My husband has quite a bit of student loan debt. He has 2 Master's degrees, all gotten while we were together, and for a chunk of that time, he couldn't work due to having to attend school over full time to get it over with quicker.
We're both teachers, and while I was lucky enough to attend college on "the Daddy Scholarship," Brandus was not. He dropped out his senior year of college after his grandfather died and his grandmother told him they couldn't help him with tuition anymore. When we got serious, he decided to go back to school.
So, we have loans.
Teachers have some interesting loan forgiveness programs, though. If Brandus taught for 5 years in a Title 1 school, $5000 could be forgiven. If he taught special education for a certain number of years, $10,000 could be forgiven. While one of the Masters he has is in special education, we aimed for the Title 1 forgiveness loan.
We mailed in the application three months ago.
Two months ago, we got notice that they thought the application looked ok, and they were sending it on to be formally reviewed.
Since then, I get excited every time I see a Nelnet envelope. And for the past two months, every single time I've opened it, it's been a notice of forbearance of the loan. On one hand, that means that they haven't turned down the application. On the other, it means that they are STILL REVIEWING IT.
It would be amazing to have $5000 forgiven off of his debt. Yes, we would still owe quite a bit, but that $5000 is easily over a year's worth of payments towards that loan.
Come on, Nelnet. Throw me a line here. Please?
Student Loan Lag
September 24th, 2012 at 06:10 pm
September 24th, 2012 at 11:38 pm 1348529908
At $ 1,000. a year for 5 yrs, it represents $ 83.33 a month. DH will likely need to find a way to increase earnings to specifically target paying off his student loans. How does income tax credit affect these loans? Interest rate is critical. Does the forbearance mean interest accrues while he waist for a decision?
Sorry DH isn't using his Master accreditation for Special Ed kids, is he tilting towards his 2nd Masters?
September 25th, 2012 at 06:00 pm 1348596036
And yes, it would be nice to target the loans specifically to pay off, but with an interest rate of 3.6, it's last on the list of things to focus on. We have the credit cards first, then the mortgage. Which is why I'm excited at the idea of $5000 disappearing off of what is owed.
He got his SpEd Masters while he was working with a lot of kids with special needs in his regular ed classes, so he does use both.