May 17, 2007
Student Loans: Are they worth it?
I’ll start out by saying that I do have some student loans. In college it felt like I had no choice but to resort to getting a loan to pay for education. I could have put education on hold while saving up the money, but the problem with that is actually going back to school.
Growing up my parents reminded me to save my money for college. So I saved a lot of money, spent very little of it, always paid my bills, and stayed debt free throughout grade school. When I got to college and the bill came, I paid it from my savings. After three semesters that money ran out fast. Then I did something really stupid, paid for college with a credit card! My girlfriend (now wife) had been borrowing money the whole time thus far and urged me to get a student loan. Signed up for a loan, to cover school related expense so that I could the (beer) money from my student job for myself.
Graduate college with a bunch of credit card debt and now student loan debt. At least my student loans are consolidated into a nice low rate under 3%. Living on credit cards in college is about the stupidest mistake I could have made. Now I am paying, and then some, for that mistake. The student loans in my opinion are not a mistake, just necessary at the time to get to the point to get a job. I still remember that first paycheck from my salary based job and thinking I’ll be able to get out of debt in no time. Bills came in and then I realized how little I had left after the basic needs have been met.
Once the credit card debt is gone my next priority is paying off these student loans because I’m not going be paying these things for 20+ years. I set my goal to pay off my credit cards by March 2009, we will see how well that date is come this time next year. After that is gone I will be debt free except for the house. Are student loans worth it? I think it would take me longer to be at this point in my life without them.
