I am going to play devils advocate here, while these views are not my own, my goal is to see the feasibility of the plan.
- Say you skip out on the loans, leave the country. Live as an expat, take jobs elsewhere, I doubt that you will be arrested on arrival, should you come back to visit family or to travel back to the States. Sure you lose access to credit facilities and face wage garnishment if you ever get a job in the U.S. But if you're source of income is abroad or location independent, does that really matter?
- Real story, I knew one sly fella who went to med school, had $150K plus in student loans. He and his girlfriend had brought a house that had 'appreciated' in value and were eligible for a $100K equity cashout (these were the go go days of 2006), so they grabbed it and paid off the bulk of the student loans, then they voluntarily defaulted on the mortgage. This was well before the crisis of 2008. They both declare bankruptcy and signs up with some type of a community health care government sponsored initiative where his loans are forgiven for working for 5 years. They rent and save, use cash for everything. 7 years later he will be ready to buy the house he wants, finance the car he desires. Med school loans equal 0, so debt service burden, strong cash position and soon to have a new credit file at the peak of his earning power. Brilliant!
Of course I am against both plans because they penalize those of us doing the right thing but I wanted to make sure that people knew that alternatives exist.
- Say you skip out on the loans, leave the country. Live as an expat, take jobs elsewhere, I doubt that you will be arrested on arrival, should you come back to visit family or to travel back to the States. Sure you lose access to credit facilities and face wage garnishment if you ever get a job in the U.S. But if you're source of income is abroad or location independent, does that really matter?
- Real story, I knew one sly fella who went to med school, had $150K plus in student loans. He and his girlfriend had brought a house that had 'appreciated' in value and were eligible for a $100K equity cashout (these were the go go days of 2006), so they grabbed it and paid off the bulk of the student loans, then they voluntarily defaulted on the mortgage. This was well before the crisis of 2008. They both declare bankruptcy and signs up with some type of a community health care government sponsored initiative where his loans are forgiven for working for 5 years. They rent and save, use cash for everything. 7 years later he will be ready to buy the house he wants, finance the car he desires. Med school loans equal 0, so debt service burden, strong cash position and soon to have a new credit file at the peak of his earning power. Brilliant!
Of course I am against both plans because they penalize those of us doing the right thing but I wanted to make sure that people knew that alternatives exist.