OCCUPY STUDENT DEBT

…but we’re not rich, by any means.

I completed a BA and later an MA in English, and my loans totaled $42,000 when I graduated with my MA in 2008.

Undergrad loans: $28,000 original balance when consolidated (at 6.0% fixed) to a graduated repayment program in 2001. I knew when I signed the paperwork that I would eventually pay more than TWICE what I borrowed over the course of the 25 year repayment terms. I am okay with that, because I know that English doesn’t pay well, and if I managed to ever make a decent wage, I could always pay more than the minimum payment, but at least I could afford the minimum payment, which will never go above $285/mo. Current balance is still over $26,000.

Graduate loans: approximately $14,000 originally. My husband worked for the inexpensive, non-elite, middle-of-the-road, state school at which I got my MA. Instead of paying the full semester grad tuition of nearly $2300, I paid about $650, thanks to employee benefits. My husband worked full-time and I worked nearly full-time during my grad school years. I often taught three classes as an adjunct at a community college in a different state 35 miles away and took three classes at my university. I have three separate loans from grad school:

Subsidized loan (6.55%)—original balance: $6500 in 2008; current balance: $5163
Unsub loan (6.55%)—original balance: $5500 in 2008; current balance: $4942
Perkins Loan (5.0%)—original balance: $1990 in 2008; current balance: $764

My husband and I bought a house six months after I got my MA, and WE HAD NEARLY $60K COMBINED in student loans.

I am an adjunct English instructor who makes maybe $30K a year in a good year. Some quarters I bring home more than my husband.

How have we managed to pay down the balance of our loans?

We have only one car. My husband takes public transportation to work (his employers subsidizes 90% of his bus pass), while I drive between colleges to teach.

We bought a house that was priced $100K below the amount for which we were approved in 2008.

We don’t buy anything unless we can pay cash for it. That means we don’t have a big TV or a nice sound system. Our one car is seven (maybe eight?) years old. As much as I want the new iPhone 4S, I refuse to pay $200 for the upgrade because I don’t have the money, so I still have a broke-down, slow-ass iPhone 3 (it’s not even the 3G). As much as my husband wants the new xBox Kinect, we don’t have the money, so he makes do with the xBox we bought with our wedding money when we were married SIX YEARS AGO. We don’t travel—we moved across the country from our friends and family five years ago, and we haven’t been back. We’ve missed weddings and graduations and births and deaths and all kinds of big things, but we have a budget and we stick to it, as much as it sucks.

Most of our furniture is hand-me-down, including our two chests of drawers, dining room table, beds, and bed frames. We bought a couch and love seat when we first moved into our house, and it was $125 at a yard sale. It’s stained and has marker spots on it and the cushions are tearing at the seams, but we got $75 covers for them, and they look good as new.

The money we do have goes to pay off debt—student loans, the occasional credit card debt (since emergencies do happen and we’re still paying for them). And we save for the summers when I’m not teaching.

The point is, it’s not easy, and we’ve kept on top of it and avoided forebearances and deferments before things got out of control. I know it’s getting harder and harder to outright pay for an education, but it can be done with careful planning and research, and lots of hard work. I am looking at going back to get a PhD or a second Master’s, but if I do it, it will be at my own pace and I will pay cash as I go.