Student Debt Burdened Them, So They Moved Abroad and Stopped Paying

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/business/student-loans-abroad-default.html?unlocked_article_code=1.YlA.veRR.QsN2zV4-5KgI&smid=url-share

Student Debt Burdened Them, So They Moved Abroad and Stopped Paying

A record number of student loan borrowers are in delinquency and default. Some are making the drastic decision to leave the country and abandon their loans.

Amanda Lynn Tully spent her teenage years as a ward of the State of Colorado and believed a college degree was her ticket to a better life.

So, when she graduated in 2017 with a master’s degree in historic preservation from the University of Oregon, $65,000 in federal student loans and no job offers in the conservation field, she felt misled.

“I was never financially stable because I was never taught to be financially stable,” Ms. Tully, 37, said.

Less than a year after graduating, Ms. Tully made a drastic decision: She moved to Prague, where she had completed an internship, and defaulted on her loans. She hasn’t made a payment in over seven years.

_____

Ms. Tully was on an income-based repayment plan, which allows many borrowers to have their remaining debt forgiven after 20 years of making qualifying payments. She was paying $60 per month when she defaulted. This amount, to many, may seem manageable. But for her, it remained psychologically burdensome.

[dalton99a]

1. Kick

[PeaceWave]

2. Has money to move to and live in Prague, but a $2/day student loan payment is "psychologically burdensome?"

Per the story, this student was on an income-based repayment plan, which would have forgiven her remaining debt after 20 years of making qualifying payments. $60/month works out to $720/year. Twenty years of such payments means she would have only repaid $14,400 of her $65,000 in student loans. But, in her mind, the better choice was to default and flee to Prague?

[Ilsa]

4. Yeah, I don't think she did the math, and therefore

didn't realize what a good deal she appeared to be getting.

[MichMan]

15. You know how most people react to avoid debt becoming "psychologically burdensome"

They pay it off as soon as possible, or don't obligate themselves to it in the first place

[MichMan]

3. Zuniga attended Princeton for 4 years and never had to pay anything for tuition, or rent, food & other living expenses

Yet, when he found out the living expenses (not the tuition) counted as taxable income, he felt burdened enough to go to China and stop paying.

Not thinking he will get much sympathy from those who have to get up every day for work, so they can pay rent and buy food. A hell of a lot more $$ than the $11 a day he was asked to pay to be housed and fed.

[Celerity]

5. Moreover, the foreign earned income exclusion often allows federal student loan borrowers who live abroad and earn less

than $130,000 (for the 2025 tax year) to pay $0 per month under an income-driven repayment plan, he said, recommending this path over defaulting.

snip

She made a really foolish choice to default.

[Srkdqltr]

6. So, she went to collage for $ 65000 and could not find a job. There is something wrong with that.

[JI7]

9. It says she couldn't find a job in that specific field

[Srkdqltr]

11. Yes, college charges thousands of dollars for classes for jobs that don't exist or are very scarce.

There is something wrong with that.

[Greg_In_SF]

13. Indeed

she could have chosen a better degree. Historic preservation jobs do not pay well. Less than $60,000 per year with a master's degree in historic preservation is about 2/3rds of the average master's degree salary.

Plumbers, electricians and welders make more than that without $65,000 degrees.

[MichMan]

14. If only there was some tool to research the employment landscape and median salaries for various college majors

in order to determine if borrowing large sums of money for a given degree makes sense.

Oh wait, there is. I think it's called the internet.

[JI7]

17. If people have interest in it I guess it's fine. But if people are paying to get a specific job

they should do the research to see what are the chances of getting that type of job and how much it would pay.

She said she could not get that specific job but i'm sure there are many other jobs that are related or even places that just want to see you earned a degree that would hire. But it would not be that specific job she wants.

[W_HAMILTON]

7. Trump and his Republicans sued and then dismantled Biden's SAVE repayment plan.

Biden's SAVE plan was a godsend to many borrowers -- including myself. The MAGA-hijacked Supreme Court ruled against it and Trump's billionaire department head has made quick work to kick everyone off and into higher repayment plans immediately this year, even though they had until 2028 to do so.

Just another example of how different the two parties really are.

Fuck Republicans and fuck those handful on the left that thought they were somehow doing people like me a favor by protesting against Kamala/Biden because they didn't think their plans went far enough. You fucked us over just as much as Republicans did.

[area51]

8. Hmm,

I believe the Czech republic has universal healthcare, which we're likely to never get in the US. Perhaps not too rash a decision to move there after all.

[Greg_In_SF]

12. She is not eligible

She will have to purchase health insurance.

Non-EU foreigners staying in the Czech Republic for more than 90 days must obtain comprehensive health insurance with a minimum coverage of EUR 400,000, covering necessary and urgent care, including repatriation and emergency hospital care. Without a European Health Insurance Card, foreigners are not entitled to free medical care

[JI7]

10. How common are these stories ? This just seems like it would people to be less supportive

of debt relief or other assistance programs .

[WarGamer]

16. No one bothered to tell her that her Degree would be financially useless in her future?

Some counselor needed to talk to her.

That's kind of degree you get when someone else is paying tuition...

[MichMan]

18. Someone with enough intelligence to get a master's degree should be smart enough to research it themselves

Just a few clicks on the internet would have sufficed.

Someone else is paying the tuition now that she defaulted; future taxpayers will be stuck with it when it gets added to the national debt.

[Xolodno]

20. It wouldn't surprise me if the counselor did the opposite and said she could find...

...viable employment in that field. Just didn't say how hard it was to do so.

For example, archeologists may be on a project for a couple of years, but once done, they are giving tours to tourists somewhere else to earn income. Until they find a new project.

Universities often tell half truths or down right out lie about the viability of a job market after obtaining a degree on a number of disciplines. Administrations want butts in seats so they get the money. They also pad requirements to graduate to keep you longer. How else is the chancellor supposed to increase his pay, have money for the limo that takes him to that rented private jet, etc. to an education seminar in the Bahama's.

Revoking the ability for bankruptcy to discharge school loans and guaranteeing for the government to pay for it if it went into default didn't just set up a bunch of non-accredited degree's with private companies for profit, it got public schools in on the action as well. If there was a penalty to the school and bankruptcy laws loosened up, most private schools would have evaporated and public universities would have quickly cut some un-viable programs. Changing the bankruptcy law didn't fix the problem, it made things worse. Have to think Gingrich and his ilk knew that and set themselves up to profit from it.

Let's face it, someone eighteen (give or take a year) is not going to make the best decisions while their hormones are still raging while being told they can make a living, just not doing what. And some programs should be cast into community college for those who do have an interest and may want to pursue it at a later date or side hobby.

I'm all for student debt relief, but I'm a bigger proponent of student scam debt relief and reform. Simply making the terms easier to pay doesn't fix the problem, it's a band-aid.

I've seen a few stories like this already, and suspect more will follow. They may end up in a trade to earn income later, but that debt burden follows you until the end. I've noticed false equivalencies on here and other places that they get paid less in another country. Are they? People often forget to account how much that debt eats their income, so in reality, they are actually making more abroad.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

19. NYT propaganda working as designed, I see

[Skittles]

21. yes

examples that can be picked apart