You know what the most frustrating thing in the world is?
For the past year I have been forking out $680 dollars every month for my student loans. For 12 months at $680 I have given Sallie Mae $8000 for my ridiculously high interest student loan, and the ass raping that accompanies it. Excuse my language. With every humungous check that I write I silently breathe a tiny sigh of relief as I think, that’s one less check I’ll ever have to write them, and I’m that much closer to getting this thing paid off.
And then I looked at my outstanding principal balance today, as I do every month.
And it hasn’t moved.
Not in a year.
In fact, I think it may have even gone up.
WHAT?! UP?!
For an entire year, I have been paying nothing but interest. Sure there are the rare occurrences that I can actually afford to put money towards the principal, but those are few and far between. Instead, I have simply been hurting my checking account simply to keep my student loans in good standing with the credit bureau. My loan remains 5 digits long and painfully expensive and I think it laughs each month as I try desperately to make it disappear.
There is no end in sight.
I want to cry.
About Me
- Christi
- I currently reside in Bayview, which is a southern neighborhood of Milwaukee and although it's great, I find myself craving the city life more and more each day. I'm not at a place in my life right now where I have kids and a family that I need to look out for. It's essentially just ME, and the ME craves an urban lifestyle. Hopefully someday I'll be there. But for now, I'm thoroughly enjoying my fabulous little apartment. I recently switched jobs and am now proudly working for a Direct Response company out of Burlington, Wisconsin. For those of you unfamiliar with Direct Response Marketing: it's infomercials, in a nutshell. It's quite the commute for me everyday, but I love my job, so it all works out.
9 comments:
If you own anything to secure it against, talk to your bank about a personal loan. Single digit interest makes all the difference in the world, even if it's only for a portion of the amount.
Best of luck.
Ugh. I hear you on that. My student loans aren't killing me, but the debt I racked up while in college is.
I absolutely hate debt. And money. And the credit bureau.
Thanks Andre!!!! I actually am working with a banker on getting those flippin' things down.
Oh Christi, I'm so sorry to hear about your loans! Kind of makes me glad I didn't go to real college (although, it must have paid off for you because if I had to make that kind of payment every month with my income about the only place I'd be able to afford to live would be a cardboard box).
I have the lowest tolerance for debt. I'm almost done paying off my furniture that I bought last August, but I'll be paying for my tv for almost another two years. I could stomach both of those because they were interest free, but in order to do that, I had to open two more lines of credit which just about killed me. Then I had extensive dental work this spring and it will take me an entire year to pay the bill for work done on just one tooth!
OMG I hear ya! I just had a root canal done and that alone broke me!!! (as if my student loans weren't already doing that) =) At least you have beautiful teeth now he he.
Aww, thanks. Actually, I just had braces put back on, but only on six teeth (my orthodontist isn't charging me). I just had a root canal too! Before the procedure, that was the single most painful thing I've ever experienced in my life! I also had a pulpectomy (love that word!) before the RC, and then a crown after the RC. All that to 'save' a tooth that is essentially dead. Crazy!
If you have student loans from sallie mae you can consolidate them. I consolidated my loans with them and have an interest rate of 2.85% that is locked in for the life of the loan. My school loans balance with them is $9,400 right now and I'll be paying $74 a month for the next 8 years but that's besides the point. There shouldn't be a problem for you to at least consolidate to something under 10% interest. Granted that was for a federal school loan. If you have a nonfederal one i dont think you can consolidate. I have a citiassist student loan with citibank and i wasn't able to consolidate it and the interest rate has gone from 4% when i was in school to now 8.75%. I hope to pay that off before it goes much higher.
Hang in there. Debt sucks. I know. I have debt myself besides just school loans.
Thanks Kasey! I did consolidate my one federal loan that I have which was fantastic. That one is only $50 a month (I pay $80). But unfortunatley, the bulk of my loans are private which means until I own something to use as collateral for refinancing...I'm stuck. Oh well.
Such is life =)
It's funny how, in college, I thought that "wow, see, this $5,000 private loan won't be that bad to pay off!" and then, one year later "$10,000 isn't that bad!" and then ... etc., etc.
And now I'm stuck with two student loan payments. Plus my husband's. He was equally as stupid, money wise. In conclusion ... We're broke. And a lot smarter.
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