My Debt Blog

College is a wonderful thing to go through before going full force into the real world. The issue with a college degree is it never guarantees income. I knew exactly what I wanted to do at the end of high school and went to college to help open the employment doors for me. There are a lot of things I learned in college far beyond what the degree is worth. When you’re done and have that paper in hand, it doesn’t mean you’ll get a job either.

My wife wasn’t sure what she wanted to do in college and switched paths a few times. Then after she graduated there was an opportunity for her to do an internship. Based on the field she was going into, I thought this was a good idea, except it didn’t pay anything. I got a job right out of school and made plenty of income to support the both of us, so it wasn’t a huge problem. After the internship was over, she was not interested in doing that as a career for various reasons. Great, so now what do you want to do with your life?

She ended up getting into a graduate school program in the education field to become a teacher. I was not really involved much in her going to graduate school to pursue this, but I wanted her to find something she would enjoy doing. Now that things are getting to the end of the rope, the amount of student loan debt scares me.

I didn’t know how much exactly she was borrowing, and as it turns out it’s quite a bit. When doctors and lawyers have to take out massive loans, most of the time they can eventually reach an income that will let them manage it. My wife will not be making a huge income, at the most half of what she borrowed, which would make it very difficult to pay off her student loans. Since we are married, income and debt is combined, so we will be paying off these for hopefully only several years. My focus regarding paying off debt is to try and get rid of the credit card debt completely. Once we no longer have those credit card payments to deal with, it will free up extra money to pay down student loans. It will be nice when she gets a salary so we can focus on a mutual goal together.

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