$23, 376: The struggle of student loans is REAL

Did I ever tell you the story of how I racked up $60K in student loans? The short story is I went to a state school for journalism, then four years later I went to a well-known private school for my master’s in communication management. Did I mention I worked the whole time I was in school? At one point I held three jobs to put myself through undergrad but it still wasn’t enough.

In 2009 I walked away with about $60K in student debt.

That was 7 years ago.

Seven years ago. I still cringe when I think of it. I am not sure why but I have carried buyer’s remorse for my college education since the day I finished my undergrad degree in 2003. I hoped my master’s degree would set me apart from other candidates and give me a broader perspective on organizational communications. I think it did both of those things to a certain extent. But I certainly didn’t end up making enough money to recover from my loans in a decent amount of time.

Paying off student loans has been a real mental and financial burden.

I’ve beaten myself up for going into this debt. I have almost stopped myself from having children. I certainly won’t be buying a house till I feel like these loans are about to be done once and for all. Hell, I can’t even save enough for a decent down payment in Northern California right now anyway. The money that goes toward student loans ($450 a month) could be my retirement or my house payment. It’s currently neither of those things.

Today I checked my account balance for the 1000th time. The balance is $23,376 as of July 18, 2016. I am sharing this number so that anyone else who carries bone chilling debt, from student loans, medical bills or any other sort of debt accumulated to improve your life can be encouraged.

If your debt keeps you up at night, I am right there with you. You are not alone.

I know exactly how you feel and I hope, hope, hope you will join me in finding reasonable ways to pay off debt while still living your life. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to beat myself up for every cup of coffee I buy. So instead I’ve done some pretty controversial things I will write about over the next few days. Not so much because I think they were all the “right” way, but just so you could see there are many ways to approach debt.

The only right way is your way.