My son has $90K in student loans, just got married and only makes $15 an hour...How can he pay back this debt?

Answer 1

First I would wonder why he took a job at $15 an hour? It must be fast food or something. If he's not responsible enough to get at least an average paying job then he's not responsible enough to begin to think about paying those back.

Answer 2

Well, he had better decide very soon how he is going to repay the debt.

If he were making ten dollars an hour, he could manage to live, probably not in the style he thinks he should, but at least he could live. And he should put a lot of effort into paying as much as possible on that loan before he gets a family on the way.

Because he will have to pay the debt one way or another, because not even bankruptcy can discharge that debt. The interest will mount, and in a few years, if he does not pay it, the original amount will have doubled.

Of course, you are right, it is a huge debt. But, his degree gives him the opportunity to get work that pays more than he could have earned without the degree.

You all need to lower your expectations for his lifestyle and social position, and be supportive of his making every effort to get that debt paid as quickly as possible.

He does not need a new car, and he can do without vacations, and he does not need a 3 bedroom 2 bath house or apartment. He needs to concentrate on paying the debt.

Answer 3

$15 is an incredibly low figure to make any good of moves in regards to paying off debts and starting a family.

First he needs to ask for a significant raise, find a high paying job.

Then he needs professional help, and I would talk to a credit repair company, which they can call all his debtors and consolidate and hold out for a lower interest rate.

Man I feel sorry for him. Oh yea another idea. He needs to be serious now, cause he just got married. He should get a second job at night delivering pizza's, or working at Home Depot or something. With the extra income he can pay off his debt faster.

Answer 4

Your question is so vague its confusing. Its impossible to pay off 90K in debt making 15 an hour. Im sure its defered for a few years. The only thing I can think of is he majored in history or english. No offense to those majors, but unless you are writing books there really isnt much in the job market. You are a receptionist.

I have only one thing I can say. Join the Military. They will most likely pay that off. But after 90K and he is making 15 bucks an hour, somebody has to pay it. He clearly didnt go to college to make money and I think the military is the only place that will pay it back.

No offense to your son but you can make that much at McDonalds in a year and they pay for your training.

Just keeping it real, sorry. To me it makes no sense.

Answer 5

Okay, I see that there are plenty of people already advising him to find higher-paying employment.

I'll skip to my next pragmatic suggestion. Did you know that you can sign up with Upromise not just to save for college for the future, but also to pay off some types of student loans?

It doesn't exactly happen overnight, no matter what you do. But you should check into the Upromise angle. I stumbled across this option a year or so ago when I was trying to help a friend of mine research options for paying off her student loans. We've signed up about a dozen people in her friends and family network, so that every contribution we all get from the participating companies goes toward paying off her student debt.

In the last year, I've contributed about $55 without really putting any effort into it. (If you are serious about wanting to help and you work their programs, I suspect you could do much better than that.) Of course, as I said there are about a dozen of us signed up to help her and she tells me that she's starting to see the total debt decline a lot faster than it used to when she was just making her minimum monthly payments.

He's going to have to come up with a good plan for the bulk of it. But if you want to help -- without volunteering to take on the whole debt monster -- this is a pretty painless way to do so.

Answer 6

He's going to pay it back just like everyone else does. One dollar at a time. You can consolidate student loans and pay them back over 30 years. Hopefully he has a job with a alot of potential. If not, he needs to be looking for a better paying job and no starting a family until he's making alot more money...unless he has married an heiress.

Answer 7

$90K in student loans and he makes $15/hour ???? Assuming that he finished his degree, it's time for him to start looking for something which pays far better. No need for any college grad to be working for such a low wage.

If he did NOT finish his degree, he made a very poor investment which he must now pay back. Time for second jobs for both husband and wife.

Answer 8

well i can speak because my sister is now currently in college and she is going through the same thing he can either do the following:
*pay back sum by sum so that he doesnt do anything else with his money
*take a certain amount out every time he gets his pay check until he gets enough
*maybe he should search around for a better job people would be gald 2 have him being that he is doing something with his life
>>>never give up there are many options he can make it work<<<

Answer 9

Live with you, only buy old cars,dont eat out, no bars or partying. Wife works, no kids,no pets. Pinch every penny like its your last. No spur of the moment purchases. No vacations. Work all the overtime you can if he has an hourly job. Realize he isnt going to be able to pay it off quickly but never make minium payments, always pay more to the principle. It takes time but I paid off my morgage making less than him.

Answer 10

I have my student loans consolidated with the government and they let you make payments that are based on your income (income contingent plan), but you can always pay more if you have it available. It will take him awhile, but he'll start making more in time, and his wife can get a job, too. It can be done.