4 ms·

This is just a suggestion, but if anyone else encounters a circumstance like this, the best (counterintuitive) thing may be to go to school online. In the US,

This is just a suggestion, but if anyone else encounters a circumstance like this, the best (counterintuitive) thing may be to go to school online. In the US, federal financial aid will provide you with cash for living expenses. There are several open enrollment online schools (here's one [1]) that are cheap enough for you to wind up with about $4-$5K/semester in cash for living expenses. It's not alot, but you can pretty easily "attend" classes online part time while you try to work yourself out of your situation. You get the "credit balance refund" about a month after classes start each semester, but many online colleges have "semesters" that start every month. While not homeless, my sister came to a crossroads in her career and is now doing this exact thing. The extra $10K/yr basically pays her rent, she is still able to work full time, and she'll have a degree in a field she actually likes at the end. If OP suddenly had $5K in the bank, his road to recovery wouldn't have been nearly as rocky. [1] http://www.apus.edu/ http://www.apus.edu/

dredmorbius 11y ago
Educational debt is non-dischargable. While it can be "easy money" for now, the debt will stay with you until you die. And while specific skills training may help, more education won't bring clients online. APUS is, despite its "public university" name, a private, for-profit institution, owned by American Public Education, Inc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Public_University_System http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Public_University_Syst... http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/apei http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/apei http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/American-Public-University-System/Internet/American-Public-University-System-American-Public-University-American-Military-University-866870 http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/American-Public-University-Sys... Those interested in changes to U.S. bankruptcy code, including educational loans, might care to look at the Student Loan Bankrupcy Exception at FinAid: http://www.finaid.org/questions/bankruptcyexception.phtml http://www.finaid.org/questions/bankruptcyexception.phtml Student loans were dischargeable in bankruptcy prior to 1976. With the introduction of the US Bankruptcy Code (11 USC 101 et seq) in 1978, the ability to discharge education loans was limited. Subsequent changes in the law have further narrowed the dischargeability of education debt.
- downandout 11y ago
  >the debt will stay with you until you die. You're wrong. It will stay with you until you pay it off, on relatively easy terms, and payments only begin after you graduate. > And while specific skills training may help, more education won't bring clients online. Most people seeking a degree aren't in fields where they are looking for "clients". Most people want a degree so they can get a job. If you are referring specifically to learning to code, I wouldn't recommend that anyone use any paid school. There are more than enough free online resources to teach yourself to become a very proficient programmer. >hxxp://www.ripoffreport.com/r/American-Public-University-Sys... Most online schools, and indeed most online businesses, have one or more "Ripoff Reports" posted. That site is hardly credible, and I question the motives of anyone that would even post a link to such garbage on a site like HN. Most of those "reports" are written by competitors of the business at issue, angry ex wives, the owner of Ripoff Reports himself etc...it's an extortion scheme, asking people for money in order to modify posts. Posting there is SOP among scumbags. Their PageRank is their only asset, and they use it for extortion. >http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/apei http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/apei I had no idea that they were publicly traded on the Nasdaq, but that bolsters my confidence in them. I only mentioned Apus because that is where my sister is going and it is working out well for her. They are fully accredited, and a big chunk of the money my sister is getting is in the form of Pell grants, which do not have to be paid back (your eligibility for both loans and Pell grants can easily be determined at http://fafsa.ed.gov http://fafsa.ed.gov). Yes, you have to pay back the loan portion once you have graduated and have a bachelor's degree. My point was that in a situation like OP's, this would be the first thing that I would do. If you were homeless or close to it, this would be by far the best and lowest cost way to access cash, especially if more education was in your plans anyway. When helping my sister look into this before she enrolled, I was amazed that more people aren't using online schools.
  - lsc 11y ago
    There's a huge difference in the risk you are taking when you take on debt that can be cleared with bankruptcy and debt that can not. This is why I always say that the first thing your business should pay for is an accountant. Same thing. Business mistakes? bankruptcy is the worst case. Sure, it's not that weird for even smallish businesses to sign leases that are worth truly intimidating amounts of money. My own company's co-lo contract would cover a very high-end Ferrari. Leases are debt. But they can be discharged through bankruptcy. Tax mistakes? Tax mistakes are for life (or, as you say, until you pay them off, along with penalties and interest.) I mean, I'm not saying that I'd never take such a loan, just that it is money at what I consider completely brutal terms, and for me, at least, it would be a last resort. As an aside, I think that only taking loans that can be cleared by bankruptcy is something of a sanity check. Nobody, right now, would loan me the money to buy a Ferrari, because I can't afford a Ferrari (well, not a new one, anyhow.) and this fact is obvious if you look at my finances, as a bank would before loaning someone that kind of money for a car. I mean, I probably could usually make the payments, but one financial misstep on my part, or some slight flutter in my income stream and I'd be in bankruptcy territory. Now, on the other hand, if that loan couldn't be cleared by bankruptcy? I think it would be a reasonable risk for most banks to loan me the cash for the Ferrari. I mean I'd be eating ramen, but I could make payments as long as nothing went wrong, and even if I screw it up and they've gotta repo the thing, It's pretty likely that my lifetime earnings, which they'll get to garnish in this hypothetical world where car loans operate like student loans, are going to be enough to more than cover the loan plus interest and penalties. The point being that operating without bankruptcy really moves the bar on how much effort the bank puts into figuring out if you can afford something.

dredmorbius 11y ago

Educational debt is non-dischargable. While it can be "easy money" for now, the debt will stay with you until you die. And while specific skills training may help, more education won't bring clients online. APUS is, despite its "public university" name, a private, for-profit institution, owned by American Public Education, Inc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Public_University_System http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Public_University_Syst... http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/apei http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/apei http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/American-Public-University-System/Internet/American-Public-University-System-American-Public-University-American-Military-University-866870 http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/American-Public-University-Sys... Those interested in changes to U.S. bankruptcy code, including educational loans, might care to look at the Student Loan Bankrupcy Exception at FinAid: http://www.finaid.org/questions/bankruptcyexception.phtml http://www.finaid.org/questions/bankruptcyexception.phtml Student loans were dischargeable in bankruptcy prior to 1976. With the introduction of the US Bankruptcy Code (11 USC 101 et seq) in 1978, the ability to discharge education loans was limited. Subsequent changes in the law have further narrowed the dischargeability of education debt.

downandout 11y ago
>the debt will stay with you until you die. You're wrong. It will stay with you until you pay it off, on relatively easy terms, and payments only begin after you graduate. > And while specific skills training may help, more education won't bring clients online. Most people seeking a degree aren't in fields where they are looking for "clients". Most people want a degree so they can get a job. If you are referring specifically to learning to code, I wouldn't recommend that anyone use any paid school. There are more than enough free online resources to teach yourself to become a very proficient programmer. >hxxp://www.ripoffreport.com/r/American-Public-University-Sys... Most online schools, and indeed most online businesses, have one or more "Ripoff Reports" posted. That site is hardly credible, and I question the motives of anyone that would even post a link to such garbage on a site like HN. Most of those "reports" are written by competitors of the business at issue, angry ex wives, the owner of Ripoff Reports himself etc...it's an extortion scheme, asking people for money in order to modify posts. Posting there is SOP among scumbags. Their PageRank is their only asset, and they use it for extortion. >http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/apei http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/apei I had no idea that they were publicly traded on the Nasdaq, but that bolsters my confidence in them. I only mentioned Apus because that is where my sister is going and it is working out well for her. They are fully accredited, and a big chunk of the money my sister is getting is in the form of Pell grants, which do not have to be paid back (your eligibility for both loans and Pell grants can easily be determined at http://fafsa.ed.gov http://fafsa.ed.gov). Yes, you have to pay back the loan portion once you have graduated and have a bachelor's degree. My point was that in a situation like OP's, this would be the first thing that I would do. If you were homeless or close to it, this would be by far the best and lowest cost way to access cash, especially if more education was in your plans anyway. When helping my sister look into this before she enrolled, I was amazed that more people aren't using online schools.
- lsc 11y ago
  There's a huge difference in the risk you are taking when you take on debt that can be cleared with bankruptcy and debt that can not. This is why I always say that the first thing your business should pay for is an accountant. Same thing. Business mistakes? bankruptcy is the worst case. Sure, it's not that weird for even smallish businesses to sign leases that are worth truly intimidating amounts of money. My own company's co-lo contract would cover a very high-end Ferrari. Leases are debt. But they can be discharged through bankruptcy. Tax mistakes? Tax mistakes are for life (or, as you say, until you pay them off, along with penalties and interest.) I mean, I'm not saying that I'd never take such a loan, just that it is money at what I consider completely brutal terms, and for me, at least, it would be a last resort. As an aside, I think that only taking loans that can be cleared by bankruptcy is something of a sanity check. Nobody, right now, would loan me the money to buy a Ferrari, because I can't afford a Ferrari (well, not a new one, anyhow.) and this fact is obvious if you look at my finances, as a bank would before loaning someone that kind of money for a car. I mean, I probably could usually make the payments, but one financial misstep on my part, or some slight flutter in my income stream and I'd be in bankruptcy territory. Now, on the other hand, if that loan couldn't be cleared by bankruptcy? I think it would be a reasonable risk for most banks to loan me the cash for the Ferrari. I mean I'd be eating ramen, but I could make payments as long as nothing went wrong, and even if I screw it up and they've gotta repo the thing, It's pretty likely that my lifetime earnings, which they'll get to garnish in this hypothetical world where car loans operate like student loans, are going to be enough to more than cover the loan plus interest and penalties. The point being that operating without bankruptcy really moves the bar on how much effort the bank puts into figuring out if you can afford something.