My Student Loan Debt: Part I

During Easter dinner, I had a great conversation with my nephew. He’s seventeen and discussions of college are fully underway. Part of these discussions revolve around student loans. Having just paid off my student loan debt, I had a lot of insights I wanted to share with him. Frankly, I didn’t want him to make the same mistakes I did and I wanted to give him the bigger picture of how student loan debt can play out once you are in the real world. I figured I would share these with you as well in hopes that it will help someone else.

Growing Up

In order to provide a little perspective, I will have to go way back. I came from a blue collar family where I was the youngest of four children. No one in my immediate family had ever gone to college or even taken college level courses. At the time, I was also not aware of many cousins, aunts or uncles going to college either. Perhaps only a handful? All of my older siblings went right out into the world to make their way. I, however, always new I wanted to go to college because everything I wanted to be when I grew up required a college degree.

Money was an interesting subject when I was growing up. Actually, it was a non-existent subject. Paychecks and bills were discussed behind the closed door of my parents’ bedroom. Bills were paid with cash or with cashier’s checks. When we went out to eat, the bill was discussed by my parents en français and the tip was as well. Savings, debt, credit scores and pensions were not discussed in front of the children- even the adult children. 401Ks were not even a thing back then.

The one thing I knew about money was that if I wanted to go to college, it was on me. Back then, there were no 529 accounts and certainly no secret stash of cash that would magically appear upon my graduation. Additionally, my parents would not provide me with their tax returns or their social security numbers for the FAFSA. My parents were of a different generation and I understood that completely. Even though I hate the saying: “It was what it was”. It really was and I accepted it.

My Early College Experience

I started off my college career at the local University where I completed a year and a half completely on scholarship. During my first try at college, I found myself confused as to what path I should be on in terms of career. Before wasting any more money, I withdrew. I got married, had my son and otherwise tried to figure out what I really wanted to do.

When my son was three, I felt the urge to go back to school and finally complete my degree. Assisting at a daycare and waitressing at a local Italian restaurant was hard work and yet I barely made the bills every month. I needed to go back to school and I felt driven like never before.

I applied and was accepted to a private University that came with a premium price. This was not the local University I had originally attended. That University was public and much more reasonably priced. Despite the premium price, this University was willing to give me lots of financial aid so that I could attend. They built this beautiful new Graduate building and my plan was to attend graduate school right after my bachelors. Since I already had a year and a half of credits, I graduated with my bachelors degree in only three years.

A month before graduation, the University closed the Graduate program they had just launched. My class was supposed to be the first Graduate class. I was devastated. We were given the option to attend a Graduate program as reciprocity in northern NH or in Boston. The University knew they had done us wrong and so they made arrangements for all of us to be accepted into either of the other Graduate programs. Since I had a family to care for, I accepted my Bachelors and entered the work force I put my student loan on forbearance.

To Be Continued…

***Since this is a pretty long post and I want to add a lot of detail, please check back for part two next week!