Over 52 million Americans owe money on student loans. There has been epic failure after epic failure from government leaders who promise loan forgiveness in order to gain or maintain a political seat. The latest too-good-to-be-true promise from the White House to help those who are drowning in debt is known as the SAVE Plan. While grabbing some popcorn in anticipation of being entertained by this comedy, I sure enough found several amusing nuggets in this latest and greatest method to trick people into keeping student loans on their books ‘til death:
-You will never see your balance grow as long as you keep up with your payments!
Gee thanks, Mr. President! I owe $50,000 on student loans, but I’m so excited that I can make minimum payments for the next 20 years and have that EXACT SAME BALANCE later. You have my vote buddy!
-You could receive forgiveness after 120 payments if you owe $12,000 or less!
-Wow! Even though the National Average Student Loan Debt is nearly $29,000, I’m so stoked to believe that I could be one of the very few golden ticket winners who actually has my debt forgiven! I’m going to just keep making those minimum payments for the next decade and pray that I’m one of the less than 2% (per the U.S. Department of Education's Data) of Americans who this will actually work for. Sign me up!
-If you were already counting on us to save you through the REPAYE plan, we are automatically enrolling you into the SAVE plan!
-Isn't this amazing? Now I get to figure out what new source my student loan is going in and out of, and hope that there is no disruption to my account!
How about this idea, instead?
STOP KICKING THE CAN DOWN THE ROAD AND PAY OFF THE LOANS YOURSELF!
You are in control of your life, not Uncle Sam. You do not have to wait 10 or 20 years to start really chewing away at this beast, making bogus minimum payments that won’t make a dent. The stock market has just hit an all-time high, and investors who have no debt payments are building wealth because they don’t owe anybody anything! Which side of the fence do you strive to be on, one half of Americans who have no retirement savings, or the other half who has earned the right to live out their golden years at peace and on their own terms? You know what the answer is, and so do I. But here’s the deal: You must take control of your life, and your money, to make it happen. Chances are that the SAVE plan is not going to do these things for you.
The stock market literally has never been higher than it is right now. Once you stop believing the falsehood of student loan forgiveness and adjust your budget/lifestyle to knock out the debt yourself, you can build wealth by taking care of your future (retirement) rather than your past (college loans).
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