Ok, so here is the deal: On Tuesday, August 3rd, I am going to turn 48 years old. About a month ago I came up with this crazy idea. I owe a bit over $50,00.00 on my student loans, so I thought, "How cool would it be if I could have those loans paid off before I turn 50 years old?!! And, wow, could that even be possible and why shouldn't I just give it a shot?" Huh. Sounds a little nuts, but, what the heck. SO, then I thought, "Hey, I could blog about that and all of my adventures (or misadventures) and perhaps other deeply-indebted folks could get inspired too.
Bottom line gang: The bankers got bailed out but I have a funny feeling we're not getting bailed out. I think we are on our own with these loans, at least for now. The calvary isn't coming, so what can we do...? But, more to the point, what are we willing to do?
How about some background first? I graduated in 2000 with a BA degree in Humanities from a darling little liberal arts college in Oregon. Once upon a time, right when I was deciding on my major, my academic advisor told me that corporations just loved to hire liberal arts majors. And, silly me, I believed him. He seemed an intelligent enough fellow and he had an article and everything to prove his point. Little did he know that the boat had left on the true value of liberal art majors, oh, say, ten years earlier (by my estimates). So, I signed on for two years of history, writing, foreign language and great big gobs of critical thinking. (Oh, yeh, and I did mention that this was a private college with somewhat hefty tuition rates?) Golly. It was fabulous and I learned tons and was feeling pretty darn bright until it came time to pay my loans...EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEk!!!
After several dreary mishaps and a relocation to Washington state, I finally settled down to paying on the loans. Graduation had come and gone years before and my loans had been in deferment or forbearance for a while. My easily manageable loan debt had gone from a semi-domesticated wild animal ($36,000.00) to a ravenous lion ($56,000.00+). Suddenly I was looking at choices like: do I fix my teeth or my car or do I make payments on the loan? Scary awful decisions to have to think about and make...
I finally got a decent job and really cranked on the loans payments and made extra payments too. So, now my total loan debt as of today sits at $50,142.93. Now, I have no job. Things have changed radically over the last two years, just in case anyone hasn't noticed.
I am not going to starve. I just got married and my husband works. We are doing ok but, I need to kill this thing dead. It has to go away and soon. If I continue at the rate I am going, I am not going to have this loan paid off until I am in my sixities and that just isn't acceptable. Also, we live on a 42 foot sailboat built in 1976 that my husband would very much like to sail around the world. He wants to take off in about 3 years and I would like to go with him. As long as this evil loan (axe) hangs over my neck, I don't feel free to do anything or go anywhere. How far am I willing to go to rid myself of this debt...oh, yeh, and do it legally???
I have all kinds of crazy and not-so crazy ideas for paying off my loan. I invite you to follow along, shout encouragement, and guffaw or just gawk at the terrible train wreck of my academic/financial choices. The best thing about a liberal arts degree is that you can write and spell by the time you have completed one. Lucky me.
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