W.T.F.F. (Working Towards Financial Freedom)

           I did it y’all!!!😁 After eight years and three months, I am officially done with ALL of my student loans. There was a time that I honestly did not think this would happen or at least not until I was in my 40’s. The Department of Education reports that the typical repayment period for borrowers with between $20,000 and $40,000 in federal student loans is 20 years. Yea, that’s pretty crappy. But with the exorbitant costs of higher education in the United States and the belief that the only way to succeed or get ahead in life is with a college degree a lot of young people and their families are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Often turning to loans to help cover the expense. Today, roughly 70% of American students end up taking out loans to go to college with the average graduate leaving school with around $30,000 in debt. 

I received my Master’s degree in May 2012. It had been a long journey. I went to school part-time, mostly online with a few in-person classes, as I worked full-time. I was so excited. I was finally done. No more long nights finishing reading assignments or turning down invitations to hangout because I had a paper due. I felt free! Then reality hit. I was now on the hook to pay back $23,850 with a 6.8% interest rate. Yea, the Fixed Interest Rates for Direct Subsidized Loans and Subsidized Federal Stafford Loans for Graduate or Professional Borrowers between July 2006 and June 2012 was 6.8%.

                                     Every year I give myself a financial goal. Pay something off, save a certain amount, contribute more to retirement, or whatever I think is the most urgent or necessary action at the time to help my financial future. This year was no different although it took until about February to make a definitive decision on what that financial goal would be.

   In this edition of Bounce Back, a segment where I share a financial misstep and what steps were taken to correct it, I will be discussing Student Loan Employer Pay Back Programs. The opportunity to have my job pay back a portion of student loans has arisen twice in my career. Once in 2015 and again in 2017. Both times I opted not to apply, and while the first time not applying turned out to be a blessing in disguise ( I’ll explain in a little ) the second turned out to be another L I’d take and have to bounce back from.

Hey there, I know it's been awhile and I have to admit with everything currently going on in the world I did lose my motivation trying to get used to this ‘new norm’ of life but today the strangest thing happened, I had two friends from different parts of my life reach ou t within a span of 2 hours asking me when my next post was coming and if I was still writing my blog. Now these two people do not know each other and they liv e on separate coa sts of the cou ntry in two different time zones so I could only take this as a sign from the universe that I needed to get back on my shit. I know in my previous post I was talking about budgeting and said that I would continue in the next post but I think with the recent economic uncertainties due to COVID-19  I should at least address the effects that it has had on people financially so I’m going to try and cover the financial good and bad of this pandemic.