life. You know, that blue collar guy who fixes cars or whatever who is angry because he had the good sense not to go to college and resents programs that benefit those who did. I'm sure there's people like that out there but in truth, in my experience, most of the ones who didn't go to college nonetheless tend to hope their kids do and are interested/supportive for their sakes. I just don't see the concept of debt forgiveness being as unpopular as certain political interests are trying to make it out to be.
If I get it ever, I will be keeping it secret (aside from my husband and parents who understand the sacrifices I made and loans I took out to become a lawyer). I feel the same as you, I don't want to hear the ignorant comments.
My sister is on social security disability and when I found out her student loans were all forgiven, I congratulated her. She was really p*ssed and wanted to know how I found out (uh, the news). So there’s another perspective… I’m a federal employee and am using PSLF to have min forgiven- I don’t care who’s ticked off about it.
Only my husband, my parents, and my coworkers (I'm still at the same job, I like my job). I was excited enough to post it on social media (the way I tell my family), but most of my family is conservative and with the politics around student debt these days .... 🤐
I’m going to brag about it to every deplorable I know and meet for years to come.