Debt Archives - Page 46 of 46 - Making Sense Of Cents

Too much student debt to handle

Last Updated: April 7, 2021 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 8 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Do you have so much student debt that it’ll ruin your life? Check this article out.

I know my past posts have related to this, but this is the most debt that I have ever heard of. In this article, a couple from Seattle graduated with a combined $500,000 worth of debt. I believe school loans can be good, as I stated in this post, but in this case, I’m not so sure they are worth the debt.

The couple has two children and a combined annual income of $80,000, and they couldn’t even make the initial payments on their loans.

“Of the 3.4 million federal-loan borrowers who entered repayment in 2008 (as the economy slid into recession), 7% defaulted within the year, the highest percentage in more than a decade. That statistic doesn’t include the thousands of borrowers who fell behind on their payments without defaulting, or those who couldn’t keep up with their private student loans.”

The article states ways to help you pay off your loan, but it also lists ways to defer it and what happens when you don’t pay. You should’ve realized that $500,000 is TOO MUCH!

Where to Apply for Scholarships

Last Updated: July 13, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 5 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

You can find scholarships in many places. If you have applied for a college, then when you get your acceptance letter usually you will also get some sort of financial aid package letter also.

First you need to fill out your FAFSA form at FAFSA.org. The deadline to fill this out by FAFSA is in the beginning of each year. Also, you usually have to fill out a separate financial aid form for your school. The deadline for this is usually different, so I would check with each individual school.

However, if you cannot make it by the deadline, FAFSA will still accept it, as will most schools, so no need to worry. If you don’t fill out the forms by the required date though, then you might qualify for a smaller amount of loans, scholarships and grants because after that date, you basically qualify for what and any funds that are left. I have filled out my FAFSA and financial aids late before, and i noticed no difference in my scholarship/financial aid package though.

I received all of my scholarships directly through the school I attended. I received a scholarship package of $16,000 a year, plus some financial aid.

You can also receive scholarships through websites and private organizations. I have tried to apply for scholarships through private organizations, but I felt that for most scholarships, a lot of work was needed. They might want a very long paper, an invention, some sort of research project and so on. I am NOT saying these are a waste though. I have met many people who have received these private scholarships.

For masters programs, the schools in my area do not offer ANY scholarships or financial aid (besides loans) for any of their MBA programs. This is very upsetting because I got into all of the schools I applied to, and I didn’t know that masters programs only offer loans. This made the price of going to graduate school much higher than for my undergraduate degrees.

Some websites that I would check out are:

Finaid.org
Fastweb.com
Scholarships.com

Have you had any luck with receiving scholarships outside of the ones that your school gave you?

Getting Out of Debt

Last Updated: July 13, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 9 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

I noticed that in other posts a lot of people were commenting on their debt. What have you been doing to get out of debt?

I have some debt. I have around $25,000 in debt for my two undergrad degrees and a part of my MBA. I also have around $6K in a car loan and of course my mortgage. I however do not have any credit card debt (thankfully!) I’m undecided what I want to do in order to pay off debt more quickly. I would like to get a second job or some kind of gig such as tutoring. I’ve also been thinking about if I should apply all of my extra cash towards paying off my loans, or if I should be building an emergency fund at the same time.

Now, here’s a ton of questions for everyone. Please share.

What kind of debt do you have? Car loans? Credit card debt from shopping?

To get out of debt have you been cutting back expenses? Have you been working extra hours or gotten a second job to pay down debt? Are you paying down all of your debt right now and also building up an emergency fund at the same time? Or are you working on one but not the other?

When degrees are NOT worth the debt

Last Updated: April 20, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 14 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

To tie in with my last post about why I think college debt is (sometimes) worthwhile, here is an article that I found last month about adults who have unfathomable debt. These people each have somewhere around $185,000 in student loan debt which is insane!

None of these people graduated with a degree that lead to a job which they thought they would have.

Ways to save on college or lessen the burden of college debt include:

Scholarship/grants/work study programs (of course)
- Research ways to get scholarships. Apply for all scholarships that your college offers. Remember to fill out your FAFSA before the deadline in order to be eligible for higher grant amounts. Most schools offer work study programs where you might be a residential adviser, work in the cafeteria, and so on. The work is usually very minimal but can pay off.
Attending community college
- This way you can first get general credits out of the way.
Installment plans
- Usually you can set up a plan to pay for tuition over a 4 or 9 month period, which will lessen the burden of having to pay tuition and fees upfront.
Living at home at least some of the years while you are in college
- I got my own apartment at the age of 18 and bought my house at the age of 20, so I never lived in a dorm. Even though I didn’t live at home with my parents, I still saved a significant amount of money by not living in the dorms and having to pay for a food plan also.
Only use student loans for actual tuition and fees
- A lot of the people in the article used their student loans to pay for them to live as well. They should have gotten a job and not have used loans to support them.

Your turn: At what point would you say that your college degree or debt would no longer be worth it? What do you think of these individuals who accrued so much debt? What would you tell them?

First Person: Why I Consider Student Loans to Be ‘Good Debt’

Last Updated: April 20, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 18 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Some people can escape college and graduate with no debt or hardly any. I graduated with some debt, and I can proudly say that I am not ashamed of it.

I worked full-time throughout college and managed to graduate with two degrees in less than three years after the time that I graduated from high school. I managed to graduate before I turned 21, which I will say that I am also proud of.

However, since I graduated so quickly, I had to take a large course load in order for it to be possible. I took 14 credits (I think it was 14? Somewhere around that amount) while I was in high school, 18 or 21 during most spring and fall semesters and one summer I took 12 credits. The larger course load also came with a higher price, as the scholarships I was offered did not cover tuition beyond full-time status. With credits being nearly $900 an hour, each credit above 18 cost me dearly and added up quite quickly.

Currently, I have around $25,000 in debt, but that includes both my undergraduate degrees and two semesters of my MBA.

I do not regret my debt. I pay around triple the minimum balance each month for each loan that I have taken out and I plan to have my loans paid off within 5 years.

Your turn: Do you have any college debt? Do you consider college debt to be “good”?

Edit: My student loans are fully paid off!