Mortgage on my mind
Posted on January 30, 2006 by Her and tagged debt, mortgage, student_loan
Today I saw this article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer about the new face of poverty: the college grad. According to the article,
About 40 percent of students now graduate with what lenders consider "unmanageable" debt loads, meaning their payments eat up more of their salaries than is considered financially sound.
It may not be financially sound, but it sure sounds familiar. My parents believe that their children are not owed an education, and therefore we each had to pay for our own university costs. I feel this was a very costly decision, both in financial and life terms. One sibling of mine joined the military to get an education "for free" -- serving our country for 25 years and still doesn't have any promised degree. My other sibling put went to a top school -- the resulting financial burden strained the relationship with my parents to the point that they haven't spoken in years. As for me, my outstanding $136,000 in student loan debt costs us nearly $1,000 per month. The truly frustrating part is that the interest accumulates so quickly that some months the principal balance actually increases. This is equivalent to what some of our friends are paying for their mortgages, and it means we can't afford a home mortgage until we pay off the mortgage on my mind.
This amount of student loan debt has caused us to argue at times. He feels that I've already spent so much money that he should get to spend a similar amount on stuff he wants, including his doctorate degree in the future. I feel we have so much debt already that neither of us can afford to spend more. Of course, we are both right and wrong.
My student loan debt is also going to impact our future finances. It will take 30 years to pay off this debt, and of course we will want to buy a home before we're 55. So that means our mortgage application will inevitably include some student loan debt, which is dragging down my FICO score. So this debt will also cause us to incur more debt than necessary when purchasing a home. Hopefully we can pay the loans down more aggressively in the future and pay them off much sooner.
If you can mortgage your mind, why can't degrees grow on trees?
Comments/Trackbacks
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Stressful, yes. Masters, yes. In fact I have two! But it's not because I'm greedy. The two degrees are related and were offered as a dual-degree program. It was abargain because I got a second Masters for just 1 extra semester, and I use the knowledge from both degrees every day in my work. I just wish I didn't have to pay for them!
Reggie | Aug 18, 2006
I am a security officer with a BGS in Criminal Justice. I happened to overhear a conversation between an elderly (50)+ construction worker and a(19) year old construction worker talk about college. The older worker was insisting that the younger worker go to college-for all the traditional reasons-No One Can Take It From You Once You Have The Degree-More Money-BLA,BLA,Blah.To his amazement, I reminded the young man that if he could not afford an education-he might as well work hard while he's young,save his money and buy a house or property. I wish that I had done that-sometimes a degree is not worth the paper it's printed on if you don't have a real plan. Aside from a degree,employers want to know if one KNOWS anything,ie,a skill so they can make their bottomline $$$$$$
nycmoney | Jan 30, 2006
sounds really stressfull, how did you build up so much student loan debt, did you get a masters?
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