> If you have federal student loans this is shitty advice. The loan payment programs are very generous.
The author appears to have private loans, which are much more burdensome than federal loans for the debtor[0].
This is why federal loans are said to be subsidized and are counted as financial aid, even though people sometimes complain that it's "not really" aid because you have to pay money back. It's aid because the rates are well below market rate, which means the government (acting as a bank) would expect to make a loss on all loans issued, as the number of people who default would outweigh the amount of interest collected on the remaining loans.
[0] Also, only undergraduate loans are subsidized - graduate loans are not usually (never?) subsidized.
The private loans were still backed by the feds which is why the DOE was coming after the author. Writing student loans was a nice guaranteed profit for a while (it changed in 2010 when they started cutting out the middle man).
> the government (acting as a bank) would expect to make a loss on all loans issued, as the number of people who default would outweigh the amount of interest collected on the remaining loans
As far as I know, you can't get out of paying a federal student loan even if you file for bankruptcy.
The author appears to have private loans, which are much more burdensome than federal loans for the debtor[0].
This is why federal loans are said to be subsidized and are counted as financial aid, even though people sometimes complain that it's "not really" aid because you have to pay money back. It's aid because the rates are well below market rate, which means the government (acting as a bank) would expect to make a loss on all loans issued, as the number of people who default would outweigh the amount of interest collected on the remaining loans.
[0] Also, only undergraduate loans are subsidized - graduate loans are not usually (never?) subsidized.