School Archives - Page 4 of 8 - Making Sense Of Cents

Is A College Degree a Waste If You’re Self-Employed?

Last Updated: March 28, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 36 Comments

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A question that I am often asked now that I am self-employed is if I think my college degrees were a waste. I sort of wrote about this last year in Is a Business Degree a Waste?

As a reminder, I have three degrees – my undergraduate degrees are a B.S. in Business and a B.A. in Management. And then I also have a Finance MBA.

I understand why people are asking this. I mean, technically I do not need any college degree to do what I do since I am my own boss. I also spent a lot of time and money (I had $40,000 in student loan debt at one point!) towards my college degrees.

Here is why I don’t think my college degrees were a waste of time or money:

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We have $200,000 in Student Loan Debt

Last Updated: July 22, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 65 Comments

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Hey everyone! The other day I received an e-mail from a reader who wants your help. I left out some identifying information because she wants to remain anonymous.

Just as a refresher to any new readers, I recently paid off around $40,000 worth of student loan debt.

It wasn’t all fun and games though, and I am glad that we put everything we had at the time towards them so that I didn’t have my student loans floating over my head.

I have 3 degrees (I was a double major in undergraduate school, and I also have my Finance MBA). Below are my posts on the subject.

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Attending College as a Non-Traditional Student

Last Updated: December 19, 2015 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 33 Comments

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Femme Frugality writes about money as it pertains to young adults, brides, parents, Pittsburghers, and, of course, college students. You can read her blog here.

Recently Michelle shared that W was returning to school, and asked for some tips for non-traditional students. I recently graduated, and now my fiance is going to college for the first time.

We’re about as non-traditional as it gets, both being far beyond “traditional” college age, and having children. So I’ve got a plethora of tips that have been helping us get through this stage in our lives. And Michelle was kind enough to let me share them in a post.

Work as Little As Possible

I know that sounds crazy. As a non-traditional student, you’ve got very grown-up bills to pay. But trust me. If you’re serious about your degree, trimming down your work schedule will help not just your grades, but your overall mental health. I am not suggesting you go into debt in order to go back to school. (Both my fiance and I are doing this without any loans.)

What I am suggesting is that you sit down and look at your monthly budget. Look at your bills, how much you’ll need to be contributing to your emergency fund, how much you’ll need for other essentials such as gas and groceries, and a realistic entertainment category (though it might not be a bad idea to trim it down a little bit if you can).

Figure out the lowest number you’re willing to commit to (be realistic about this) for your overall monthly budget.

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The Benefits Of Paying Off Student Loan Debt Early

Last Updated: February 26, 2015 BY Jordann - 54 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.

Here is a post by my staff writer Jordann. She submitted this post before I announced that my student loans are gone, so hopefully that will clear up any confusion below 🙂

Student loan debt is something pretty much everyone reading this blog can relate to. Most people who go to University will graduate with some form of debt, whether it’s federal loans (like mine), bank loans, or a personal loan.

This makes for a sort of bitter-sweet graduation day, where you’re excited to take on new opportunities and possibilities, but nervous about finally having to start paying all of those loans back.

The period after graduation from school, that used to be filled with starting new jobs, buying homes and getting married, is now what I like to refer to as the “Paying back student debt gap years”.

There’s typically no home buying, and no family starting. How can there be? When student loan debt is weighing you down? Most people don’t try and pay their loans off particularly quickly, instead they focus on making the minimum payments and figuring out their life. Not everyone though. Some people take those gap years and run with them.

Michelle is about to pay off her student loans once and for all, go Michelle! She finished up her MBA with a fairly significant student loan debt and has done an admirable job at attacking it.

I’m in the same boat. I graduated from university with the average amount of student loans, $26,720. I was nervous about paying them back, but once I got into a good groove, I managed to get rid of them in 17 months. Since we’re both student debt free now, I’d like to go through some of the great perks of not having student loan debt.

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My Student Loans Are Fully Paid Off!

Last Updated: April 28, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 218 Comments

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Yes, you just read the title of this blog post correctly. My student loans are gone and fully paid off!

Donezo. Eliminated. Demolished.

It seems like just a couple of months ago I published my post about my $38,000 in student loans (scroll down to the bottom of this post if you are interested in how I paid off my student loans) and how badly I wanted them gone.

I have made a decent amount of recent payments and have watched our savings account dwindle down to a very low and uncomfortable number (still livable though).

Our monthly income keeps increasing and without it, none of this would have been possible. I am very grateful for everything in life.

Also, many have asked about why I made some small payments of less than $1 (see the picture below). It is because whenever I would pay the full amount of the loan off, they would still charge interest on the loan for the day until the actual payment was received. So, I had some small payments of less than $1. [Read more…]

How I’m Getting Rid of My Student loans FAST

Last Updated: December 19, 2015 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 133 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.

Back in November of 2012, I wrote about my $40,000 worth of student loan debt. This was the total amount of student loans that I accumulated while I was getting my undergraduate and graduate degrees. When I wrote that post, I had hardly paid anything towards my student loans. Interest was slowing building up, but not that much, as most of my loans were still being deferred.

Ever since that post was published, I have been attacking my student loans like crazy. I have been applying any extra money towards my student loans, and I am now proud to say that they are almost gone. We have enough money in the bank to completely pay them off, but have chosen to wait as we don’t want to withdraw everything out of our emergency fund to pay my student loans off. We don’t want to tap into retirement funds as well, so those funds will stay where they currently are.

As a refresher, I graduated in May of 2010 with my B.A. in Management and my B.S. in Business Administration. I applied for jobs and was hired on at a financial firm right after I graduated. I then took a year off from school and decided to go back for my Finance MBA. I then graduated in August of 2012 with my Finance MBA. I continued working full-time throughout this and still hold my same job today. I graduated with a decent amount of debt, but I am happy that I don’t have more.

I am guilty of taking out more in student loans than I needed. Right after high school, I needed a place to live and I probably took out an extra $1,000 or $2,000 to help fund my living. So, not too horrible, but that’s still an extra couple of thousand that I probably should not have taken out. [Read more…]

12 Facts About Student Loan Debt that will make Your Hair Stand on End

Last Updated: March 16, 2015 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 44 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.

Today I have a post from Kevin and it’s all about student loans. Don’t forget to read my My $38,000 Student Loan Payoff Plan if you haven’t yet.

Getting a college education in the US today appears to be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, graduates are in a better position than those without a college degree when it comes to getting jobs. Yet with the cost of education rising, tens of thousands of students are graduating with piles of debts they spend years paying off.

Sometimes they are not able to pay, with unemployment rates remaining high and stagnant. Dogged by debt collectors, they resort to public protests and hiding. To add more props to the terrifying reality show of student debt, here are 12 facts about student loan debt that will make your hair stand on end.

1. High debt and fear of loans

Two thirds of college graduates from universities across the country in 2011 had debts from student loans, an early 2012 study by The Institute for College Access & Success revealed. There is a total of $1 trillion in outstanding student loan debt and the average debt is estimated at $26,600 per student. Fear of such high loans can keep students from receiving the education that they deserve.

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