Many over 50 are still saddled with student loans

[CoffeeCat]

13. I am ashamed that I still have student-loan debt. I just turned 50.

I'm glad to hear that I'm not alone. It is embarrassing to still be paying off this debt.

I first began college and decided to take some time off and figure out what I really wanted to do. I worked for four years, then returned to college and graduated with a degree in Journalism/Science Writing.

I had a very convoluted, crazy situation happen while I was a full-time college student. I kept sending the Loan Servicing Center (LSC) in Lawrence, KS--documentation that I was a full-time student. This should have allowed me to defer my loans. The LSC repeatedly claimed that the documentation had not arrived. It became almost comical. The woman who worked at the Registrar--where I had to obtain the documentation--got to know me very well because I sent this documentation at least ten times.

I made mistakes. I should have hired an attorney or stayed on top of it. I was a full-time college student. I never imagined that my loans would default. They did. Because I started college, then stopped, then returned--I had about 35k in loans. When they defaulted, I had no way to pay on them. I was paying my own way through college with three jobs, one unpaid internship. I needed every penny for tuition and living expenses.

The loans were in default for three years, then I graduated. Then, I put the loans in forbearance until I gained employment and began making payments. Interest, penalties and time swelled the loan to 95k in debt.

The Director of Financial Aid at the college used my situation as an example that she discussed at a conference. She knew that I had been treated unfairly. She told me that there was a time when these loan servicing companies (like Sallie Mae and LSC) were unfairly defaulting people that they viewed as high risk. Because I had attended college, stopped then returned--the Director felt that maybe my life path seemed erratic or unusual, and this may be why this happened. In the end, she couldn't help me.

I have been paying on these loans for years. I am proud to say that my $95,000 student-loan debt is now down to $30,000. I was paying off $1,500 per month--putting all of our extra money toward this loan--sacrificing so much. Then, my husband experienced two layoffs in 2008 and 2009, due to the recession. He works in IT and that sector was hit hard.

My loans have been in forbearance (not paying on them) for the past couple of years. We felt it was so important to shore up our savings--which was depleted during the unemployment stretches. We took a 30 percent pay cut, due to those unemployment situations. IT salaries have spiraled downward.

I hope to resume payments on these loans sometime before October. The payment will be $2,400 per month for 13 months.

I hope to have these loans paid off before I am 52, so we can save money for our two daughters' college fund--so they do not have to borrow money and be riddled with debt.

In short--my $35,000 in loans turned into a crippling $95,000 debt that has affected my entire life and the life of my family.

I tell my story so that others will realize that these loan companies can do anything to you. If you can't pay it off, the interest still accrues and the loan grows, and if you default (and it may be due to a paperwork glitch or even something more unfair) the interest and penalties grow into a Mt Everest of debt.

Don't take out loans unless you absolutely have to. Work your way through school. Who cares if it takes you six or seven years to earn that degree. A lifetime of debt--into your 50's--is just not worth it.