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Not sure if this should go in education or finance, so I am posting in both:
I just calculated my student loan debt (both undergraduate and graduate school) and I owe just under $30,000.00--and that's just the principle!!!!!!!! I am feeling really freaked out right now. Someone please tell me that they owe or owed a lot more and are paying it off or have paid it off, and that it isn't the end of the world. I feel sick to my stomach.
Actually you could feel pretty good right now... my friend and her fiance both graduated from law school and owe over $100K each.
Hubby and I started out owing $38,000 for a grad program he did. We consolidated the loans (i think you need to do this before July 1st so your rate won't go up) and the first payment was due last September. The 20 year payment plan has us owing $263/month, a manageable sum.
The way to go though, as with any debt, is to pay it down more quickly, instead of buying yourself new cars, plasma tv's, etc. So far we have it down to $34,000. You can do it!! Even if it's just an extra $50 or $100 per month that you put down on your loan, it will ultimately lower the total amount of interest that you pay.
$30k is a lot or a little, all depends on what your expected income will be.
My husband stopped taking loans when he hit $50k after his first masters; paid cash for his second masters. I graduated with my B.A. and $30k, which I feel is too much to have borrowed for what my income is.
We both chose to go on 30 year repayment plans; however we have no other debt and pay extra every month, so our loans should be paid off in another 10 years (I graduated 6 years ago; my husband graduated with his second masters last year). We haven't started having kids yet and I would definitely want the loans paid off before the kids become teenagers, at the latest.
$30k for undergraduate and grad school?? That's good. You're in good shape. Concentrate paying it off and don't get sucked in to getting in more debt by buying a new car, new house, a bunch of new furniture, big trips.
The minute I read your post I thought of that book that Suze Orman came out with a while back in which she gives advice to people in their 20's. I tend to agree with her when she says that taking out loans for AN EDUCATION is the best type of debt to be in....That you are investing in your future, in the hopes of getting a decent job. I watched her giving one of her TV lectures to kids who were in college on evening, and actually considered going out and buying her book to give to my son....
---who as we speak has one more year of college to go, with student loans equally just about what you owe. (Although all the interest has been consistantly paid off each month...So he'll only owe principle.)
I know it's scary, and I can understand freeking out; I've been known to act/react/do the same thing at times! But my best advice to you is the same advice I have given my son: DO NOT get a credit card that you will only run up and regret later, look at those student loans as Suze Orman indicates: an investment in yourself and your future...
Hang in there. It will all be managable in the end...I've been there, many times!
Take gentle care,
June.
P.S. And the amount you mentioned for BOTH undergrad AND graduate school ISN'T BAD!!!
Breathe! This isn't the end of the world. You have 10 years to pay it. Do you know what the monthly payment are?
DH took out a 38,000 loan for grad school. I paid my grad school outright.
But with DH's, it has taken us 7 years to pay it off. The payments were $420 per month. We just lived with cars that weren't "hot" but got us there just fine and we lived on less.
Thank you for all of the reassuring words! I am feeling less freaked out. I just didn't think it was that much...you take a few thousand out here, and then a couple thousand the next semester, and I purposely (and stupidly) tried not to think about it, so when I added it all up--damn! Oh well...we're going to sell our condo (if it will sell in this market) live within (and hopefully beneath our means) for awhile, and just budget and pay it off. Unfortunately, we do have some credit card debt, but it isn't bad, we currently have no interest until 2008, and we're conscientious about paying it off and not accruing more debt.
Once I am done with my thesis, and have a full-time job, and things settle down, I am going to really do some research about budgeting, investing, saving for retirement, etc. This was a real eye opener for me.
Once you get a job and a paycheck that amount won't seem too bad. I have to agree that having student loan debt is way better then not going to school. I graduated with a higher percentage of student loan dept/starting salary then you probably will and we had it paid off in under 5 years.
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