Taken up in this blog:
- Social Security
- Retirement Readiness
- Paying cash -- is it always best?
- Parent borrowing -- it costs more than you may think
Yes, your social security benefit can be, and will be reduced in order to satisfy a delinquent education loan balance.
There is another interesting survey-based indication that, across three generations from baby-boomers to millenials, people indicate they plan to continue working in their retirement years. Fifty-percent and more say they do not look forward to idleness as part of old age. They want to work. The follow-up question is, however, do you want to have that choice, or do you want to be forced to continue working in order to make ends meet?
Social Security is not a retirement income. However, for those who plan well, that universal benefit does provide an irreducible minimum, a floor if you will, and a hedge against inflation for a diminishing nest egg as the years roll on.
A "must-know" fact for parents and grandparents who are borrowing money, or co-signing loans to help fund their children's educations, is that most of those loans are federal guaranteed. What that means is the federal government can, and will attach your assets, including your Social Security benefits in order to satisfy the debt.
Succeed Where It Counts, Inc. advises against borrowing for college, beyond the Federal Student Aid opportunity. FSA loans are limited to $27,000 over the course of undergraduate studies (that ceiling may rise by an additional $4,500 for some students). For students who earn their degrees, and who secure employment in a career-quality job, that is manageable -- in the $250-$300 per month range, depending on the interest rates.
And that brings us to another subject -- student debt and the expectation of loan forgiveness -- for our next blog.