A lot of ink has been spilled about the student loan crisis we have going on these days. And I don't think calling it a crisis is an exaggeration. Take me, for example. Due to the generosity and resources of my parents, I graduated with my BS debt-free. This already puts me ahead of many people.
However, I made the stupid decision to go to law school. I didn't know at the time that it was a stupid decision. Conventional wisdom was that lawyers have it made financially and that law school is a great investment. It isn't. I worked all through law school, sometimes two jobs, lived very frugally (sometimes with up to 4 roommates at a time) and I still graduated with six figures of student loan debt. My debt load is crushing, but it's smaller than a lot of my peers'.
It took me a long time to find a job as a lawyer, and I'm now making less practicing law than I made as a receptionist before law school. And I can't get a non-lawyer job because people assume that law is still a fantastic and lucrative profession, so they think that I must not be a good employee if I'm looking outside my field. (Yes, I've had interviewers say that to my face. Joke's on them. I'm actually highly sought after in the legal field.)
My monthly payment, had I stayed on the standard repayment plan, was significantly more than my rent. I got on an income-based plan, where I have a manageable payment amount, and in theory, assuming there are no legislative changes in the future, the remaining balance will be forgiven in 25 years. Because my payment doesn't even cover interest, the amount forgiven will be in excess of what I borrowed. And that amount is considered taxable income, so I'm going to get to write a giant check to the IRS that year.
This whole situation demoralized me. I'm used to thinking of debt as something that has an end date. It eventually goes away. When I make my car payment every month, I know that after a certain number of payments, I'll be done. Even with credit cards, if I can't pay the balance off entirely one month, I know I can keep paying on it, and eventually I'll pay it off.
My student loans aren't like that. They're never going away. I keep paying them every month, and I keep seeing my balance stay the same or grow. I've been paying for 5 years, and I owe more now than I borrowed. (To those who are inevitably thinking right now "just make extra payments", well, yeah, if I could, I would. Money doesn't grow on trees.)
Some have conceptualized student loans as modern-day indentured servitude. As a historical and sociological thought exercise, I think there's some merit to the comparison. But thinking that way doesn't help me in my day to day life. It's a good warning for people considering borrowing money for school, but it's terrible advice for people who are already stuck in the student loan trap.
So, I've decided that I'm going to think of my student loan payment like a utility bill. It comes every month whether I like it or not, and I have to keep paying it ad infinitum. Just like I have to pay the electric bill and the water bill, I have to pay the brain bill.
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