Why am I thinking about student loans on my birthday? I’m celebrating a payment that I made which dips my outstanding student loans under the $100,000 mark. Yipee!
Now, I’m not going to go on and on about the value or relative worth of a degree. I will say, though, upon graduating law school I was unable to persue a career in public interest law as I would have liked, and instead moved to corporate law and sold my soul for a bit to manage that debt
Still, each month, I pay over $1,000 to student loan companies.
And I think frequently about other kids who are graduating college with serious student loan debts. Mounting college costs doesn’t seem to be stopping kids from going to college, only lining the pockets of…well…someone. And salaries aren’t rising in relation to the debt.
The result? Each year waves of 22 year olds enter the job market feeling entitled to receive a job that will at least allow them to have an apartment and pay back the debt. After all, isn’t that what they went into debt for? To get a good job?
This year also marks 10 years since I’ve been out of school, and in two weeks will be my 10 year of anniversary of taking the bar exam. To me, this means only that I still have 20 years of student loan payments still ahead of me.
I love my law degree, even though I’m no longer a practicing attorney…but I’d rather this $1000 a month be going into a retirement account.
Can I get a refund on my education?
Donna Fox is the creator of From Credit Repair to Credit Millionaire: the book, the course and the movement!Â
