9.13.2011

Student Loans

I worked in financial aid for 10 years before I became a stay at home mom. It was a field that I kind of fell into and ended up really liking. Bret likes to joke that this experience was preparation to manage the mountain of student loan debt that we have.

For 12 years Bret had student loans that we kept in deferment for the majority of that time making payments when we could. Undergrad and med school were not cheap even with all of the scholarship money that he got. I too have some student loan debt from undergrad and from my MBA. Each time we took out a loan we knew that it was for things we needed (ie tuition and books) and we worked pretty hard to only take out what we needed.

Still we had the think about it later mentality because we knew that eventually Bret would have a job that would make it all worth while. Bret has now had officially two pay checks. On the other hand we have made two house payments also. The scary thing is that our house payment is only slightly more than our student loan payment each month. We have other debt that I would really like to get paid off quickly but then we have a house to furnish too. My background is finance. Debt is not something I am crazy about and I long for the days when we will be essentially debt free. By my calculations it will only be a few years for this to happen. We have a plan and I have to have patience. Still I feel pretty overwhelmed as I write checks and realize that it will take time to pay these loans off. I remember what I thought about when we took the loans out...we needed the money, we used the money, this is what student loans are for.

Please excuse me while I go drop some more money off in the mail.

1 comment:

The Websters said...

You can do it! I'm cheering for you. Hopefully you can sell lots of stuff on etsy =)