In article <b923f3a8.0406171243.19a3041[at]posting.google.com> , Justin
<jlokitz[at]hotmail.com> wrote:

- quote -

What were you thinking when you took out over $100,000 in student
loans? How were you planning to pay them back when you took the
money? What happened to that plan of action?

- quote -

Try calling the student loan corporation. I recall the number being
something like 1-800-2-college. They have an option to consolidate
your loans, and the interest rate is less than what you are paying.
The only gotcha is that you can only consolidate once, and it sounds
like you have already used this option. It is still worth a try.

Other than that, you don't have a loan problem...you have an income
problem. You need to get your income up to about double what you
are making if you want to do more than just survive from paycheck
to paycheck. Realistically, you are looking at 25 to 30 years of
loan payments at $800 per month. I doubt that you will even be
able to buy a house with 1/3 of your take home pay going to student
loans. I also think that bankruptcy is not an option here since
student loans no longer go away with bankruptcy. If I am wrong on
this, then that might be the best option. Otherwise, I'd think about
chucking things and moving to Mexico or somewhere else where the
loan will not follow you.

-john-

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John A. Weeks III 952-432-2708 john[at]johnweeks.com
Newave Communications http://www.johnweeks.com
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jlokitz[at]hotmail.com (Justin) wrote in
news:b923f3a8.0406171243.19a3041[at]posting.google.com:

- quote -

Since you have already consolidated the two stafford loans you are
generally inelligible to consolidate them again through a traditional
student loan consolidation. You may, however, be eligible for some sort of
consolidation through a private lender that specializes in student loans.
Its been some time since I've looked, but a search for "student loan
consolidation" on Google will give you plenty to review.

I would recommend taking a look at Salliemae at www.salliemae.com to see
what they may be able to offer you. They have graduated repayment programs
that will lower your current monthly payment, increasing sequentially
through repayment. Its no money-saving deal in the long run, but it will
allow you to eat rice with your beans today.

Other suggestions would be to repay all your credit card debt first,
maintain a tight budget and then start nailing the student loans. The
credit cards have a far higher rate of interest and are not tax deductible.
You may also see offers to lower your interest rate on the loans by 0.25%
to 0.5% if you setup an automatic debit from your checking account.

Good luck!

JSR

I have two sets of student loans. One set are consolidated stafford
loans for a total of about 55K at 4.125% interest. The second set are
private loans for a total of about 47K which are at 4 and 5% interest.
My monthly payments work out to about $800 per month. My annual
salary is just over 40K. Needless to say, its very difficult
(actually impossible) to do any saving whatsoever.

Can you recommend a way that I can lower my monthly payments? I
called my lender and they were no help at all (surprise surprise).

Any help would be appreciated.

J