Make Sure You Can Repay What You Borrow

In the article "In Grim Job Market, Student Loans Are a Costly Burden", author Tara Siegel Bernard touches on a subject that is very important to everyone trying to get an education. Borrowing money to pay for education means that at some point you will have to start repaying those loans. For most of us that are not fortunate enough to be able to pay for our education without borrowing, we have a daunting task in front of us. We have to repay those loans after we graduate. The article recommends that you don't borrow more money than you expect to make as a starting salary at the job you hope to land after you graduate.

The problem facing recent graduates today is the lack of quality jobs in this time of recession. Graduates are coming out to find the job markets to be not very friendly. Companies are downsizing and cutting back in response to the flailing economy, and not that many jobs are out there to be found. The loans still come due, however, and many grads are taking whatever jobs they can find in order to just make ends meet. When you add in loan payments, many just can't make the payments.

Student loans are some of the most rock-solid loans that can be obtained. They have to be paid back, and even bankruptcy can't remove those debts. Most federal loans are impossible to escape, and private loans are also difficult to get relief from. Default on these loans and you can have your wages garnished at up to 15%, and tax refunds can be taken. This is an unfortunate reality for some.

It is very disheartening to find out that your education that you worked so hard to get won't make you enough money to pay back the loans you took out to pay for said education. There are some alternatives for payment, even some that forgive debt after a set number of years of making reduced payments. I guess the moral of the story is get a good paying job if you are going to borrow money to pay for the education.