Hope

In light of the Supreme Court decision, some hope. I was on both the IDR and PSLF programmes (you have to be on an income-driven plan before or at least while you're in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness programme]. I was on the IDR programmes for most of my adult life, being underemployed as I have always been [as I librarian I was always part-time and had to get 1-2 additional jobs to make ends meet, and my current job, while I love it, only requires a high school education and I have bachelor's and master's degrees, but the master's was in a field difficult to get a job in within my area, something I did not know when I took out the loans, and I had obligations to stay here.] I was able to get my loans forgiven under the expanded PLSF requirements during the pandemic due to my work in non-profits. I would urge you to see if you qualify for either of these plans or the Teacher Forgiveness one. IDR has fewer qualifications but takes decades. PSLF is back to normal in terms of qualifications, but they've taken a lot of steps to 'fix' it as an NPR article a few years ago exposed it as a sham at the time (people were paying for years without their payments being counted, for example, with very few loans forgiven--that has been rectified, and it's part of the reason the programme was temporarily expanded.} Anyway, even with the decision by the Court, there is hope.

3 ways federal student loan borrowers can have their debt forgiven—without the Supreme Court

In shock

March 31st is a recurring important day in my life. In 1992, it was the day I found out my divorce was final, freeing me from a very bad marriage. In 1997, I was laid off from a job I loved as a librarian after 20 years, which would be very sad except they asked me back in another capacity a few weeks later, and I still work there, someplace with a wonderful mission with people who feel like family. So it wasn't a sad ending, but a transition, although it felt sad at the time.

Fast forward to today, 2023. I just got a notice from MOHELA, the student loan servicer my account has been transferred to because I applied under the temporary limited waiver of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness programme that after applying credits for all necessary payments, I have fulfilled the programme's requirements and my loans have been forgiven. I thought it was a spam email, so I went to the website to verify. My balance is $0. All $220,667 was forgiven. My student loans have hung over my head since I was 17 years old. I struggled to make payments, and over the years my loans only grew with capitalised interest, bringing the amount owed up by almost $100,000. I was on income-contingent plans that never made a dent in the amount owed. Now, because of working for all that time in a qualified nonprofit and credits plus the required amount of payments, they're gone. I'm in shock. I thought I'd be paying till I was on Social Security or my death. I'm incredibly relieved. Now I just need to know if Kentucky follows the federal guidelines on taxes (in which case, no taxes will be due) or not (in which case I may be in a world of hurt next year come tax time). But I'm not going to worry about that right now. I'm going to be happy at the moment. This is probably the best birthday present in recent memory.