<p>Consolation - </p>
<p>“The only way to meet it is either to borrow against our home equity or to cash in 401K/IRA money at a huge penalty. (We have no pensions to lose, and we have not been able to contribute to our retirement savings for about a decade, due to unfortunate circumstances.)”</p>
<p>Have you looked at the federal PLUS loans? They are currently at 8.5; some banks offer a percent interest decrease if payments are automatically deducted from checking/savings. The interest isn’t as good as you may be able to get on a home equity line, but they are a bit ‘safer’ in case of familial disaster. I will probably do a PLUS loan this year instead of tapping my HELOC again.</p>