Student loans are by far the easiest way to go get a college education. However, do the loans make college more affordable or just more accessible? The Government says it make college more affordable. I don't know about you, but between my wife and myself we have 2 Masters Degrees and our student loan payments are more than the Principle and interest payments on our mortgage. I do not view this as an affordable way to get educated.
If I had it to do over again, I would have gone to a community college to get 2 years as cheap as possible, earn an associates degree and try to get into a role that would have paid for the bachelors and then masters degrees.
However, in life, there are few options for do-overs. So now the question is what to do to get past this and move onto the future? The way I see it there are a few options and unfortunately bankruptcy is not one of them. I say unfortunately, not because I want to promote bankruptcy and not paying for a service you used. It is unfortunate only because you can write off debts on electronics, cars, bikes, etc and in most cases keep the products that usually led to the bankruptcy. However, if you borrow to attempt to become a valuable member of society, and to attempt to increase your earnings, and therefore help support the Government and your community by paying taxes, and using your income to support others in their jobs there is no way to help ease this burden if your income does not go up fast enough. This may be the only truest "till death do us part" left in this world unless you find a way to pay off the debts.
- Join the military, get a big signing bonus and help from uncle sam to pay off the money they loaned you. Not a bad option for some, but if you have a family, or physical limitations, this is most likely not an option.
- Move in with roomates, family, etc. to help reduce rent, utilities etc. Again, if you already have a family this is not really an option for most. Though some do rent out a room to strangers, I personally would not put my family in that situation.
- Like Dave Ramsey is famous for saying, go on the beans and rice diet and do nothing but work and eat the cheapest carbs you can find until your debt is paid off.
- Take on part time jobs, side jobs, or become creative with a hobby that creates tangible items that can be sold for profit to help not only pass time, but have fun and make money doing it. (This is my personal favorite, however I have not found that perfect hobby just yet).
- Invest. This can be in typical stock markets, but more recently this can be done with Crypto. This is a new field for me, however it seems to be a great opportunity to get involved in the early stages and really turn a good profit if you find the better coins.
I know the options are nearly unlimited, however I wanted to start a conversation with others who struggle with student loans. Who have found the way to pay them off without sacrificing your first born. I would welcome thoughts, success stories, failure stories, and I would like to offer advice to others who are trying to figure out how to get out of debt and are unsure when in the process to pay off the Student loans vs credit cards, cars, mortgages etc.
Please feel free to share.
Great article keep them coming!