7 Loans in 6 Years!

Coming to you again exactly 1 year since my last post, 6 Loans in 5 Years! The debt payoff continues as I’ve now paid off 7 out of 10* loans!

This number* is usually 9, but last year’s loan was my car loan, not a student loan (which is what this journey is primarily for). Therefore, I’m updating this to 10!

I officially have 3 student loans left before I’m debt free! At least for the time being 😉

Hopefully my husband and I will be purchasing a house at some point, so we won’t technically be debt free, but I’m taking a win when there’s a win. Paying off my student loans has always been a goal of mine, and getting this far in just 6 years is something to be proud of.

I’d love to believe that Student Loan Forgiveness will be passed, and that I’ll be lucky enough to benefit from it, but I’ve accepted that probably won’t be the case. While I am in agreement that you should pay back loans you’ve taken out, hence why I have made such strides in doing so, there are also so many things we could be doing to lessen the burden it causes.

The total amount of student loan debt in America, as of July this year, is $1.753 Trillion. That is crazy. We can’t even fathom how much that actually is.

One of the biggest issues with student loan debt is the interest rates. There are people who have paid thousands of dollars towards their loans that haven’t made a single dent in the principal balance, because all of the money they’ve paid has gone strictly to the interest. This leads to a revolving door of debt that they can never get a grasp on. With student debt being the second-highest consumer debt, next to mortgages, this is why there is a student debt crisis.

Oh, and don’t forget the cost of living increase, the lack of minimum wage increase, and the fact that people can barely make it by with basic necessities, let alone trying to pay off debt. There are only 20% of people that’ve paid off their debt.

Over half of Americans support loan forgiveness of $10,000 per borrower. Just under that support forgiveness of $50,000. An argument could be made that $10k per borrower wouldn’t even put a dent in the total, but if that’s the case, what’s the harm in doing it?

Before there’s an uproar, or this becomes a political discussion, there are things we could do to actively help this crisis without giving any money away.

In my opinion:

1. Make education affordable.
   • The point of getting a higher education is typically so you have the knowledge to do harder jobs. Sure, you ideally also get higher pay having a degree, but some jobs cannot be done without one. Would you trust a doctor without a degree?
   • The average cost of tuition is $38,270 per year. If you get a 4 year degree, you’re walking out with a minimum of $153,080 in debt. According to ZipRecruiter, the average salary of a college graduate is only $44,512. You’re barely making more than what you paid for your education.
   • The cost of college has more than doubled in the 21st century.
   • In a time where there are a lot of online classes are being taught online, there’s also an argument here for why the cost is higher when students are actually receiving less.
2. Remove interest rates.
   • As I said before, a good portion of the debt crisis is contributed to interest rates. During COVID, and for quite some time after, all student loan debt interest was on hold.
   • There is no reason we can’t make this a permanent decision. Make people pay back what they’ve borrowed, but without interest. At least this way, you get back what you gave. This alone, I think would make a tremendous difference for people.
3. Work to actually educate students on what it means to take out a loan
   • There are discussions every day on why we learn about the Pythagorean Theorem in school but not about taxes.
   • Students are usually 18 when they’re signing papers to take out loans for education. Given that our education system doesn’t usually have classes regarding debt, money, etc, how could we expect 18 year old’s to know about the burden they are taking on by doing this? If you say their parents, you’d be wrong. Many parents don’t have these conversations with their kids, and many also are not fully aware of the burden either.
   • If you sat these kids and their parents down and laid the numbers out for them, I could almost guarantee there would be a huge drop in those pursuing a college education. Allow people to make informed decisions by actually informing them.

I also believe there are a good number of people who don’t know that forgiveness already exists for certain professions. If you’re a teacher or work for the government, for example, you qualify for loan forgiveness.

I could go on and on about this, but point is, there is work that could be done. Whether you’re in agreement or not of loan forgiveness, I *think* we could all agree on what I’ve laid out above. That being said, let’s get back to my situation personally.

Currently, my student loan balance is down to about $12.2K. I have 3 loans remaining, with varying amounts and interests rates. I’ll be working on paying down my biggest loan next since that has the highest interest rate. I’m hoping I’ll be able to continue and have that loan paid off by this time next year.

If I can continue this trend, I will remain on track to be debt free by the end of 2027. Fingers crossed I can make it happen!

As always, thank you for reading! Make sure you subscribe so you can stay tuned for next year’s update on my progress.

Until next time!