Home » Personal Finance

How Student Loans Kill People by Contributing to Suicide and How to Break the Cycle

If you look at a list of the professions most prone to suicide, it’s like looking at a who’s who of high student debt occupations. There are a bunch of different stats when it comes to white collar jobs and suicide, but all of them look awful.

I decided I needed to write about student debt suicide because I continue to get horrifying emails from readers who tell me that they are contemplating killing themselves because of their student debt.

If that’s you and you have feelings of despair or suicidal thoughts over student debt, stop reading this and call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255).

The dark side of rising tuition

This article should serve as a wake-up call to professional schools everywhere. There are very real costs to continuing to raise tuition to sky-high levels just because you can.

People are literally dying because support is not there for them, and student loan borrowers are burdened by mountains of debt. Token employer-student loan contributions and “Fix the Debt” summits do little to solve this problem or mitigate anxiety.

The cost of school needs to come down. Administrators need to be fired. Staff should be let go. Real change must happen. Agree or disagree? Either way, I’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments part of the article at the bottom of the page. 

Many readers who express having depression because of their student debt tell me they think there’s no way out, no escape and that they’ve lost hope.

Luckily, most folks who’ve expressed these feelings have not had suicidal thoughts; however, I’ve had people go so far as to tell me what bridge they want to jump off because their debt will be forgiven tax-free and then their family won’t have to deal with it. I’m dead serious.

Business Insider compiled a list of the top 19 jobs where you’re most likely to die from suicide. Physicians, dentists, veterinarians and chiropractors all make it in the top six.

Much of the stress faced by professionals is not related to their finances, but my theory is that the debt is a factor that can help push someone over the edge. Debt can make you feel trapped in a situation you desperately want to get out of.

YouTube video

Professionals commit student loan debt suicide at rates far higher than the general public

Most of the resources I reviewed for this post suggested that the suicide rate for a doctoral level professional is about two times that of the general population.

Maybe you’re a dentist, and you’re frustrated that you’re the last place people want to go. Patients complain all the time about your prices, you owe over $300,000 on your dental school debt and you have another half million in business debt. Dentists are about two times as likely to die by suicide  on average compared to the nation at large.

Physicians are severely underappreciated. You get way overbooked by your hospital scheduling group and you’re abused during residency. When you finally start making money, you’re stuck with massive student loans that grew a bunch while you were in training.

Physicians share a similar suicide rate with dentists, and women physicians are particularly vulnerable. Being on the hook for so much debt and a large amount of professional stress takes its toll. 

According to The Veterinary Record, veterinarians might have the highest rate of suicide of any profession, at over 4 times the national average.

Besides being accused of greed by customers who can’t or won’t pay for their pet’s care, veterinarians struggle with some of the highest debt-to-income ratios of any profession.

Pharmacists, lawyers and other professionals struggle with suicide and burnout in a big way. Pretty much every professional group that has used our consult services or read our blog is at a much higher risk of suicide than other Americans.

While correlation with high student debt does not imply that the debt is directly causing this sad phenomenon, I know from talking to over 5,000 people that student debt is a major factor in the stress that professionals like you face every day.

Five ways out of your student loan debt besides suicide

To prove to you and any friends you have who might be struggling with their student debt, there are a bazillion alternatives besides harming yourself. Don’t kill yourself over debt. It’s important to realize that so many strategies exist that remove the pressure of a huge debt load.

Option 1: Move to another country to avoid student debt

Have you ever heard of the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE)? I have a bunch of clients who use it legitimately to pay as little as $0 a month on their student loans. Those loans are not in default, delinquent or otherwise late. You have to qualify, but it’s not that difficult to take advantage of.

In fact, these clients are on track to have their loans forgiven after 20 to 25 years of low payments, assuming they live abroad for the entire period. At the end of the repayment, they will owe taxes on the forgiven amount, but that’s easy to plan for.

Many expats make the mistake of using alternative income documentation instead of tax returns, in the case of living overseas. You can show a $0 taxable income if you qualify to get those $0 dollar payments.

Want to move to New Zealand or Australia to practice veterinary medicine while starting a life together with your Aussie spouse? I’ve had many clients and readers do something like this, and the student debt is no longer a burden.

Option 2: Use student loan forgiveness to avoid the full weight of your debt

Many borrowers who reach out to me suffering from depression have paid extra on their loans only to watch the balance stay the same or even grow. Instead of doing that, if you have federal student loans, what about paying your loans back on the Pay As You Earn program (PAYE) for 20 years?

The payments never go higher than 10% of your discretionary income (which calculates to be lower than 10% of your actual income), and you pay income tax on the forgiven amount at the end of the repayment. You can choose another repayment plan under income-driven repayment (IDR), too. 

In reality, the IRS might use the insolvency rule to prevent any taxes from coming out of your pocket at the end. I wouldn’t plan on that, but it’s something that might happen nonetheless.

You can also use forgiveness programs like Public Service Loan Forgiveness to pay zero taxes on the forgiven balance after making payments for 10 years.

Students and depression are not a good mix because borrowers feel a sense of guilt for not being able to pay back their debt. You shouldn’t. You were taken advantage of by a predatory student lending system where everyone from the federal government to your College Dean conspired to charge ridiculous tuition for your degree. The costs associated with undergrad and graduate school are outrageous. 

Furthermore, the economic risk of that degree was probably drastically understated, with BS clichés like “there’s never been a better time for dentists, pharmacists, physicians, lawyers and so on.

Option 3: Use forbearance until your mental health is better

Yes, student loan forbearance and deferment are a lousy way to handle your student loans for an extended period. Guess what though, if you’re dead, then nobody cares about how bad your finances are. They miss you and wish you were still here.

That’s why if you’re really struggling and not doing well with your mental health just call your loan servicer and request a forbearance. The payments will stop, you’ll buy yourself time to get help by seeking therapy, counseling or other resources, and then you can restart payments when you’re ready.

Income-based repayment can be useful as well instead of forbearance, and it’s usually much more preferable. That said, if you’re freaking out because of your payments, just call and stop them.

I have readers who haven’t made a payment on their loans in over 10 years and are in default. They’re still very much alive and doing just fine. I would never recommend not making payments, but wrecking your finances is way better than wrecking your life, if you have to choose.

Option 4: Drastically slash your housing and car expenses

One of the biggest reasons for stress among professionals is living paycheck to paycheck. You probably got a big boost in your pay at some point in your journey, and that can create “sudden wealth syndrome.”

You deserve that new car so you can dump the clunker from school. You’re tired of living with roommates, and you want to buy a house like a normal adult.

I get the desire, but it could be one of the biggest culprits weighing down your happiness.

Whenever I see someone in financial distress, 99 times out of 100, a house or car is involved (and we’ve made plans for over 5,000 people, so this is a real sample size).

If you’re living paycheck to paycheck, try to get to a point where you owe less than your car is worth and take it to a place like CarMax and trade it in for a 2007 Toyota or something reliable but cheap. You could slash your monthly payment in half and give yourself more cushion.

If you’re renting by yourself, listen for opportunities to room with cool people from work. If you have a big house with rooms but not a lot of people, rent out a room. If you have in-laws or parents close by and your mortgage stresses you, reduce the number of households and have family move in with you.

Tackling your house and car expenses by living one rung down on the economic ladder compared to your income could save a low five-figure number right away. That would do a lot to ease the stress on your budget.

Option 5: Work less so you can enjoy life more

I had a conversation with a veterinarian recently who owed about $500,000 of student debt. I asked her what her ideal life looked like, and she suggested it would involve working about three or four days a week.

She was a good saver, and she spent around $40,000 per year of her $90,000 pre-tax income. She could pay about $500 a month to her student loans and $800 a month into an investment account for the tax bomb and be fine when it comes to her student loans. With a couple of tweaks to her budget, she was able to afford a part-time lifestyle right now during the best years of her life.

Is she lazy? No way, she worked crazy hard to get to where she’s at. What we did was help her to enjoy life more to get ahead of burnout before it happened. She can always go back to work full time, and she’s not hurting herself by reducing her work hours so she can do more of what she enjoys.

One of the great parts about having the ability to earn a six-figure income is being able to slash those hours and still make more than the typical household income.

With all the corporate groups taking over professions these days, you might as well take advantage by negotiating a part-time gig. After all, it’s already happening by force in parts of the pharmacy world.

Many professionals I speak with who have tons of debt think they need to work a ton in order to pay it off.

If you’re going for forgiveness, you don’t need to worry about how much you work. All you need to do is figure out your monthly amount that needs to go into an account for the future tax consequences and to make your required minimum monthly payment. If you make less money, that payment goes down!

Hence, if student debt stresses you out, consider reducing your workload to prevent burnout and try out a forgiveness strategy.

Many borrowers with six figures of student loan debt don’t need to work full time. They impose that expectation on themselves because of how society expects them to work. Realize that you’ve got more options than that.

Using Student Loan Planner® as an instrument of hope to reduce the risk of suicide

I’m passionate about student loans because my wife struggled with them early in our relationship. I also get way more excited about the prospect of playing a small part in saving someone’s life rather than making a quick buck.

If you or someone you love is even remotely thinking about suicide or has expressed suicidal thoughts, call 988. I’ve called this suicide prevention number to ask for advice on how to cope with suicidal feelings after talking to someone who expressed those thoughts, so there should be no stigma in using this resource.

If you’ve struggled with depression because of your student loans, you’re not alone. Feel free to email us to share your story, or use a pseudonym to share in the comments below if you’d like.

Always take discussion of student loan debt suicide and suicide in general seriously. Whenever someone mentions a time, place or method, refer them to that suicide hotline and memorize the number.

It’s time to fight back against the terrible state of self-inflicted harm among professionals. There are plenty of reasons you might feel stress in your job that I can’t speak to because I haven’t been through it.

That said, if student loans are contributing at all to suicidal thoughts, they shouldn’t be. I’ve never seen a case in over 5,000 where the borrower didn’t have options, many of which they hadn’t even considered.

If you’re not facing any imminent mental health crisis over your debt, we’d be happy to make a plan for you to take the stress off your mind. Just let us know your story and we’d be happy to help.

How do you think the student loan system needs to change so fewer people view suicide as an option? Share your thoughts in the comments below?

Not sure what to do with your student loans?

Take our 11 question quiz to get a personalized recommendation for 2024 on whether you should pursue PSLF, Biden’s New IDR plan, or refinancing (including the one lender we think could give you the best rate).

Take Our Quiz

Comments

  1. Abe October 21, 2018 at 2:05 AM
    Reply

    The above advice sounds reasonable for people who have quite a few options and who’re healthy and have some people around them who love them. When you’re nearly 50 with three degrees but spotty work history, your health isn’t that good, and you already live, isolated, in a dive in the middle of Nowhere, USA where you hold down three part-time jobs while driving a Kleenex box on two toilet-paper rolls and hide in shame your multiple, useless Ivy League degrees, moving to another country, making cheaper living arrangements, getting a cheaper vehicle, or rearranging your work schedule, well, they might not be for you.

    I’m already on IBR, but the size of my loans keeps increasing. And even though 40’s isn’t, that I know of, “dead” yet, I’ve applied for literally thousands of jobs since graduating from college. I’m not a desirable candidate. I had excellent grades in all my programs, including letters of rec from faculty and labs where I worked. I took time off to care for a dying parent. For 9 years. And that made me unemployable–even after finishing a terminal degree and completing certificates with flying colors. (University officials always have glowing reviews for their programs and the applicability to the job market–while hiding behind privacy laws when it comes to dodging questions about percentages of matriculants who graduate in X years or who are full-time employed in industries related to their degrees.) There are just so many of us out there that jobs can afford to hire those they LIKE who may nevertheless be less qualified. I’ve been told as much by several executive Microsoft and Google acquaintances who work in recruitment and hiring.

    Anyway, as I approach 50, there’s no hope. I won’t list the reasons, but if I could just move to another country and find work I would. I did China. And Thailand. And Germany.

    When I came back to the US I tried to qualify for dozens of work-force retraining programs. For most, there were THOUSANDS of applicants for a few dozen positions. I tried to retrain as a low-mid-level worker in health care (surgical tech). Most of these positions require you to apply to community college AND have at least three professional letters of recommendation. And they’re strongly biased against older applicants who’ve been out of work for a while. Ageism, technically illegal, is doing very, very well in the USA.

    I’m trying right now (tonight) to re-certify my IBR on my student loans. If I can’t (likely even if I can), I will commit suicide. Why? Because unlike, I imagine, some of the people this article’s author has addressed his advice to, my family is dead & I have no social contacts. So the “best case scenario” for me is that magically I find a way to work-work-work to pay off loans. That’s an unacceptable quality of life.

    Most would disagree with me. Everyone’s got advice. Do this. Do that. But no one is there with me when I’m in hell day after day, night after night. Like other friends–and you wouldn’t believe me if I told you how many–who’ve already committed suicide, I’d rather dump the whole damn ship than struggle to salvage a rotting vessel.

    I don’t know why I wrote this. Seeing the size of my student loans tonight on the NelNet website and acknowledging the power the federal government has to (try to) squeeze blood out of a rock, and trying to deal with unremitting loneliness and depression (not to mention chronic pain no doctor is able to help with from an accident)–it’s all far, far, far too much. Much, much better (my judgement–but, hey, it’s MY life) just to die.

    The worse decision I made in my life was choosing to go to college. I’m poor and from all the wrong groups making useless the social club of the Ivy Towers. And just to satisfy the classic rejoinder, “It’s your fault for studying basketweaving…” I did an undergraduate joint degree in math and biochemistry, a masters in statistics, and a doctorate in biophysics. Just like an ever-expanding pool of STEM kids in the USA and science PhD’s flooding into the US every year from abroad to compete for limited tech positions most of which want younger and younger kids, not older post-docs or lifers like me.

    Sorry for the long, disjointed comment. At my wits’ end.

    • Travis Hornsby October 23, 2018 at 9:54 PM
      Reply

      This is an extreme idea, but what about returning to southeast Asia? It’d be better than nowhere, USA and you might be able to freelance on a site like upwork or fiverr? You could way undercharge initially, build a list of good reviews, then increase the price. Healthcare wouldn’t be as good as US, but it’d be a heck of a lot cheaper. I just listened to a podcast where this woman was from somewhere in a smaller country in Asia and was rich and she moved to the US and was very poor by comparison. I know a lot of expats live in these low cost places too. Your student loan piece could be $0 a month w the Foreign Earned income tax exclusion. Rather than considering suicide, what about moving to a state that participates in the medicaid expansion, saving maybe 10,000, and moving to one of these overseas places? It’s worth a try.

  2. Dennis November 2, 2018 at 12:19 AM
    Reply

    I understand where Abe above is coming from. I too feel at this point that I have no options left but to end my life, largely because of the inescapable and crushing burden of student loan debt (even now 18 years after I got my JD) and the lack of any real hope for a future that will be anything other than drudgery and paying old debts with no real life of any value or interest. I have a BA and JD from high-quality private schools (I won’t name them here for privacy reasons), but for years have been unable to find a solid and stable situation with an income that would allow me to live reasonably because of my student loan burden. I went to law school hoping to go into the foreign service, and never really wanted to practice law. I passed the foreign service exam and went to DC for the two-day interview sessions. I didn’t get hired, so then did some temp legal work while looking for a job. Nothing panned-out there, so I went back to my home state, took the bar, and looked again for a job. Nothing panned-out even after trying to work through alumni groups from my schools. I ended up trying to go it alone as a sole attorney. I never really had the resources to truly make it work, and have just been treading water for years, while still looking for something permanent and with a reliable salary.

    I had to file a chapter 13 in 2012 to protect my co-signer father from having Sallie Mae/Navient go after him. That ended last year, but things are still as bad as ever financially, perhaps worse than ever. I lost my apartment and had to move back in with parents just to be able to make my chapter 13 payments. I’ve had interviews with a few firms over the past few years, but never get hired. I’ve tried things outside of law – mainly 1099 sales gig because they were the only one’s to respond to my resume. I’m no salesman and those ended up being a waste of time. People always say, “oh, you can do anything with a law degree”…I’ve yet to find a viable option. I have no real experience in anything else (unless you count summer jobs in a medial billing department during college, and being a busboy in high school). The only option seems to be some brainless job in a warehouse schlepping boxes for $12 an hour, jobs that barely require a high school degree and whose pay I certainly couldn’t live on and pay what Navient expects. I’ve spent time abroad in college and law school, and would love to be able to just go overseas and disappear somewhere, but you need resources even for that!

    I was mislead as to interest being tolled during the chapter 13, so came out of that owing way more than when I started. Navient now claims I owe $230k ($110k of it is private, $220k federal. It was $110k total when I got out of law school, so most of it now is capitalized interest..so I’m just paying interest on interest and there is no end in sight. They estimate my payoff to be in 2047 when I’ll be 73).

    I’m ready to just give up on everything, life in particular. I’m tired of trying and it is clear nothing will ever work out. At 44 now, my best days are clearly long gone, and there is no future worth contemplating. My father died 10 days ago, so at least in terms of the loans he co-signed, that’s no longer a worry as it was before (The only reason I previously filed the chapter 13 instead of just defaulting). If it only affected me, I’d just default on the student loans, tax debt (another $25k), and credit card debt ($5k), and be done with it. I have nothing, so let them sue me. My credit is and always will be ruined anyway for whatever remains of my life; I’m resigned to never having anything in this world, never having a house, a car that isn’t a 12 years old hand-me-down, never having a family, never having a remotely fulfilling or even interesting career…there is simply nothing for me in this world. Unfortunately my mom did co-sign one of the private loans with a current balance of $20k, so there is still some concern there to make sure she doesn’t lose the house or have them come after her. The only option seems to be to file another chapter 13 to keep them off her for at least 5 more years, but I need steady, reliable income to even qualify for a chapter13 payment plan, which I don’t have right now. I guess some degrading part-time job schlepping boxes is my only choice (I keep seeing headlines about how wonderful the economy and job market is now. Where? I look online at job boards every day. I see almost nothing of interest commensurate with my education and experience, get little to no response for those I do apply for, and most is just worthless tripe McJobs, clerical/warehouse stuff, or stuff in fields I have no qualifications for (medical, nursing, etc). Death will be better when it comes. I long for nothing more than to just be left alone, and then to go to sleep forever and never have to worry about anything again. Perhaps if I were gone, my mom could get a hardship discharge on that one loan given her age and the circumstances? I don’t know. I’m about a month from default on Navient, and I don’t know how soon after that I will need to do something before they start trying to come after my mom. Fortunately she only co-signed one loan (I’m not sure why), while my dad had co-signed all of my private loans, so at least she isn’t potentially on the hook for the whole $120k in private loans. As it stands, I don’t think I can hold out much longer. Perhaps a month or two at most. When I saw my dad lying in his casket last week, I envied him…it must be nice to just be done with everything – no more worries and hassles, no more bullshit…just peaceful, eternal sleep.

  3. MJ November 2, 2018 at 7:50 PM
    Reply

    Abe, don’t give up. All we have is this life, and not another try. Don’t let them take away your life. I have and am going through the same thing as you, just a slightly different version. I chose to forget about my debt for a year now, after my private Salliemae Uncertified Student Loans (they aren’t even legal anymore) defaulted because of a lack of 30 cents, yes, $.30, not enough in my account to pass the payment. My loan balance was $150 k, and now who knows, it could be a million dollars.
    I chose to not worry about it because it’s literally just a number. I was suicidal, and I needed to focus on my life and making positive changes with the things I could ACTUALLY CHANGE, not just dying. I love life, but it was just too much for me. I also suffer chronic pain, and I also was not able to find a job after graduating in 2008 (after 9 years of college), the worst economic time since the great depression. I was suicidal for years. My marriage broke up over my debt. He ditched me because it wasn’t financially helpful for him.

    No, there is probably no way out of my debt for my entire life. I will never own a home or probably not even a nice car. I get depressed every day, many times a day about my situation. I work for people who spend my paycheck at happy hour, yet they cannot even provide me parking. I pay $21 a day just to go to work currently. But, I am still getting resume bulk. I am gaining needed experience so I can grab another job in another year. I too have a lot of jobs on my resume (the longest being three years). I moved a lot with my ex, and it really messed up my resume. Not to mention, I graduated in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree and exceptional grades and research credits. I was poised to go to grad school, but then my life was ruined by an unfortunate event. It has been ten years since that event. Just this year I got this current, permanent job. I think I became happier when I stopped comparing myself to others. Don’t get me wrong, I am still suicidal, but I find a reason every day to go on.

    Ageism is VERY real. My father is almost 80 with 50 years experience in being a power engineer (graduated from Stanford with his masters), and has practically powered whole Hawaiian Islands at a time (for very low pay). The was laid off in his 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s three times, making him lose his retirement. Now he will be 80 next year. He is still working.
    Now, he works without benefits, but he loves what he does. He makes a higher hourly wage I guess than he ever has. I am just saying, there is always more than one way to look at life and your situation.

    Can you be a guest lecturer at a college? My goodness, you are very educated!

    I just go day to day, dealing with what is directly in front of me. I don’t know what the future holds, but I always remember the saying from the end of Cast Away, (when he talks about trying to commit suicide, but the rope broke when he tested it, so he couldn’t even die how he wanted) where he says “I had control over nothing” . I had to let go and just keep breathing. Then, one day, the ocean brought me a sail”. Then I got here and Kelly was gone all over again. I had lost her again. But I just remembered to just keep breathing. You never know what will wash up tomorrow.”

    Now I am having a child, and I have no idea what kind of life it will have with my job and my debt and how I will support it. However, I want this child. Even though it makes no financial sense. It is my life, and I am going to live it, even if they say I am not worth happiness. FUCK THEM!

    It’s just a business.

    • Travis Hornsby November 2, 2018 at 8:47 PM
      Reply

      Thanks for sharing. I just wanted to add (I am not an attorney) that some of the lawyers I listed above have told me stories about successfully getting settlements w some private lenders including Sallie Mae depending on how consumer friendly state law was where the borrower lives. If you’re deeply in default on a private loan, at some point I highly suggest reaching out to a qualified attorney to see if it couldn’t be settled for less than you owe. I wouldn’t trust anyone other than an attorney who works with these cases frequently. Really encouraging words though!

  4. Travis Hornsby November 2, 2018 at 4:33 PM
    Reply

    Dennis you’re wrong that you don’t have options. First, I suggest getting with a student loan attorney that knows the laws of your state. Here’s 3 that I trust to get you the right advice on the private debt.

    jay@legalpracticepro.com
    asminsky@minsky-law.com
    jcohen@thestudentloanlawyer.com

    For the federal debt, you have a ton of options. Your loans can likely be consolidated and you can get it on Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) by calling the Student Loan Support Center at 18005577394. If you get someone whos unhelpful call back and get another person.

    The REPAYE payments can be as low as $0 a month and it comes with interest subsidies too. You can pay for 25 years then get the loans forgiven. Can you owe taxes with this forgiveness? Yes but the insolvency rule could apply then and you might not owe any tax.

    Also if you could get $10,000 in the bank, I might suggest moving to a foreign country like Thailand. You could do whatever work you can find, maybe teaching English or something similar. The FEIE rule w the IRS would likely allow you to pay 0 legally on your federal loans, and you could likely be out of reach of Navient if you wanted to remain living there. https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/foreign-earned-income-exclusion

    The worst case scenario is that you utilize REPAYE for low payments while slashing your private loans w 1000 a mo payments. Then you utilize a forgiveness strategy w the federal where the most stressful part is submitting the income certification forms once a year.

    If you’re feeling like you might hurt yourself, please call 1-800-273-TALK [8255]

    We make plans obviously to help people navigate repayment, but I’d start w the above. Hopefully that proves there are much better options that letting the stupid loans affect your life anymore than they have to.

    • Dennis November 2, 2018 at 5:01 PM
      Reply

      Thanks for the reply. I’ll check out those attorneys and see if they can give me any better advice. I met with a bankruptcy attorney yesterday (the same one who handled my chapter 13 in 2012), and basically her advice was just wait to see if Navient does anything in terms of harassing me or my mom once I go into default, then file another chapter 13 if I want to when I can show some stable income that can be used as the basis for my plan payment. Right now my income is too intermittent for me to even file a chapter 13, since I have to show i can make the minimum plan payment.

      As for going abroad, it would take me a long time at this point to raise $10k to even think of going somewhere else (though I would love to. I’ve grown to hate this country and its entire culture, and would love nothing more than to leave it behind and renounce my citizenship). I’ve looked into teaching English abroad as an option (but that takes resource too to get ESL certifications, etc, travel, actually find a job. Plus I don’t know how much something like that really pays. Is it a livable wage?). Also, somewhere like Thailand or other third-world type countries wouldn’t interest me. My ideal would be somewhere in Eastern Europe, though that may be more pensive and have less options.

      As for the federal loans, I was on an IBR and now am on an unemployment deferment. Those don’t concern me as much, since there are always more flexible options on the federal loans, plus they have no so-signer. It’s the private loans with Navient (about half of my $238k total) that concern me most, because they have told me there are no flexible payment options (they want about $1000 a month and that’s that they say) and my mom was a co-signer on one of the loans with a $20k balance (my dad had co-signed all of the private loans, but his death now eliminates that concern).

      My only option seems to be some degrading warehouse job for $12-15 an hour, wholly incommensurate with my education and intelligence. I should have just dropped out of high school – I’d be in a better place today financially – rather than getting an education. Like many in the 90s, we just signed whatever papers we needed for student loans and figured it would work itself out somehow; surely I’d have a great job right out of school, no problem right? Twenty years later it is still crushing me to death, and there seems little hope of any escape beyond winning the lottery.

  5. Raven March 8, 2019 at 5:09 PM
    Reply

    Reading this article was very therapeutic for me. Thank you, Travis, for acknowledging our pain. I would like to share my story as well.

    I used to think my future was bright. I graduated summa cum laude in 2010 from college with a dual degree in Anthropology and International Affairs. I knew that studying liberal arts was a gamble since salaries tend to be lower in fields associated with social science, but I was immensely passionate about the field and I thought if I graduated at the top of my class and did internships and independent research, I would be able to make a modest but happy living in the field of my choice.

    I knew I had graduated into a tough job market due to the Great Recession, but I had no idea exactly how bad it was until I was in the midst of it. The only job I could find that paid anything at all (instead of unpaid internships, volunteer opportunities, etc.) was a part-time gig paying $8/hour. It was not in my field, and I rather disliked the work. After 6 months in that job, my grace period ended and I had to start paying back my college loans. I couldn’t afford them with my meager paychecks, so I put them into forbearance where they continued to accrue interest. I stayed at that job for a year and a half before I found something marginally better.

    I served as an AmeriCorps VISTA member for two years earning wages just below the federal poverty level, about $800/month. My rent was $550/month at that time, so needless to say, I still could not afford my $300/month loan payments. Into forbearance they stayed for those years as well, now accruing thousands of extra dollars in interest and principal.

    At the end of my AmeriCorps stint I found a job making a *whopping* 13/hour, more than I had ever earned, but still not enough to propel me to middleclassdom. My forbearance lapsed, and I made a few months’ worth of payments. I found that when I did pay them, however, I had little money left over for anything else. I put them back into forbearance off and on while I saved enough to make payments in between.

    At this time, many of my friends and family urged me to go back to school. If you had a mater’s degree, they reasoned, you will definitely be able to find a good job. Just one last push, and you can live The Good Life. This idea was very attractive to me; I always loved school and I still had faith in the system at that point. I doubled my debt load and went to graduate school.

    I learned so much in graduate school. It’s an experience for which I will always be grateful. And again, I excelled academically, graduating with a 3.97 GPA. There was even an added perk for me, I met to love of my life in my department as well. His financial story was eerily similar to mine; we graduated the same year from undergrad, he also did 2 years of AmeriCorps, and he had taken on a similar amount of debt for school. Despite my positive experience, I still feel extremely ambivalent about the decision to have gone back to school at all since my partner and I will be struggling with the the astronomical costs for many years to come.
    After I graduated, it took about a year for me to find a job in my chosen field. I worked part-time for $13-$15/hour and took out personal loans to makeup the difference in what my monthly costs were versus how much I was making. My monthly loan payments skyrocketed to $700 which I could not afford during this time. As you may have guessed, I put them into forbearance after my grace period expired. My partner and I lived in a rat and cockroach infested apartment; it was the cheapest thing we could find. It was horrible, and the landlord would only accept payment in cash. I have no idea what nefarious things were going on behind the scenes, but I shudder to think about how unsavory the whole situation was.

    Finally, in 2017, I got a break: I got hired in my field, making a modest salary. I found out on my birthday and cried and cried. The 2017 tax year was the first in my adult life I filed taxes higher than the federal poverty level. I started making regular payments on my loans. We moved out of the rat lair and into a modest but clean one-bedroom apartment. Money continues to be tight, but for the first time I am paying down my balances rather than continuously accruing more debt.
    If I didn’t have student loan debt, I would be living exactly the kind of life I wanted for myself. As it is, however, it’s a stretch for me to make my loan payments and still live any kind of life. I live paycheck to paycheck; I’m not saving enough for retirement. I will still be in debt until I am 40 (or longer).
    These are the empirical circumstances of my post-university life. Not described above is the shame, guilt, and heartbreak I have harbored over the past 9 years. Not described here is the depression, anxiety, and fear being penniless and deeply in debt has left me. I’m almost 31 now, and many of my peers are buying houses and having children. I can only imagine they did not graduate with debt, or at least not as much as I have. Some days I find myself grappling with the sadness of knowing I won’t be able to afford to have a child even though I have always wanted to be a mom.

    Student loans are not solely to blame for my circumstances. Graduating into a terrible job market and stagnant wage growth in the recovery period have certainly impacted my situation also. But at every turn, student loans have exacerbated my situation. And now that I should finally be able to get my life on track, my high minimum payments make it difficult if not impossible to do so.

    I worry about the long-term impact student loans are having on my psyche. I am no longer suicidal as I once was due to my financial circumstances, but I still feel like a worthless piece of human trash pretty much every single day due to the fact that my net worth is many tens of thousands of dollars in the negative. I feel like a worthless person because I *am* worthless in the eyes of the legal system. I have been worthless since before I was even legally an adult when I was 17 and taking out loans for my freshman year of college. I will continue to be worthless for at least the next decade until I can finally get rid of this debt. I am an indentured servant in the neoliberal system, and even when I have done my time, the rest of my life will be scarred by these loans. I will never *really* be free of them, due to delayed and foregone opportunities, even if the sweet day comes when I send in my final check and the principal balance reads $0.00.

    • Travis Hornsby March 8, 2019 at 9:45 PM
      Reply

      You’ll get there Raven. Glad to hear you’ve overcome some of these thoughts. Sounds like a big part of your struggles was the job market you graduated into.

  6. Kay April 5, 2019 at 2:28 PM
    Reply

    I have literally tried all options, 25% of my income goes towards student loans. My private loans make it impossible to be affordable. I can’t live the life I worked so hard for. At 31, I struggle to afford even food for my family. The market is crap and wants to pay $15-$20 an hour for a $75000 degree. I messed up my life at only 19 by making the horrible decision to go to college. I have exhausted all options and tired of trying. I’m throwing the towel in, life just ain’t for me.

    • Travis Hornsby April 5, 2019 at 6:10 PM
      Reply

      Please give them a call Kay 1-800-273-8255. Thats the National suicide hotline. Debt’s a big cause of people wanting for the pain to stop, but I’ve never seen a situation yet out of 2000 thats beyond help. Remember you can always go somewhere like Thailand where the loan people wont be able to reach you and thats much better than not living

      • Kay April 6, 2019 at 4:50 AM
        Reply

        I am married with twins, moving to Thailand or anywhere is not an option. I went to college to give my family a better life, not burden them with my mistakes, like gong to college. Thank you for the response but, nothing can help me, I have been buried alive by educational greed. I just needed to say/write it once before I left, as my notes are short and sweet.

        • Chris April 14, 2019 at 4:03 PM
          Reply

          What about your kids though? I haven’t been on a date in 12 years because my financial situation is so embarrassing (I’m 42). Dying alone seems inevitable for people like me, but how people with a partner and kids can be suicidal, I’ll never understand. Perspective is such a weird thing. I’m rooting for you.

          • Travis Hornsby April 15, 2019 at 10:19 AM

            You can turn it around Chris. Finances are always fixable it just requires some drastic action sometimes.

          • A.B. April 15, 2019 at 7:18 PM

            Chris, I’m replying to your comment to Kay because there doesn’t seem any way to reply to this site’s author’s (Travis Hornsby) comment to you. I respect the work Travis is doing here–trying to provide hope for people who’re financially in very bad places. However, I disagree–and believe there is ample international evidence to corroborate my perspective–that “finances are always fixable…” There are many around the world for whom dire finances are not fixable, extreme interventions notwithstanding. Those for whom moving abroad is not a viable option, for example, can’t run from debts in the US. And with increasing age and the health, visa, and work limitations this brings, finances can become even more intractable. I’m sure Travis means well, but the suggestion that creative or extreme solutions are out there to fix any financial problem might come off as glib or dismissive. Again, I’m confident Travis doesn’t intend either.

            You’re also right, at least according to well documented international research, that student loan debt significantly impacts people’s relationship chances, abilities to start or sustain families, invest in homes…

          • Travis Hornsby April 16, 2019 at 6:36 AM

            I should say that I believe any situation stemming from student loan debt is always fixable. There probably are situations financially outside of that that aren’t. And it’s possible of course there’s a non fixable situation out there caused by student loan debt, I just haven’t seen one yet.

        • Dennis April 22, 2019 at 11:25 AM
          Reply

          Yeah, moving to Thailand or some other third-world country seems to be this guy’s go-to answer for everything. Just save $10k and go to Thailand, problem solved! Just another joker with BS advice like everyone else.

  7. Moonbow April 22, 2019 at 1:20 AM
    Reply

    I am truly saddened by these horror stories. My heart goes out to you all. I am 100k in student debt. Paid ten years of my life and the amount has never gotten any lower. I spent years with fear, doubt, anxiety, headaches, sleepless nights, and wondering which lamp post to wrap my car around. I am at my wits end with Navient/Sallie Mae. I moved to Australia on a Relationship Visa and I am considering default and just living my life. I have no co-signer or assets in America. I’m just emotionally over being a slave to a system that was created to enslave young people. If I had it to do over I never would have gone to college. Young people need to be educated before they destroy their life forever with this bs.

    • Travis Hornsby April 22, 2019 at 10:58 AM
      Reply

      Moving abroad is one of the best ways to get out of what feels like a hopeless situation. If enough people moved maybe they’d fix it!

      • Marcia Boaz November 28, 2019 at 12:51 AM
        Reply

        They have started to ‘fix it’, but not in the way that I imagine you mean. Students that owe on loans that go into default, they are taking their driver’s license, here. Without that I.D., you cannot get a passport to go out of the country. Pretty soon they will have more than one worry about the borders. Trying to keep immigrants from slipping in, and those with student loans from slipping out. We need to get together and decide what we can do about this, because the courts will only give you justice if you can pay for it. And they will mobilize the American Gestapo, military and police, to hunt you down. This Civil War is already started, and we are already losing.

  8. Almost out of time May 21, 2019 at 12:59 PM
    Reply

    Wish I could leave the country but I don’t know any other languages, I require medication to survive, and being homeless and never having more than $100 at a given time, It’s hard to acquire transportation. Plus — wish a job history of never holding something down longer than two months (anger issues and mental illness) nobody will hire me in the US let alone in another country. Been applying for jobs on Remote.com and Upwork and Fiverr for about 6 months now give or take – could not qualify for ANY job this entire time. (Get a few “You’re recommended for this job” notifications — apply and no response) (I’m a software developer — but with memory problems I can’t pass any technical performance tests what-so-ever)

    Obviously these are the surface level issues and there are many more not worth including in a paragraph for a reply to a random article on a random website to be viewed by random strangers — but the exacerbating issues only increase the problem.

    For now — I’ll keep camping in Humboldt and staying off grid — but the horticulture trimming jobs are decreasing in this area due to legalization so even this source of income is about to fade. Then it all fades.

    I don’t need to commit suicide — My wife and I will die of (un)nautral causes before the need arises. Here’s hoping some politician comes in and changes things before it’s too late (if that even works?) too bad even if the PERFECT political change came along – things move too slowly to matter anyway.

  9. Bill vdv October 2, 2019 at 7:30 AM
    Reply

    There simply needs to be better advice given to young people. It’s insane to borrow six figures and then join a low-paying profession (like I did, with architecture).

    Yet here we read about people in *high* paying professions being suicidal. I was well into my 40s before I paid off my debt, and it most definitely wrecked my marriage, as well as preventing me from having kids, or a house.

    Now the presidential candidates are talking about cancelling everyone’s loan debts. Must be nice. (Somehow I don’t think they’re going to make it retroactive.)

    Just like with health insurance: no job I ever had offered it, but we hand it out free to anyone who crosses the border. Must be nice.

  10. TotallyFkd September 13, 2020 at 6:23 AM
    Reply

    But is it still an option to leave the country when there are most likely new restrictions on passport eligibility when you owe 100K or more? I am terrified of even trying to get a job or a passport right now because I owe back taxes and at least 40k in student loans. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but I completely fell apart about five years ago and almost didn’t survive. I have since decided to live and try to make the most of this life, but I see no way out. I am also middle aged, and I am struggling with mental health issues that I can’t even qualify for disability to get help with in order to survive. There has to be something that changes. So many of us are fighting every day just to get out of bed and face the dreadful futures we have in front of us. I do want to apologize though, now that I am letting this out to someone I don’t even know, but more so because I don’t want anyone reading this to give up today.

    • Amy at Student Loan Planner September 15, 2020 at 11:04 AM
      Reply

      I understand where you’re at. I’ve been in a similar situation and some days getting out of bed is an accomplishment. Don’t give up. Reach out to a good tax attorney or tax debt specialist (but beware of scammers!) and consider a consult with one of SLP’s consultants. Facing your situation and making a solid plan can take some of the pressure off. But more importantly, make sure you have a good support system in place and reach out for help often.

  11. Jenna September 19, 2020 at 8:31 PM
    Reply

    I’m about $15K in debt for less than a year of college that I didn’t really want. None of these options are a possibility for me and I can’t even work right now. I didn’t want to go to college because I was already concerned about the debt, and I didn’t want to spend 10-20 years of my life paying it off. I had to drop out because I was extremely suicidal, I couldn’t even finish my first year because I just wanted to die. I didn’t want to continue something that made me feel like that. If I had to continue, I absolutely would have killed myself. I was even told by the administration that since that was the case, if I had a letter from the on-campus therapist stating why I couldn’t complete the year, I could have the debt forgiven and wouldn’t have to pay on it. It’s now been 3 years and I’m still in debt, nothing was done. And the debt continues to make me depressed and suicidal. I don’t see any hope in a future, I can’t imagine having a future. All I see is the crushing weight of my ever-growing debt that I will have to spend a decade or more of my life trying and failing to pay off. This is something that literally is ruining my life and my will to live, and I never even wanted it.

    • Amy at Student Loan Planner September 26, 2020 at 4:17 PM
      Reply

      There’s a plan out there to help you manage your $15k debt. The trouble a lot of the time is that you’re on the wrong repayment plan or using the wrong strategy. I suggest reaching out to a Student Loan Planner consultant to book an appointment to get you on the right track.

Comment or Ask a Question

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *