Student loan debt is a bear. Since graduating from college with my Master’s degree in 2006, I’ve had to slowly pay off a student loan balance of just over $38,000. Not only is paying down the loan frustrating, but navigating the student loan process is difficult. At some point my loans were consolidated and I was put on a payment plan, but I’m still not exactly sure when or how that happened. What I do know is that for the last five years, I have paid approximately $151.72 a month and my loan balance is still just over $38,000. Also during the past five years, my loan has been sold twice and now sits in the hands of the all-powerful Sallie Mae.
While I’ve been diligently paying my $151.72 a month, I have also begun stashing away money to pay down my student loan balance. Instead of paying extra every month, I decided that working hard to save up the grand total would make paying it off more rewarding. After five long years, I am proud to say that I have made enough money to pay off my student loans and, because I’ve saved enough money to pay them off, it makes the petitions to forgive student loan debt and the legislation to reduce what students owe frustrating.
I didn’t save enough money to pay off my student loan debt while taking a high-paying position. Like many working to pay off their student loans, I worked with an average salary of under $40,000 a year as a teacher. Thankfully, I taught for five years in a low-performing school so that did cut $5,000 off my total balance. When I married, my husband brought his own $50,000 worth of student loan debt (and no degree) into our marriage and a standard Navy salary. As a couple, we were not making large amounts of money, but we made a conscious decision to get out of debt.
If making our average salaries my husband and I were able to pay off over $88,000 in student loan debt over the past few years, I have a hard time believing that it is nearly impossible for the thousands paying off their student loan debt to make arrangements to tackle the debt as well. While the amount of the loans did not hit me hard in college, I was aware of what I would have to pay back and how long it would take me to do so. I signed the paperwork and bore responsibility for my debt.
The government didn’t make me get a Master’s degree and double the amount of my student loan debt – I chose to do that. And the same is true for those who have exorbitant amounts of student loan debt from schools with high tuition or multiple degrees. Through public universities, the government actually makes it fairly affordable for individuals to attend college, especially those who are willing to work while in school.
While I understand that everyone’s circumstances are different, I worked hard to save enough to pay off my student loan debt and I know others can do it too, if they are willing to make it a priority and make sacrifices. Instead of signing a petition and hoping the government will bail them out for the choices they made, those with student loan debt need to take a more proactive approach to knocking down their debt on their own.