A bit off brand, but a topic that is very much on my mind as the news and opinions swirl about the White House’s recent announcement for some student debt forgiveness. As owners of student debit, you can rest assured I have been paying attention. What REALLY gets under my skin in relationship to this topic is the assumptions that are made by some about those who might benefit from student debit relief efforts. OUR FAMILY could benefit from student debit relief, not just in the short term but moving forward as a second generation is adventuring into their secondary education careers. For our family, what is often treated like a hockey puck to be slapped back and forth between political parties, significant student debit relief efforts could have a concrete, lasting impact.
As a high school student of the 90s, there was absolutely no question that if you wanted to create a “better” life for yourself with endless professional opportunities, heading off to college was the way to go. Did either Scott or I have a college fund waiting for us to help with that pursuit? No. Did we need financing to cover costs not covered by grants, scholarships, and our own contributions from working as students? Yes. Did Scott decide to pursue his MBA before paying off the balance of his undergrad debit? Yes. Did we, as a young family with 2 full-time working adults need to use financing to make that a possibility? Yes. Has our education served us well professionally and financially? Mostly yes. Would I go back and do it differently knowing now what we didn’t know then? Nope.
I was lucky in that I graduated college with lower than average student debit because of grants and scholarships I received that were a significant part of covering my overall educational expense. Still, it took over 20 years, and the infusion of the 2020 pandemic stimulus payments, for me to pay off my loan in full. In the end I repaid about double the amount I originally financed.
Unfortunately for us, Scott did not have a large chunk of his educational expenses covered by grants or scholarships. His total expenses have been significantly higher not only because of his advanced degree, but because his first year of college was spent at a private institution whose annual cost was much higher than the state school from which we both ultimately graduated. Having had his Department of Education provided loans transferred (not by our choice) through a number of loan service providers, and following the need for several hardship forbearance periods (such when he lost his job due to the 2008 recession 1 MONTH after finishing his MBA and was unable to find ANY job for over 9 months because he was repeated told her was simply over-qualified, especially during hard economic times), we have had fees and interest repeatedly compounded into principal. As such, the “original amount financed” listed on his loan details as you look at it today is significantly more than what he actually financed as a student.
We are fortunate that after many ups and downs financially through the first decade post college (resulting in many on-again/off-again loan payments), we have been on a steady uphill trajectory for the past dozen years. We have steadily paid on our student loan debit through the years, having re-paid tens of thousands of dollars to this point. At our current payment level (equivalent to half our monthly mortgage payment), without any additional interest factored in, the current estimate for pay off of his loans is 25 YEARS FROM NOW. (Meaning we will could be paying on those loans into our retirement years!) In the end, the total cost to us will have been over 3 TIMES what we originally financed to cover the cost of Scott’s education. The current proposed $10,000 income dependent forgiveness (which we should just barely qualify for based on our joint annual income) represents less than 10% of what we will end up having repaid to the Dept. of Ed. for Scott’s educational loans.
In the long run yes, we chose to take on the responsibility of educational debit. We at no point believed that we would NOT be responsible for repaying that debit, no different than when you take out a car loan or a mortgage. But because of how the student debt system has been structured and managed, in the end we will have paid FAR more than the assistance we originally required to get a secondary education. Tens of thousands of dollars beyond the original principal that will have been paid in interests and fees rather than being available to help fund our own daughters’ educations and our future retirement. As a parent, it is scary as hell to think about our own daughters struggling through a similar situation. We will do everything we can to make sure their educational finance stories have a happier ending because we fully understand the mental, emotional, and relationship stress that comes with what feels like never ending student debit.
I know many aspects of our student debit story are uniquely ours. But sadly it’s a story that thousands of others across our nation could tell with their own unique twists. It’s not a game to those of use who are living with significant student debit. It’s not politics to our family. It’s our life.
I know telling our story will not change the bigger picture, or the ideas of those who believe families like ours are looking to shirk our responsibilities and simply benefit from a handout. I do however hope that by telling a little bit of our story, even though you may not see our struggles from the outside, that someone else may feel a little less alone if they too find themselves feeling forever tied to the stress of living with long term student debit. You, my friend, are not alone.
I am not ashamed that we needed financial help pursuing our secondary educations. I am not ashamed that as we have diligently worked to repay that debit we have encountered hardships along the way. I am proud that through all of those hardships we have kept in sight our values and hopes. We have always chose the option to move forward to create the life we’ve wanted for our family and have resisted against allowing the stress of it all to divide us or change who we are at the core. And I will not be ashamed should we be able to benefit from some student debit relief efforts, now or in the future, knowing we have, in so many ways, already repaid (including in straight up $$$) that original assistance extended to us. We can do better America for our future learners. We can do better.
Thanks for being here friend – Jenn
Woman After... 