If your spouse has student loans, would you make that debt part of your financial debt upon marriage and work with the spouse to help pay it off? Would it make a difference if it was a few thousand dollars, vs. > 200K?
Re: Student Loans
Personally, as a hardly employed student, I would completely understand and sympathise with my spouse. I feel like marriage is a joint commitment where you share in the other person's happiness and sorrows in good times and bad. I would therefore like to help them pay off their debt and if they have a good relationship with my parents i would ask my parents to help. 200K is a crazy amount ( I can't believe the make you pay so much in the US. Here only international students pay so much). If both husband and wife work and they contribute a little to the amount it should be paid off in about 5-6 years. ( hope it doesnt freak you out that i am posting so much on your threads. have a presentation tomorrow and i am procrastinating..gs is my new place of procrastination).
Re: Student Loans
Why wouldn't you help them pay off? That would be the most selfish thing if you don't. By this logic wife shouldn't pay for the mortgage/rent because it's not on her name. Lastly, what's up with 200k loan? Did that guy spent 20 years in university?
Re: Student Loans
Why wouldn't you help them pay off? That would be the most selfish thing if you don't. By this logic wife shouldn't pay for the mortgage/rent because it's not on her name. Lastly, what's up with 200k loan? Did that guy spent 20 years in university?
No you don't need to go to uni for 20 years to get such a debt in the US. High profile courses like medicine, law, MBA cost as much even with 4-5 years. It is same cost as an international student studying in the UK or Aus. We are lucky in UK and Aus that degrees for local students are maximum 40-50 000 and that we only have to pay once we start earning. But it is not same elsewhere.
Re: Student Loans
100K is avg for most grad degrees, except PHD's which are financed differently and because of supply-demand ratio of applicants, many places will pay for your phd.
Add to this debt from undergrad education, if you had to take out loans. Not everyone gets full scholarship, and people take out loans for living $ if they live away from home.
So easy to rack up 200K in debt. Many of these kids in the desi community come from wealthy families anyway, and so a lot of the fees get paid by family, so not sure what the avg desi debt is.
Re: Student Loans
100K is avg for most grad degrees, except PHD's which are financed differently and because of supply-demand ratio of applicants, many places will pay for your phd.
Add to this debt from undergrad education, if you had to take out loans. Not everyone gets full scholarship, and people take out loans for living $ if they live away from home.
So easy to rack up 200K in debt. Many of these kids in the desi community come from wealthy families anyway, and so a lot of the fees get paid by family, so not sure what the avg desi debt is.
Really. I think that is really unfair. Really ripping off students who don't have relatives to pay it off. I hope there is some sort of fee help scheme which helps grads pay it off. If both the couple are under this debt that makes it nearly half a million dollars. :/
Re: Student Loans
Why wouldn't you help them pay off? That would be the most selfish thing if you don't. *By this logic wife shouldn't pay for the mortgage/rent because it's not on her name. *
I would find it a bit odd if the wife's name was not on the mortgage (unless it was taken out before he married her).. Would would a husband do that?
Re: Student Loans
I would find it a bit odd if the wife's name was not on the mortgage (unless it was taken out before he married her).. Would would a husband do that?
The husband could have bought it before marriage or maybe the parents bought them a house as a wedding gift which is maybe mostly paid off but not completely.
Re: Student Loans
Lastly, what's up with 200k loan? Did that guy spent 20 years in university?
It's very common for doctors here to have close to $200K debt by the time they complete their medical school, residency, and fellowships. Of course, it's not unusual to have $60 or more loans from undergrad too. So yea......if you look a the # of years spent studying starting at 18, most doctors in high paying specialties spend about 12-15 years in school.
Re: Student Loans
The husband could have bought it before marriage or maybe the parents bought them a house as a wedding gift which is maybe mostly paid off but not completely.
A husband who won't put his wife's name on the deeds of the house implies he doesn't trust her (in most cases imo).. There are exceptions when it might not be pratical and so on but why would a husband not want his wife to have that security..
Re: Student Loans
Hmm. I thought there were a lot if scholarship opportunities in USA as compared to UK. I will be in university next year, Inshallah so I have to apply this December. 4-6 years in university with an average tuition fee of £9000 per year (£9000 is the maximum I think). Put in bursary and a scholarship if I manage to keep my current grades till the end of my course than I may end up paying a lot less. You just have to look and task with people.
Re: Student Loans
If you marry someone then their debt becomes yours. I think even in west they do that. How can you share your life with someone if you dont own their problems.
On the side note you also inherit your spouse's wealth, so it is only fair if you own their debts as well.
One of my coworkers used to pay for his GF's tution fees and he was white american. He then married her and supported her all the way.
PS. I have also seen divorce cases where wife demanded the money back which she spent of her husband's studies. But we are not talking about divorces.
Re: Student Loans
Her income. Her debt.
Thousands of $$ of debt is a potential deal breaker.
Re: Student Loans
If you marry someone then their debt becomes yours. I think even in west they do that. How can you share your life with someone if you dont own their problems.
On the side note you also inherit your spouse's wealth, so it is only fair if you own their debts as well.
One of my coworkers used to pay for his GF's tution fees and he was white american. He then married her and supported her all the way.
PS. I have also seen divorce cases where wife demanded the money back which she spent of her husband's studies. But we are not talking about divorces.
Thanks for the reply Kakaji. I appreciate it :) You should make your perspective more known on the life thread as well :) Was that divorce case involving a desi couple? I think your answer matches what I expect to happen as well. True about the wealth part as well. I think desi guys are pretty open minded these days. I don't have facts or figures but from chatting to friends most are cool with being flexible about things like their wife working. From your experience of desis, like the indian ones, do you find most are open minded about sharing financial responsibilities or supporting their wives to work, whatever hours they need to etc? Or do you feel like there are still lot of restrictions? Do you believe many have similar beliefs to you when it comes to student loans?
Re: Student Loans
Her income. Her debt.
Thousands of $$ of debt is a potential deal breaker.
dhuk batne se kam hota hai..sukh batne se barta hai. as long as that is not the reason for marriage i.e to share debt i see no harm in it.
Re: Student Loans
dhuk batne se kam hota hai..sukh batne se barta hai. as long as that is not the reason for marriage i.e to share debt i see no harm in it.
Why not? You may have just lost the financial ability to buy a house because of her 200k$ debt.
Re: Student Loans
A loan 200k$ on education and then being financial burden on someone else is non-sense.
If someone spends this much on education, then she better have a good enough salary to pay it off herself.
Re: Student Loans
Hmm. I thought there were a lot if scholarship opportunities in USA as compared to UK. I will be in university next year, Inshallah so I have to apply this December. 4-6 years in university with an average tuition fee of £9000 per year (£9000 is the maximum I think). Put in bursary and a scholarship if I manage to keep my current grades till the end of my course than I may end up paying a lot less. You just have to look and task with people.
but I thought the pay back was different in Uk, like you pay some percentage off your income each month sort of like a Tax? i
Re: Student Loans
If you marry someone then their debt becomes yours. I think even in west they do that.
On the side note you also inherit your spouse's wealth, so it is only fair if you own their debts as well.
Not if that debt/wealth came BEFORE the marriage. Income/other assets and debt become community property starting from the day the marriage papers are signed. Any debt and/or wealth incurred prior to the marriage remains separate. So the husband could be held liable for the wife's debt if the loan was taken out AFTER they got married (and vice versa).
Re: Student Loans
Why not? You may have just lost the financial ability to buy a house because of her 200k$ debt.
Well I guess if it was the other way around and the guy was in 200K debt he might want his wife to help contribute to it or he might not want that to be a deal breaker. While having a house for children may be important later it might not be important right now. I think if you love someone you'd want to reduce the amount of stress they might be under because of debt. Besides, when you're debt free and she starts earning well, after being supported by her spouse, you might be able to buy a bigger house then you could with 1 solo income. With her income she can buy things both of you can share. When you marry someone you together promise to take care of finances, home and other life problems, to share in joy and sadness as well as to be best friends of each other. That's what I think.