These Americans fled the country to escape their giant student debt

[Demovictory9]

These Americans fled the country to escape their giant student debt
He left for Ukraine, she's in Japan and another lives in a jungle in India.
These borrowers point to their student debt as the reason they couldn't make it in America.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/26/he-moved-to-a-jungle-in-india-to-escape-his-student-debt--and-hes-not-alone-.html

Chad Haag considered living in a cave to escape his student debt. He had a friend doing it. But after some plotting, he settled on what he considered a less risky plan. This year, he relocated to a jungle in India. "I've put America behind me," Haag, 29, said.

He now lives in a concrete house in the village of Uchakkada for $50 a month. His backyard is filled with coconut trees and chickens. "I saw four elephants just yesterday," he said, adding that he hopes to never set foot in a Walmart again.

His debt is currently on its way to default. But more than 9,000 miles away from Colorado, Haag said, his student loans don't feel real anymore.

"It's kind of like, if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it really exist?" he said.

The philosophy major concedes that his student loan balance of around $20,000 isn't as large as the burden shouldered by many other borrowers, but he said his difficultly finding a college-level job in the U.S. has made that debt oppressive nonetheless. "If you're not making a living wage," Haag said, "$20,000 in debt is devastating."

He struggled to come up with the $300 a month he owed. The first work he found after he graduated from the University of Northern Colorado in 2011 — when the recession's effects were still palpable — was on-again, off-again hours at a factory, unloading trucks and constructing toy rockets on an assembly line. He then went back to school to pursue a master's degree in comparative literature at the University of Colorado Boulder. After that, he tried to make it as an adjunct professor, but still he could barely scrape a living together with the one class a semester he was assigned.

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Moving to another country to escape student debt is risky, experts say. If the person wants or needs to return to the United States, they'll find their loan balance has only grown while they were gone, thanks to compound interest, collection charges and late fees.

Although the Education Department typically can't garnish someone's wages if they're working for a company outside of the United States, it can take up to 15 percent of their Social Security benefits when they start collecting.

"The loans do not disappear when you become an expat," said Mark Kantrowitz, a student loan expert.

[MichMan]

1. If you are going to default anyway, why move across the world ?

He doesn't owe a very substantial amount of $$, but appears to have made some very poor decisions. I guess he got married and is establishing roots, so hopefully it is working out for him.

What I don't understand is if the student debt from his first degree in Philosophy didn't provide him the job opportunities he was seeking, he then doubled down and took on even more for a masters degree in Comparitive Literature.

There is always the possibility that he just doesn't have very much to offer an employer other than a piece of paper. I have met several people over the years who had little work skills and assumed that just earning a degree was all that it took to have their pick of high paying jobs.

I borrowed a similar amount in order to earn an Engineering degree and it was by far the best investment I ever made. I had been working minimum wage jobs prior to that, so being able to borrow the $$ was life changing.

[delisen]

2. the College loan program -Capitalism Eating the Young

The appetite for low risk and no risk investments is huge.

Why take risks when you can get the government to guarantee your market and your profit and then make common cause with universities to encourage borrowing by people too young and inexperienced to fully comprehend what they are getting into .

The great irony is that the educational courses in economics and finance come after the loan contracts are signed.



Prior to the Growth of the Loan Programs, saving was taught as a Virtue.

When an economy is subject to inflation, deflation, boom and bust encouraging indebtedness for eduction is just wrong.

Banks made lots of money, universities prospered with huge salaries for administrators, and too many students were strapped with debt at the defining of adulthood.

[MichMan]

3. The Government is the ones making the loans

Banks don't make them anymore.

I was working in a clothing warehouse making slightly more than minimum wage when I took out my loans. Being able to earn a degree in Engineering was life changing. Without the loans, I could not have made it happen. It was the best investment I ever made

If student loans were only made based on credit scores, risk, and what classes were being taken, it would have a chilling effect on people of low and moderate means of being able to escape a life of poverty

[msongs]

4. gee who knew when you signed on to borrow money it would have to be paid back nt

[Progressive Law]

5. I have almost 300k in student loan debt. Consider the income based repayment program.

But I've placed all my loans in the government's Income Based Repayment program. It limits the loan repayment amount to 15% of your total discretionary income...which means if you have no discretionary income, you have no monthly payment.

And if you work in a public interest sector job (teacher, non-profit, District Attorney, public defender (me), etc.) the loans will be forgiven after 10 years of payments.

I urge everyone with large loan debts to consider this option.

https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/understand/plans/income-driven