Going to Dental School Will Almost Surely Wreck Your Finances

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Incis0r got banned? April Fool's?
 
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Dave Ramsey ranting about how our blessed new Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (although he doesn't say her by name) has decided to systematically go after people on a government student debt repayment program. Just goes to show that none of these programs are truly permanent and the only way you can really pay off your debts is if YOU pay them back.


 
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Dave Ramsey ranting about how our blessed new Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (although he doesn't say her by name) has decided to systematically go after people on a government student debt repayment program. Just goes to show that none of these programs are truly permanent and the only way you can really pay off your debts is if YOU pay them back.

The media has been creating a mountain out of molehill on this story. The American Bar Association is suing to be reinstated as a qualifying not for profit organization for the purposes of public service loan forgiveness. This despite the ABA is a 501c6 white collar labor union that also does good work in the country in the area of public interest law. The PSLF guidelines clearly state labor organizations are not eligible for PSLF.

So the student loan servicer sent out a bunch of letters telling people they qualify when they actually didn't and of course those people are rightfully angry bc they worked somewhere for a couple years thinking it was counting towards loan forgiveness.

So in short, if you work for the government or a 501c3 org you're fine and this story is meaningless. If you work for something else, then you probably don't qualify.

So if you go to Tufts or NYU and come out with $500,000 in student debt and owe $6,000 a month to pay it back in 10 years, that's not possible. The only way you make that work is with student loan forgiveness programs and paying the tax penalty unless you hit the jackpot and become a bigtime producer of a $1 million + practice with 60% or less overhead
 
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So the student loan servicer sent out a bunch of letters telling people they qualify when they actually didn't and of course those people are rightfully angry bc they worked somewhere for a couple years thinking it was counting towards loan forgiveness.

Yeah I'd be pissed even if it was for a couple of years though, after getting what probably looked like an official confirmation letter than you qualify where you're working.

It's also not just the ABA. From the article that Dave Ramsey is talking about, there is a lawyer who had the rug pulled out from under him as well. He worked for 5 years before being told it was an error. It was not just one letter sent in error. This guy was submitting pay stubs monthly for the entire time he was working there.

"Mr. Rudert submitted the certification form in 2012 and received a letter from FedLoan affirming that his work as a lawyer at Vietnam Veterans of America, a nonprofit aid group, qualified him for the forgiveness program. But in 2016, after submitting his latest annual recertification note to FedLoan, he got a denial note.

The decision was retroactive, he was told. None of his previous work for the group would be considered valid for the loan forgiveness program.

What changed? Mr. Rudert said he did not know. After filing a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, he received a reply from FedLoan saying that his application “had initially been approved in error.” He has not been told what the error was, and has not found any way to appeal the decision."


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/business/student-loan-forgiveness-program-lawsuit.html?_r=0

The point is I don't think it's smart to rely on any of these programs that exist today or to make it part of your plan 4-5 years from now when you graduate to help pay off loans 20 years after that. A lot can change and the likelihood of you getting shafted is a lot higher than the government "doing the right thing".
 
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The rules are clear IMO, 501(c)(3) is the requirement. It's unfortunate for those people who were mistakenly given incorrect information, but I do not see it as progress in slowly removing the entire program.
 
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The rules are clear IMO, 501(c)(3) is the requirement. It's unfortunate for those people who were mistakenly given incorrect information, but I do not see it as progress in slowly removing the entire program.

Mistakenly given incorrect information by the people who run the damn program! That's the key. Maybe they could have been more informed about the 501c3, but at what point do you pass off the blame from the individual to the institution?
 
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Mistakenly given incorrect information by the people who run the damn program! That's the key. Maybe they could have been more informed about the 501c3, but at what point do you pass off the blame from the individual to the institution?
Never trust the government.
 
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Mistakenly given incorrect information by the people who run the damn program! That's the key. Maybe they could have been more informed about the 501c3, but at what point do you pass off the blame from the individual to the institution?
Right. But at what point do you pass the blame from the institution to the individual? If it clearly says 501c3, why are they submitting paperwork that does not fit the criteria? If they are informed enough as to what the requirements are to participate in the program, then they should know their organization is not a 501c3. If they thought they can fly under the radar for a bit, they shouldn't blame the government for getting caught - even if it is a little later.
 
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I've asked it before, and I'll ask it again: why is the government even involved in student loans at all? These federal loan forgiveness programs are aimed to address a problem created by the federal government. Imagine that, we pay people to solve problems that they themselves created. Are we all idiots? The Bennett Hypothesis is no longer a hypothesis; I think we can all start calling it a law now.

Big Hoss
 
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Right. But at what point do you pass the blame from the institution to the individual? If it clearly says 501c3, why are they submitting paperwork that does not fit the criteria? If they are informed enough as to what the requirements are to participate in the program, then they should know their organization is not a 501c3. If they thought they can fly under the radar for a bit, they shouldn't blame the government for getting caught - even if it is a little later.

Agree to disagree I guess, but I just don't understand why you would take the side of what is clearly a huge government brain fart at best. I mean the guy was working for 5 years for Vietnam Veterans of America, a nonprofit aid group, and went through all the correct channels and jumped through all the right hoops. It's not like he was trying to scam the system.
 
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I've asked it before, and I'll ask it again: why is the government even involved in student loans at all?

To help everyone get an education. I think Germany's model is awesome - free education for everyone (well, maybe there is a slight fee of like $500/year), but people do deserve the chance to get an education and achieve their dreams.
 
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Agree to disagree I guess, but I just don't understand why you would take the side of what is clearly a huge government brain fart at best. I mean the guy was working for 5 years for Vietnam Veterans of America, a nonprofit aid group, and went through all the correct channels and jumped through all the right hoops. It's not like he was trying to scam the system.
Countless people are hosed every day by the government. How about all of the people who've lost their property and/or money through civil asset forfeiture without ever even being charged with a crime, let alone being convicted. Imagine having your bank accounts seized never to be recovered just because some policing official thinks it looks like you're committing a crime.

Big Hoss
 
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The problem with Education is the same problem with Healthcare (but benefits health providers/educators). There's just no way to put a hard price on it. This is the whole reason for this thread!! Some think 600k for a dental education is doable, while others pay 100k and still complain. Same degree at the end of the day. Same thing for Healthcare. You can't put a hard price on saving grandma or what someone will pay to save their natural teeth. Mix that concept with some hard 'Murican capitalism, sprinkle in some sweet easy government money, and you have yourself a big ol' **** cake. Grab yourself a slice, because it's still better than the alternative (anyone want to go move to Cuba/Venezuela? :laugh:)
 
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To help everyone get an education. I think Germany's model is awesome - free education for everyone (well, maybe there is a slight fee of like $500/year), but people do deserve the chance to get an education and achieve their dreams.
I don't see why I'm responsible to make sure they achieve their dreams. It's nice to have help and support along the way, but it should not be expected or demanded. There is nothing free in life; someone has to pay for it somewhere. Personally, I believe the end user should be the one footing the bill.

Read about the Bennett Hypothesis. You'll realize that it's government intervention that has put the academic dreams of many beyond reach by driving tuition through the roof. There are no real market forces at work in higher education.

Big Hoss
 
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To help everyone get an education. I think Germany's model is awesome - free education for everyone (well, maybe there is a slight fee of like $500/year), but people do deserve the chance to get an education and achieve their dreams.

Let the free market take care of it.

And before you say "but the evil big banks!" I agree with you, most bankers are evil and super greedy, but I am sure that there are very wealthy investor doctors/dentists out there who would loan/ sponser a dental student money if they are promised to pay it back. Heck, church funds could be allocated to such endeavors.
 
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I don't see why I'm responsible to make sure they achieve their dreams. It's nice to have help and support along the way, but it should not be expected or demanded. There is nothing free in life; someone has to pay for it somewhere. Personally, I believe the end user should be the one footing the bill.

Read about the Bennett Hypothesis. You'll realize that it's government intervention that has put the academic dreams of many beyond reach by driving tuition through the roof. There are no real market forces at work in higher education.

Big Hoss

Just looked up the Bennett Hypothesis. From what I understood, it's basically the idea that increased availability of government funding ---> educational institutions have no problem raising tuition. That makes sense.

I also agree with you that there is nothing that is free in life.

We are a developed nation, and many of us enjoy an excellent standard of living. I believe that everyone should be given the opportunity to enjoy this kind of life. Whether they work hard and take advantage of that opportunity, that's up to them, but they should get the chance to do so (and that chance is free education).
 
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I don't know about you, but I don't want to be in a classroom where the only people, my future colleagues and dental professionals, are people that succeeded because of daddy's money. How boring! I'd rather have the brightest/sharpest 10% of students from all different backgrounds with different paths leading up to dental school than just a bunch of Eric Trumps and frat stars that don't know what a dollar bill looks like. If you use the "free market", that's what you're going to get. It's all about diversity and your life and the life of everyone around you is so much better because of it.

To be clear when I say "diversity" I don't exclusively mean race. I'm talking about diversity of life experiences.

A much larger problem than "why do we give poor smart kids funding" is administrative bloat and insufferably large and stupid athletic departments just so Universities can have the most expensive pissing contest of all time using our tuition money. Tuition has been skyrocketing, sure, but the experience of Universities have also been skyrocketing. 50 years ago you didn't have 500 million dollar renovations to your football stadium *cough* A&M *cough* or coaches/assistants on million dollar salaries. You didn't have the crazy nice dorms with the nice modern academic buildings and research centers. You didn't have the wide range of majors offered at most schools and the super experienced profs to go with them. You also didn't have the same experience of diversity you have now at the schools (yes, diversity does cost money unfortunately). You can't just say it's "the government" causing this because it's not true.
 
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Just looked up the Bennett Hypothesis. From what I understood, it's basically the idea that increased availability of government funding ---> educational institutions have no problem raising tuition. That makes sense.

I also agree with you that there is nothing that is free in life.

We are a developed nation, and many of us enjoy an excellent standard of living. I believe that everyone should be given the opportunity to enjoy this kind of life. If they work hard and take advantage of that opportunity, that's up to them, but they should get the chance to do so (and that chance is free education).

Thought you'd like this. Thoughts?

 
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Thought you'd like this. Thoughts?



Good video. Thank you for sharing.

My thoughts are too radical for this board lol - My thoughts are make tuition free for everyone.
 
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Good video. Thank you for sharing.

My thoughts are too radical for this board lol - My thoughts are make tuition free for everyone.
Who would pay the professors and everyone that works at the college?
 
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Who would pay the professors and everyone that works at the college?

If I had an answer for that, I would be running for office right now.

In my ideal world, personal income taxes + business taxes would be low (I wouldn't want to raise taxes on people to pay for this, school would be super affordable (I'd set up a system such as if you do 2 yrs of public community service or military service, you get a free education in whatever you want, or I would keep expenses so low that a student could pay for school working 10-15 hrs/week).

Unfortunately, I know things are way more complex than this, and I'm sure there are a million other considerations I don't even understand yet.
 
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If I had an answer for that, I would be running for office right now.

In my ideal world, personal income taxes + business taxes would be low (I wouldn't want to raise taxes on people to pay for this, especially since some people might not have kids at all), school would be super affordable (I'd set up a system such as if you do 2 yrs of public community service or military service, you get a free education in whatever you want).

Unfortunately, I know things are way more complex than this, and I'm sure there are a million other considerations I don't even understand yet.
In an ideal world itd be amazing, but I agree that there are just too many factors to it. Rhetorical questions: would just tuition be free or also books and housing? Would you have to pick a major that contributes back to society or could someone get a bachelors in philosophy and call it good? I think the one thing against a free education for everyone to enjoy is that we are living in the digital age where degrees are less and less important. Skills and networking seem to be as important. I have a few friends and people I know that never went to college and are widely successful. Its not the norm, but theres never been an easier time for someone to make something of their life when they were given nothing; doing door to door sales, real estate, or the old fashioned climbing a corporate ladder.
 
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In an ideal world itd be amazing, but I agree that there are just too many factors to it. Rhetorical questions: would just tuition be free or also books and housing? Would you have to pick a major that contributes back to society or could someone get a bachelors in philosophy and call it good? I think the one thing against a free education for everyone to enjoy is that we are living in the digital age where degrees are less and less important. Skills and networking seem to be as important. I have a few friends and people I know that never went to college and are widely successful. Its not the norm, but theres never been an easier time for someone to make something of their life when they were given nothing; doing door to door sales, real estate, or the old fashioned climbing a corporate ladder.

See - these are such important points. I didn't even realize them. You know more about this than I do, haha.

This is why I LOVE what Khan Academy, MIT OpenCourseware, and sites like Coursera are doing by giving anyone with an internet connection and willpower free courses.
 
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Good video. Thank you for sharing.

My thoughts are too radical for this board lol - My thoughts are make tuition free for everyone.
With all that "free" tuition coming from taxpayers, what incentives are there for colleges to stop the ludicrous tuition increases if we simply keep giving them whatever they feel like charging? The American taxpayers have no protection. I guess just pile it on the the $20 trillion we already owe (never mind our $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities). Free market forces would shut all this absurdity down at once. A free market would not let someone borrow $20,000 a year to study "Taxidermy in the New Genderless World" at Podunk State Community College. Universities would be forced to control costs to align with the economic reality of their students, or shut down. That should be enough to light a fire underneath them.

Big Hoss
 
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In an ideal world itd be amazing, but I agree that there are just too many factors to it. Rhetorical questions: would just tuition be free or also books and housing? Would you have to pick a major that contributes back to society or could someone get a bachelors in philosophy and call it good? I think the one thing against a free education for everyone to enjoy is that we are living in the digital age where degrees are less and less important. Skills and networking seem to be as important. I have a few friends and people I know that never went to college and are widely successful. Its not the norm, but theres never been an easier time for someone to make something of their life when they were given nothing; doing door to door sales, real estate, or the old fashioned climbing a corporate ladder.

I agree with some things you say, but not about a degree being less important. All jobs now require higher education even when not needed because companies like to have stats saying that they hire the smartest people.

Also, there was an easier time to make something of your life in the US. It's called the 1960's where school was basically free and you had to be a real screw up to not make it out okay if you were a white male. Upward mobility was easier.

I do agree networking has always been important, and it is growing in importance. A family friend finally got out of a dead-end job for 15 years making $35000 through networking to get into a new job that makes $80000. He applied for the new job where he was more than qualified to work for, but he didn't have a college degree. He was automatically screened out- not even an interview. His supervisor told the company he was trying to work for to give him a chance via interview. They manually pulled him off the list. He killed the interview. He got a job in 3 weeks (SO FAST!) from applying to moving out to California.

As you can tell- college degree is important, but so is networking...
 
With all that "free" tuition coming from taxpayers, what incentives are there for colleges to stop the ludicrous tuition increases if we simply keep giving them whatever they feel like charging? The American taxpayers have no protection. I guess just pile it on the the $20 trillion we already owe (never mind our $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities). Free market forces would shut all this absurdity down at once. A free market would not let someone borrow $20,000 a year to study "Taxidermy in the New Genderless World" at Podunk State Community College. Universities would be forced to control costs to align with the economic reality of their students, or shut down. That should be enough to light a fire underneath them.

Big Hoss

Well the amount it would take to add upper post secondary school as a free service is going to be used in defense spending... we are screwed anyways.
 
I agree with some things you say, but not about a degree being less important. All jobs now require higher education even when not needed because companies like to have stats saying that they hire the smartest people.

Also, there was an easier time to make something of your life in the US. It's called the 1960's where school was basically free and you had to be a real screw up to not make it out okay if you were a white male. Upward mobility was easier.

I do agree networking has always been important, and it is growing in importance. A family friend finally got out of a dead-end job for 15 years making $35000 through networking to get into a new job that makes $80000. He applied for the new job where he was more than qualified to work for, but he didn't have a college degree. He was automatically screened out- not even an interview. His supervisor told the company he was trying to work for to give him a chance via interview. They manually pulled him off the list. He killed the interview. He got a job in 3 weeks (SO FAST!) from applying to moving out to California.

As you can tell- college degree is important, but so is networking...
See and your experiences are different than mine. Obviously some people hold having a degree higher than other people do. And it definitely depends on the type of job. Thats why I outlined job examples. From my experience its almost always who you know over what you know. Having a college degree will always benefit you. Its always better to have one, but my post was trying to touch on the fact that it seems like now it doesnt hurt as much NOT having a degree.
 
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See and your experiences are different than mine. Obviously some people hold having a degree higher than other people do. And it definitely depends on the type of job. Thats why I outlined job examples. From my experience its almost always who you know over what you know. Having a college degree will always benefit you. Its always better to have one, but my post was trying to touch on the fact that it seems like now it doesnt hurt as much NOT having a degree.

I get what your saying, but most of the jobs you mentioned are entrepreneurial. I think this is where I disconnected from your post because there is a difference between being the boss and being the employee whatever you do. I totally get where you are coming from now.

No degree doesn't hurt if you have your own business with contacts and showcasing your specialized skill.
 
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Right. But at what point do you pass the blame from the institution to the individual? If it clearly says 501c3, why are they submitting paperwork that does not fit the criteria? If they are informed enough as to what the requirements are to participate in the program, then they should know their organization is not a 501c3. If they thought they can fly under the radar for a bit, they shouldn't blame the government for getting caught - even if it is a little later.

So there's actually 3 types of employers that qualify, 1) government 2) 501c3 and 3) "public service organizations"

#3 is the squishy one that nobody seems to understand what it means. The Vietnam Vets of America is a 501c19, which is kinda like a 501c3 except they can do political lobbying and advocacy for causes, aka lobby for higher funding for Vietnam Veterans through the VA.

Truly it can be confusing to a well informed person what qualifies and what doesn't. Clearly 501c3s and the government do, but I can see why the ABA and VVA lawyers thought they were eligible. Under the public service org definition is "public interest law" and they were arguing that's what they were doing.

I think the core issue is that the only way you're safe in going for PSLF is at a 501c3 or govt. Another one is how the heck does FedLoan servicing not have a dang list of all the qualifying employers and they just check people off of a list that the Dept of Ed said they were cool with? Really blows my mind at how bad these folks are at managing anything.

Also a point is if you're going to Texas A&M yes don't rely on loan forgiveness bc your debt to income ratio will be around 1. Go to NYU, Tufts, Penn, etc. and these forgiveness programs are literally your only choice.
 
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To help everyone get an education. I think Germany's model is awesome - free education for everyone (well, maybe there is a slight fee of like $500/year), but people do deserve the chance to get an education and achieve their dreams.
Oh yeah? Is it really that awesome to get "free stuff"? In the US, the average GDP per capita is $56,115. In Euro, that is $52,665. So, let's look at income tax on those numbers in the US vs. Germany.

In the US, if you make $56,115 - you will pay 25% of your income to taxes.
In Germany, if you make that same amount ($52,665 Euros), you will pay 42% of your income to taxes. But it would be harder to make that much money in Germany because their GDP is $15,000 per year lower than ours.

No thanks, I'd rather pay for my education once, then have have the hell taxed out of me for the rest of my life. Germany has also only recently had "free college", and it is already experiencing a quality decline with budget cuts. Because, you know, everything a government runs is susceptible to budget cuts - and it also puts more responsibility into the hands of incompetent (and corrupt) politicians.
 
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Oh yeah? Is it really that awesome to get "free stuff"? In the US, the average GDP per capita is $56,115. In Euro, that is $52,665. So, let's look at income tax on those numbers in the US vs. Germany.

In the US, if you make $56,115 - you will pay 25% of your income to taxes.
In Germany, if you make that same amount ($52,665 Euros), you will pay 42% of your income to taxes. But it would be harder to make that much money in Germany because their GDP is $15,000 per year lower than ours.

No thanks, I'd rather pay for my education once, then have have the hell taxed out of me for the rest of my life. Germany has also only recently had "free college", and it is already experiencing a quality decline with budget cuts. Because, you know, everything a government runs is susceptible to budget cuts - and it also puts more responsibility into the hands of incompetent (and corrupt) politicians.

Very important points - hadn't heard about those budget cuts. Thank you for sharing.
 
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Does anyone know of good resources (books, videos, blogs, etc.) that relate to the financial aspects of dental practice? I go to my local library about 3x per week blindly hoping they will have something on dental practice management or the business side of dentistry. Instead they have 800 books on how to run a food truck haha.

General business book suggestions are also welcome.

Lots of great podcasts on iTunes and readings on Dental Town
 
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Does anyone know of good resources (books, videos, blogs, etc.) that relate to the financial aspects of dental practice? I go to my local library about 3x per week blindly hoping they will have something on dental practice management or the business side of dentistry. Instead they have 800 books on how to run a food truck haha.

General business book suggestions are also welcome.

Second what @aggietxdent wrote. DT is a fantastic resource. Highly recommend you sign up for a membership there.
 
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A free market would not let someone borrow $20,000 a year to study "Taxidermy in the New Genderless World" at Podunk State Community College. Universities would be forced to control costs to align with the economic reality of their students, or shut down. That should be enough to light a fire underneath them.
While the student loan debate is nuanced, I do agree that colleges could get students out much quicker and cheaper by cutting administrative costs and classes unnecessary for their major. Is it likely they'll do so with unlimited federal funds available? No.
 
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Pretty amazing thread. Wish I knew more about this before I started school. Fortunately I was at a state school, but the loans still topped $300k, not including the $45k of interest. Looking back, I wish I had not taken full loans for the cost of attendance.

My advice would be to limit your debt as much as possible. Live like a dental student now so you can eventually live like a dentist. Those people going to private schools, I'm sorry.

If you are a female wanting to start a family and work part time, seriously consider only attending the state programs.

Best of luck to all.
 
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Lots of updates since I published this. Trump is going to try to repeal REPAYE, PAYE, IBR, and PSLF for everyone taking out loans after July 1, 2018. A lot of people on this forum will fall into that category. People with older loans get grandfathered in.

What does that mean for you? That makes the income driven repayment options about 30% more expensive. It makes private refinancing a lot more appealing.

Another thing I'm trying to convince the student loan refinancing companies of is to offer direct lending to dental students to replace grad plus loans at a 7% interest and 4.27% origination fee with a private loan from like CommonBond or Sofi for 5% with no origination fee. You might replace Grad Plus with private loans in dental school then refinance the rest once you have a higher income.

Right now the only companies willing to do this are if you have parents willing to cosign. Still decent way to save money if your parents don't mind having their name on the loan docs.
 
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Wow, so will people who are not yet on repayment plans be grandfathered in, or will only those in active repayment be safe?

Based on the proposal that's been released by the White House, any loans after that date (07/01/2018, ie second year of dental school for anyone going next year) would not have any of the best repayment programs on the table.

So that's going to be a huge backdoor price increase because the Trump plan is 12.5% of your income for 30 years, not 10% for 20 like PAYE. He's basically creating the 30 year mortgage but for student debt. At least folks can become aware of this.
 
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