rsadambrown

"Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you."

Hi John,

Thanks for taking the time to do this. My question is, with the popular vote polling showing the race as close as it is, how much of a factor do you think the weather in swing states will determine this election? e.g. Particularly in those affected by Sandy, with power outages affecting electronic voting machines and flooded areas closing polling locations?

Hi personofdoom,

As a StL resident, I actually went down and helped test the ANW course this year when they were here in April. It was a lot of fun, and it was awesome to watch the StL episode that just aired.

Question - Do you think you'll try again next season? What are you going to do to train in the meantime?

I noticed you said upper body was your weakpoint ... look into rock climbing. I got into it here in StL and practically everyone of us that were out testing the course that day were rock climbers. I used to struggle with pull ups but can knock them out no problem now.

Cheers!

Hi Andrew,

First off, thanks for doing this AMA. Sorry for the long winded post below, but this topic is something that strikes me (and many others) very close to home.

More often than not, any news regarding student loan restructuring, loan forgiveness, loan consolidation, etc. are often referring to new loans being issued, or current college students. Having graduated in 2007, most of my loans were issued prior to any of this and I often find myself reading news, getting excited, and then being let down.

I often attribute my current financial situation (like so many others) to my lack of knowledge about what exactly I was signing up for when I was 17 years old and enrolling in my freshman year of college. Taking out federal loans, and one private student loan (which, unbeknownst to me at the time, cannot be consolidated), I'm now paying almost as much as rent, in student loan repayments. And that's the minimum amount each month.

My questions are:

1) What can be done now to warn high school seniors / incoming college students to the dire circumstances regarding student loans. Anytime I have the opportunity, I preach about going to a local community college for general education requirements and then transferring those credits to a 4 year school. Saves money and gives you time to think about what you want to major in!

2) What hope does the population of post-graduation, student loan sufferers have to get out of debt? For me, my IBR plan is manageable for my consolidated federal loan, but then I have to pay my private student loan payment on top of that since they cannot be consolidated.

So often I think about how much more I could contribute to our economy if I wasn't writing a $450 check each month to Sallie Mae. (Sorry, Navient now.) And I know (1) I'm not the only one, and (2) there are others with a much higher burden than my own.

Thanks again Andrew. Cheers.

No explanation needed - good luck training and keep getting after it!