Share Your Student Loan Stories

I got a $2,500 loan in 1981. Over the years I have paid in over $25,000. Like a lot of people, life's hurdles got in the way. For a number of years, I did not have work. For many years, my Federal income taxes were taken to pay it off. There were years that I struggled and made monthly payments for two or more years but then would be out of work due to disability, being laid off, etc. The interst just racked up. For the past 4 years I have only been able to work 25 hours a week at my job as they took a day away from all of us, no raises and they stopped paying into our retirement. I have no car to look for other work and live in town so small we do not even have a traffic light. My physical ailments do not allow me to work a second job as a cashier or something, so basically I am screwed. My loan is back up past $6,000 now due to the interest. I will be paying this loan back for the rest of my life and then some. To me this is ludicrous. They have already been paid back 10 times the value of the loan. What more do they want - a pint of my blood every week?

I graduated from a private medical school 10 years ago, owing 170 in federal loans. Like most other residents, I deferred my loans during residency. Back then, our future was assured. The amount of my student loan debt has almost doubled now. I studied a specialist field, and there are no longer jobs available in this field. I have been lucky enough to find some contract work, it at least pays the bills (I made 15K last year before taxes). I have been on IBR now for 3 years. This saves me from going into default, but it also means the actual amount of my debt increases each year. There is no cap. In 10 years I might owe a million dollars!

As time goes by, I get more and more afraid I will never be able to pay this debt off. Eventually the amount I owe will be so high that I will not be motivated to find a higher paying job.

In 25 years I could qualify for loan forgiveness. 25 years is a long time to have to deal with the financial and psychological effects of my failure. I wasted 15 years pursuing a higher education, and now I will waste the rest of my life struggling to pay the debt off. If I had credit card debt, at least I could file for bankruptcy! I do not have credit card debt. I pay my bills and I don't spend more than I make. The only mistake I made financially was going to school. Now I am stuck with a huge debt I will never be able to pay off. My family is also saddled with this as long as I am alive. Sometimes I think about suicide as a way to relieve my family of the debt.

I am not the excited idealistic person I was in my 20s and 30s. I am old and tired. I don't have the energy to start over. I have been approached several times by scammers wanting me to participate in medicare fraud, or sell them prescription pads for narcotics. As tempting as these offers were financially, I wouldn't do it. I truly feel like I am drowning. The chance of loan forgiveness after 10 years feels like a ray of hope. Maybe I can enjoy my old age! :)

There were many years after college that I couldn't make my student loan payments. I paid what I could to avoid default, but rather naively chose forbearance while I got my feet under me, especially my first few years in New York City, where I moved after college. My student loan has become my only debt, but boy what a debt it is! My interest is fixed at a whopping 8.75%. I will end up paying triple the amount I borrowed. I make an automatic payment every month. I have a good job and can make that payment, but it is sickening when I look at the hard numbers and see how little of my payments go toward the principle. After years of showing responsibility and making payments, I have contacted Sallie Mae and asked them how it would be possible to lower my interest. "No can do. Increase your monthly payment to see the balance go down," they say.

This has affected saving for and buying a home, saving for retirement, the list goes on...

I am a stay at home mom due to the failing economy in MI. I have more than $300,000 in student loan debt that some of which are private student loans that keep accumulating interest daily at a rate of 5% that I cannot pay back due to the inability to find work that will pay enough to pay for two children in childcare.

I think this bill will benefit EVERYONE that has student loan debt and the economy and companies to help them to get some of their monies back versus people getting negative marks on their credit reports becasue they can't afford the payments that are wanted by these private student loan companies due to the fact that graduates cannot find a job in many states due to the failing economy in the US.

Please pass this bill so the economy and student loan debt can be reduced and the US can start to come out of this "economic" slump it is in.

I graduated from Palmer College of Chiropractic in 2007.

Upon graduation my loans were approximately $175,000.

It took about four months before I got to my home state and was had all boards passed so I was eligible for a job. I applied at one chiropractic office and landed that job, but the owner of the so-to-be new chiro office took too long to get it going and my wife made me look for other employment. Two months later I landed the next job I applied for. It was for the standard first chiro job that most get... $1,000 a week... $50,000 a year. My wife is also a chiropractor and graduated in 2008... and had approximately $185,000 in student loan debt. She tried to get a job, but in the first six months or so could not get one.

After working at my new job for about six months my boss asked if I wanted to buy another one of his chiropractic offices. It made sense to do it, even though we didn't like the location... because it would give my wife a job and allow me to work there part time while I earned the $1,000 a week in my current job. Things didn't turn out the way we thought they would. We were lied to by the previous owner (my boss) and then he basically started accusing me of neglecting the job he hired me for at his other clinic. I began thinking that maybe he had just hired me to sell me one of his other practices, just so he could get out of the bad lease (that became a horrible lease since the economy had dropped out).

I'm telling you all this because I'm trying to help you understand why we didn't pay our loans for the first few years... we couldn't. The business we took over had been doing okay before we took over because the previous owner's uncle was a big-time lawyer and was pumping the practice full of accident patients. The moment we took it over, those accident patients stopped walking through the door and we basically had to come up with $8,000 overhead (this is not including our $1,000 each in student loans we were suppose to be paying per month... OR our private bills). Oh, and we were living in my parents house for the three years trying to avoid bankruptcy.

So we make it through the lease and pay off what we owned to the previous owner so we could start over in our home town 60 miles away. This was in November 2010. Right about the time the student loan people were telling me I was about out of deferment time for my loans of $175,000.

After calling me over and over and over and over I finally talked with them, trying to figure out a way to pay them. They had me apply for a hardship deferment (?)... so it would give me an additional 12 months to not pay until I was able to pay. My wife and I had made a whole $25,000 that year... it was on our 2010 tax return. I was told the hardship was DENIED. I asked why, because I really couldn't believe I wasn't eligible. I was told we had to make under $22,000 (or there about), and we just made too much. That's when I said, "But both my wife and I have the same amount of loans, and there is no way we could both have paid for the loans"... they wanted us to each pay $900 plus for our loan repayments per month... or 21,600 plus per year. Ummm... hello... do the math... it leaves us with a couple thousand to live on for the entire year... that's not even enough for food. Hell, a couple months later, my wife ended up pregnant and believe me we still can't believe it happened because we are in our early 40's and had a hard time conceiving our first child years ago. We ended up on Medicaid for our son's birth one year ago from now... and our kids are still on Medicaid, as well as my wife.

When I told Iowa Student Loan (our lender) we both have the loans and we couldn't possibly pay right now, they said they didn't take into consideration that BOTH of us had the loans... and that's why we were denied hardship. I to this day think that was a mistake or a lie. I don't know how we weren't eligible by only making $25,000 for the both of us in 2010.

Not knowing what else I could do, I ended up defaulting my loan in Oct 2011 which had grown to roughly $180,000 because of interest. Over the last six months of 2011 and the beginning of 2012 our new business has been doing much better and we are getting to the point of being able to finally afford to make payments on everything. I finally decide it's time to start making good on my loans... now that we have money coming in on a regular basis. I contact the collection agency (DCS - Diversified Collection Services) that's been hounding me for the last few months... and they set up a rehabilitation program where I need to make 9 payments of $998 and I will be out of default. I set it up so they are taking it out automatically... so far they've taken two payments and everything is good.

Well... I thought things were going to be okay, but then I noticed the other day that my balance has gone from $180,000 to $223,500 in about a six month period. I contact the collection agency who tell me that they aren't the one's that imposed the collection penalty, but it's the College Aids Commission that did it... and they give me their number. They then confirm that yes, they imposed a penalty of 23% of the entire loan and added it to the balance... it was more than $41,000.

Ummm... I cannot even believe they are trying to charge me $41,000... because I didn't qualify for the hardship extension... because I couldn't afford to pay my original debt. Now they want to tack on $41,000 plus in FINES? I feel like I'm being robbed. I just can't believe this is even legal. I get collection agencies are in business for a reason, and I get there should be penalties for being late or not paying, but $41,000???!?!?!???

I was told the woman who answered at College Aids Commission that they were well within their legal right to charge anywhere between 18 to 25%... a ONE time fee for defaulted loans. My argument was... so if you have a student that owes a loan for $1,000 and then one that owes $180,000... the paperwork is essentially the same and they impose a 23% one-time penalty to both... how is it that they are only going to charge $230 for that $1,000 loan... yet $41,000 plus for the other? It's close to the same amount of work for the loan officers. Okay, maybe it's a little bit more... maybe double... but I just don't know how it's legal for them to charge 23% on an account where there is so much owed. There really should be a cap of just how much they can charge for a penalty. This is absolutely predatory by the collection agencies.

I was thinking about a fair penalty and I thought... I could see $5,000... I could maybe see $10,000, although I think that's a bit much... but $41,000 plus... they are out of their minds. Think about how much $41,000 is. How many years is it going to take me to pay of $41,000 at $500 per month with interest... not to mention the other legitimate loan I owe... the other $180,000. I know it took me $350 a month for five years to pay off my $18,000 car. So I'm basically going to be penalized a fee of approx $500 per month for nine years (this is all extra) all because I didn't qualify for a hardship which I feel I probably should have.

One last note. My wife is behind on her loans and we are trying to start paying on them. They wanted even more... like $1,500 a month. We told them at this time we can't afford that, so they said she could send in paperwork for hardship and she should be eligible, even though we made in the $45,000 range this past year. She said, but I didn't think I qualified... and the woman told her, you should qualify up until you make around $50,000. So I don't get why I didn't qualify for the hardship when we only made $25,000 a year ago.

Today I called the company where you make complaints about student loans issues... I forgot what it's actually called some sort of Osimaman or something like that. They are going to look into why I was denied when I probably should have been eligible.

One thing I do know... whoever allowed this legislature to be where it is... and allow ridiculous fees to be attached on top of huge student loans should be ashamed. How in the world is a student suppose to EVER get out of debt if they are allowed to assess collections fees that are tens of thousands of dollars on TOP of the huge loans we have? I'm not exactly Bill Gates, Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods.

41,000 plus in penalties for a defaulted loan... REALLY????

You freaking thieves.

I put myself through college. I had to cover 100% of the costs through loans as my parents didn't contribute like most assume. I had to take out private loans to make up the difference of what federal didn't cover. I have a great job with a financial firm but my loans take up literally 50% of my income. That's just the private loans; I can't afford to touch the federal loans so they continue to rack up interest. No one consolidates private loans that's worth looking into. I feel hopeless. They truly don't care that you can't afford food or other basics; the loan companies just want their money...all I wanted was a good education so I could get a job and be a responsible citizen. My mistake...

I graduated in 2006 and went to graduate school two years later. I accumulated approximately $60,000 in student loans. half federal half private. I have been deferring as much as possible and I have come to the end of using that option. I was making on time payments for almost a year, when I lost my job. I was unemployed for 6 months and I thought I would be able to defer or forebear them... WAS I DEAD WRONG!!! they did not give a damn that I had no source of income, they would ask "oh, why don't you ask to borrow some money to pay?" WTF these people that ONLY work for these LARGE corporations have been trained to believe that THEY ARE a part of that big corporation. They almost believe that the payment is going to them...LOL I still can't believe at the amount of calls I get on a DAILY basis and almost numerous occasions throughout the day. I have resorted to picking up the phone and hanging it right up. to avoid hearing the ringing until the machine picks up. I have made up my mind, but there are times where I wonder if this will hurt me in the long run... BUT I must say I am sticking with my decision to NOT REPAY!! I hope WE can ALL come together and make this happen! WE have the TRUE POWER. not them!! they only have the power when we are in the FEAR mode. I am taking steps to not paying back! If anyone has suggestions to give me or to better guide me on this path please reply!! i mean, do they really garnish wages??!

I am 33, the daughter immigrants, a fairly recent graduate from a doctoral program in clinical psychology, single, no dependents, financially responsible, good credit, and $300,000 in debt from student loans, half federal, and the other private. I am using my final deferment option now on my private loans. In August, they will enter into repayment which will cost just over $1000 a month to start, for private loans ALONE. If I were to enter into repayment now on all my loans, private and federal, I would need to come up with an extra $2000 a month.
There is something strangely ironic about being a “doctor” and being so far in debt before my adult-life has even started to begin. I didn’t know it at the time, what it actually translates to, being this far in debt. But essentially, I need a full-time job, just to pay off the loans. That means I need another full-time job just to live. I’ll be in debt, working nearly every minute of every day, for essentially what would be the rest of my active, non-elderly life, and probably for some time thereafter. I can’t ever buy a home, because on paper, why would anyone loan me more money. I can’t ever have a family in good faith, because what kind of life would that afford my children. I wont be able to take care of my parents the way I wanted, because I’ll be struggling to simply take care of myself. Let’s be real, I’ll be lucky if I don’t lose all hope and toss myself off the GW Bridge.
I can’t describe the feelings I experience when I consider the whole scope of things: a conglomeration of hopelessness, sadness, despair, a lot of regret, and an enormous amount of anger. I went to school to, in actuality, NOT have this type of life. I went to school, like everyone tells you to… “Go to school, there are loans you can take out, work hard in school, become a doctor and when you graduate, you can pay off those loans and live a good life with your husband and children.” Now I know many people will be quick to say “You chose to take out loans and should have been aware of how much debt you were accumulating.” My response is YES, I knew I was taking out the loans, afterall, I signed for them myself…no cosigner was ever needed since my credit history was pretty much spotless. I was not as fortunate as many of my classmates whose parents were smart enough to set money aside, or capable enough to afford their children’s tuition, or at least part of it. I paid for everything after community college my DAMN SELF! So yes, I took out the loans. I signed all the forms. I did that online screening thing they make you do to make sure you know what you’re getting into. But as with any company the primary interest is to make a buck. Not a single person ever told me what I’d actually be looking at in monthly payments. Call me naïve, but I assumed it would be affordable. I assumed student loans weren’t like other loans. I assumed they were intended for people trying to educate themselves to enhance their lives and livelihood, and therefore, the payments would be decent and affordable, as apposed to suffocating and arresting. I assumed there would be some lee-way for the new graduate. I assumed there would be some time to obtain my license which is a whole other year of post-graduate working hours and passing a difficult state test. Fuck was I wrong.
In fairness, federal loans offer a lot more flexibility in terms of repayment; however, there is little regulation in terms of repayment possibilities from private student loan lenders. Mine offers two options: either pay the standard payment monthly which for my private loans alone is about $1000 a month, or pay the interest alone (in my case about $600 a month) for two years and then you revert back to the standard without any question. That’s it! No income based payments, no negotiations. Just pay. Had I known what I would be looking at paying monthly, each time I signed up for another loan to pay that year’s tuition, I could have compared that to what I would look at making, and in all honesty, I would have stopped school then and there. My intention in going to school was to have a comfortable life where I wouldn’t have to work two jobs. My intention was to have a family and be able to go to my children’s shows or sports matches. My intention was to be able to travel once or twice a year with my family. My intention was to help my parents out once they retire. My intention was to own a home my kids could say they grew up in. My intention was to be a good citizen and do my part and contribute back to causes I believe to be worthy. My intention was not to be caught up in this craziness that essentially has stripped me from any and all of my dreams. I wouldn’t have done it. I wouldn’t have gone for my doctorate. I would have stopped at bachelors or even at my masters and left it at that. Who would in their right mind, invite this sort of life-suffocating debt with open arms. So to those who say, I knew what I was doing…get off your cozy leather couches and out of your BMWs and think again. The loan companies tell you just enough to cover their asses, while keeping you aloof enough to sign away your whole damn life. Reality is: higher education is for those who can afford it. The American Dream does not exist.

I graduated college in 2008. I went to one of the Art Institutes (which I now realize is one of the worst schools to go to and how predatory they are. Also, they're under investigation for fraud by the government. Yeah makes me feel good about my choice).

I was trying to make it on my own for about 6 months when my mother's cancer came back and I had to move back home to take care of her. I only had a part time job because I had to take my mother to chemotherapy twice a week. I received endless calls about my loans and I had to defer multiple times; spending $150 that I barely had at the time.

Unfortunately, my mother lost her life to cancer in 2010. Guess who didn't care that I was grieving and wanted to do so in peace? You guessed it.

For a year, I didn't have a steady job and tried to live my dreams. Problem is that the film field is not the most consistent of places to be. After that year, I had to try and get a full time job. This took me about 4 months to do.

About 3 months into my job, I received calls, messages and mail saying that if I didn't make a payment soon to the loan collectors, they would start garnishing my wages. I received harassing calls to my job and told them not to call there again. Every time I called them back they didn't seem to ever remember talking to me.

Finally, my boyfriend recommended I talk to a bankruptcy attorney. As it is well known, loans can not be dismissed in Chapter 7. But, my attorney said I could do Chapter 13, which would be a repayment plan of everything on my credit report, which is about $200 a month (which leaves me struggling financially still) plus they take my tax return check every year. In 5 years, my credit cards, my medical bills and anything like that will be wiped off it, but my loans will still be there. It's just to stave them off until I have a better paying job.

I feel so helpless and drowning in over $100k in debt makes me feel useless. I want to start a future with my boyfriend but I can't help but know that I am holding him back. That I can't buy a home with him. I can't start a business idea that I have in mind.

If I knew then what I know now, I would've made radically difference choices regarding my future.

In 1991, I graduated 3rd in my large high school. I took all of the AP courses and actually rec'd full scholarships to 3 schools of my choosing. I made my choice and matriculated as a Pre-Med major at a school approx 60 miles from my home. My only expenses were dorm and meal expenses. Fast forward 3 years and I worked my first few shifts in the hospital while taking an EMT basic course that was required. I hated it, every minute of it. I talked to a lot of the docs at the hospital and they were all working 70-90 hours per week. They all said they made plenty of money but had no personal life at all. I decided that I needed to seriously think about my decision to pursue medicine as a career. In high school, I was injured in football and after 2-3 weeks of severe neck pain, my mom took me to a chiropractor. He treated me 2x and the pain was completely gone. I injured my low back water skiing and could hardly walk and the same chiropractor worked on me a couple of times and fixed me right up. My favorable past experiences with chiropractic and my negative experience with medicine prompted me to look into chiropractic as a career choice.

I talked to my old chiropractor, as well as several other chiropractors and a local DO, who all said that a career in chiropractic was a great choice. I finished up a few prereqs and matriculated to chiropractic college in 1995. The school was divided into 14 quarters and my tuition started at approx $2300/qtr but increased to almost $3400/qt toward the end. Every time the Fed'l student loan program increased our loans, the school would 'magically' increase the cost of tuition to match. I worked weekends to make ends meet and I graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1998 with approx $100k in federally guaranteed student loans.

There were 3 chiropractors in my town when I went to chiro college. 2 were elderly and planning on retiring soon and one was a young guy that was seeing A LOT of patients and making a ton of money. When I graduated, there were 5 chiropractors in my city. I started working with the young, busy doc and was paid the princely sum of $500/week for the first 3 months b/c I didn't have many patients and that was just to get me started. After that, I had a small patient base and worked for a 50% commission and made approx $32k my first year. Of course, I was making loan payments of $1000/month after my 6 month grace period. The doctor I was working for did not adhere to our agreement and began missing work a great deal of the time b/c I would cover for him. I finally quit the practice after about 18 months. I decided I would open my own practice in 1999. I made my student loan payments each month.

I put my loans on forbearance for 12 months while I tried to get my practice off the ground. That put an additional $8000 on my principal. I then started making payments again and I was strapped. I decided I needed to do something. I wound up consolidating my loans which dropped my payments to $750/month for 30 YEARS AT 7.75% interest! I know it was stupid, but I felt I had no other options. Since that time, I've made every loan payment even though sometimes I really couldn't afford to make the payment. To date, I have repaid approx $120K on my loan of $100k. I just checked my balance and I still owe $87K. Frustration is not a strong enough word for that. I closed my practice about 4 years ago and now work for a medical clinic and make less than $50K per year. Much less after I pay my malpractice, yearly licensing fees, etc. But I still have to make those $750 payments every month.

Over the years, I have checked on ways to reduce my payments or reduce my interest rate. My credit score is stellar. I have a very modest home and drive an econocar that I paid cash for a few years ago ($4000). I have a wife who works and 2 young children and we barely make ends meet each month. My house payment is only $500/month and we have a car payment on her vehicle.

I don't necessarily want to bankrupt my loans. I simply want to be able to get a reduced interest rate. I hear about students consolidating at 2-3% but I'm stuck at almost 8%. I abhor my student loans and they are an albatross around my neck. I want to change careers and become a school teacher (I'm almost 40) in order to have insurance and retirement but I cannot make my student loan payments on a teacher's salary. I will have to get on IBR and hope that I can stay employed for 10 years and qualify for PSLF. But, to do this, my loans will have to be consolidated thru the Fed'l Direct system and my balance will go back to my original principal balance of $100k. I have worked so hard to get it down to $87K that it will be tough to watch it go back to $100k. Then I will have to pray that congress doesn't change the game and kill PSLF or IBR before the debt is actually forgiven.

Student loans have absolutely "semiruined" my life. Furthermore, chiropractic reimbursement and utilization continue to decrease and I barely have enough patients to keep myself employed. I have to get off of this sinking ship but I'm fully aware that I'm jumping into the water with the "student loan anchor" firmly chained to my foot. The real losers in this game are my wife and children. I've yet to be able to save a dime for my retirement or my children's college expenses. I feel like a "working deadbeat." Only through the grace of God have I been able to stay afloat all this time. My only significant regrets in my life are going to chiropractic school and taking out huge loans to do so.

It seems like a bad dream.

Why did I go to a for profit university? For starters, I had extremely unsupportive parents, even though my dad is a multi-millionaire and COULD have helped, he didn't and still chooses not to. My mother gets over $2,000 a month from him in a property settlement from their divorce and works full time, yet somehow cannot manage her bills or seem to help any of her three kids. Every employer I worked for did NOT offer tuition reimbursement so if I wanted to get educated, because I made between $8-$10/hr I had no choice but to take out student loans and I was working full time, so a normal university was not an option. At the time I was married to someone who I thought was supportive and would understand WHY you have to pay back student loans ASAP. Instead all he did was take my income and spend, spend, spend. I was really young and naive when I married him. My father kept telling me that education, education, education was the way to a great paying job and that if I would just get my MBA, I would get a fantastic job offer and I would be able to pay my loans back within 5-7 years. HA! To my great surprise, my MBA got me a max offer of 32K annually with over 100K in student loan debt. As soon as I graduated, my spouse at the time left me for someone who did not have student loan obligations. Being that I was now divorced......and working for 32K a year...and having a car payment at the time....I had no choice but to defer my loans.....BIG mistake....still have 104K balance and now NO job and no sight of any job......also remarried which I made the new spouse aware of these student loans and that I HAVE to pay them back before we married.....however.....now he refuses to help me, does not contribute to the household expenses and doesn't think he has any obligation to do so(I was unaware of this until after we married at the courthouse, obviously couldn't afford a wedding). Looking at what I know being an Accounting and Finance major, I will NEVER be able to purchase a home, a new vehicle or have a family and with an uncooperative spouse, what am I supposed to do? I don't want pity.....I just want the decent paying job that I was promised if I earned my MBA.....instead though I will probably end up divorced again, not that I blame my husband for not wanting to have to help with student loans....(now the household expenses, he does need to contribute to those, he lives and consumes),anyway.....I will most likely end up divorced, alone and working two or three crappy jobs and living in the ghetto just so I can get out of these student loans. My millionaire father should be ashamed.....but if I don't take care of my parents in their old age.....not really my fault......they get what they deserve. Meanwhile where I have worked in the past, many others have had their parents assist them with education costs, help them make the right contacts to get the better paying jobs....things both of my parents could be doing......but they don't and won't so I get stuck with the nightmare of these student loans, don't sleep most nights worrying about how I am going to deal with them. I will figure it out one way or another, but I believe the American Dream is gone and it is hopeless for many out there. Just wish I had never gone to college.....it is totally worthless.

I graduated with a poli sci degree & intended to go to law school. However, my university didn't transfer my transcripts correctly, & by the time I caught it, it was too late. I intended to take a year off, then go back, but being in the "real world" & working, it just got too expensive & I couldn't go back. I did have a decent job & was able to pay my student loans for a time. My boyfriend & I ended up pregnant & after a couple of years, he dumped me for a younger, prettier version who was from a well-off family & didn't have a child to prevent her from being able to go out to bars with him every night, which apparently is what he wants from life. I do not recieve child support; he is currently +$10,000 behind, & the prosecutor's office where we filed doesn't care apparently. Oh, & this woman flung our dog off a balcony & killed it about a month ago. Nice upgrade on his part, huh? Because I was having to foot the entire bill for our child at this point, despite having a decent job, I ended up defaulting on my $450 a month in student loans. I lost my job back in October & now make $7.45 an hr, working 24 hrs a wk. I haven't been able to find anything around here, as most of my work experience is in retail & I'm living with my parents in a town that doesn't even have a real walmart. Any interviews I have are more than 2 hrs away. However, I'm in the final stages on 2 of them, so hopefully I'll have a new job very soon. I was relying on my $4100 tax check to pay my 2 month past due car payment & pay off some other bills to get me back to where I can at least somewhat provide for myself. However, I was notified by the IRS that our wonderful federal government is seizing my tax check in it's entirety. I have struggled to try to stay off welfare for the past 2 years, & was barely doing so. However, I don't care anymore. If the government is going to take my money that I desperately need, fine. I'm going to apply for food stamps, housing, & anything else I can get later on today.

I owe over 100,000 in loans. I attended a private school for my B.A. in Hisory and a state school for my M.ed. I tried teaching but with the economy I was unable to find a job at the time of my graduation so I ventured off and found any job. I have a great job and a good salary. However, my student loan payments are killing me. I pay 1000 a month a that pretty much just covers the interest only. Does anyone have any suggestions. I just do not know what to do. I do not want to go back to teaching. I was very unhappy during my student teaching and realized how the system works and it was just not for me. So now like many people I am stuck with the burden of student loans. I thought college was supposed to be rewarding. Instead it is one of the biggest regrets of my life because I will be in debt for a long time. I would love to buy a house, a new car, eat out at lunch. Instead I am saving every way that I can... HELP!

I suppose my story of woe is like so many out there.

My dad lost every bit of my education fund on 9/11. I tried state university for a year and half. It just wasn't for me - I was becoming someone I didn't like. My boyfriend had joined up in the Marines and was deployed shortly before I decide to move to Vegas. I didn't move go to school, my full time job paying $9.50 an hour transferred too. I moved to give my self some perspective on what was really important and what dreams were worth pursuing. I started by degree at a private school that was barely off the ground and very unorganized. I changed my major to something a bit broader and would provided me with more options after graduating.

With my boyfriend and dad both over seas at the same time, in a war zone, for over a year I paid very little attention to my finances. I concentrated on school and work and slept only when I had to, buying only school supplies and gas - which on a side note is really bad way to lose weight but at least I looked great.

After transferring schools twice and moving around multiple times. I finally graduated from school in March of 2008. I had absolutely 0 understanding in how much debt I had incurred, or how that had happened. Which happen to total more than $155,000. The financial aid office was depressingly unhelpful in their ability to spell out my debt load in terms that I could comprehend.

Regardless I did six month of successful research prior to graduating for potential employers and all available job opportunities in and around my community. I was employed in my hometown within in weeks of graduating in my specialized field with a total of $50 in my wallet.

Four years later and only one job change - still working in my field- I have made less than a $5,000 dent in paying my student loans back. Which is really F-ked up since I paid over $9,000 in interest alone this year! I barely manage to stay afloat with SM payments and daily living. I have no idea what would have become me without the support of my family and sig. other. If I was a different person or somehow less determined I would have stayed in Vegas a became a stripper. But then I think my family would have disowned me.

I need a better car - I won't buy one till the wheels or doors fall off my current one. I try every month to save - that $50 I put in saving goes to gas at the end of every month. My s.o. and I have discussed marriage multiple times, we won't get married til this becomes more manageable. I know I could pay back half it IF the other half disappeared or was bankrupt-able or if I married into money. None of those things is going to happen anytime soon.

After finally understanding how I got to this point, I fail to see any way to pay any of it down, to get it more manageable. Someone asked recently what I would do with extra money if my loans were gone. I couldn't answer right a way, because it was something I had not consider. Here is what I would do - I'd pay back my family for their support, I'd buy my mom a dependable car before I bought mine, I set aside money to care for my parents when they needed it, I would finally pay my sister back for that rent she covered for me, I would save up and pay cash for a house, I might even get to plan my wedding, we could start a family and maybe enjoy living in the moment.

Instead, I rob Peter to pay Paul and ask John to wait 5 days til my next check gets put in the bank. Instead, every month I write down the all the bills, due dates and figure out how to scrap by 'til next month - hoping and praying I can trip over money in the parking lot.

I put my life on hold when I signed my promissory notes. If someone had told me to buy house when I was 18 I had have laughed at them, but the reality is I mortgaged my future and earnings on an economy that isn't going to recover to what it was. The time of risking taking, investing in young professionals, of taking your 1st choice candidate - that is all gone with no sign of returning, recovering or going back. I can only hope someone in DC will start paying attention to what has become a national crisis. If they thought the housing bubble was bad - this is worse. When the student debt load overwhelms the nation, maybe people will finally realize that it not an individuals problem. It's bigger than that .

As of this writing I am 52 years old -- the tail end of the baby boomers.

College was never a topic of discussion growing up in my family and no one in my family had ever gone to college.

During my early adult life I did exactly what I had learned to do, I married and became a homemaker. I was entirely oblivious to the big wide world of education, finance, politics, domestic violence, etc….
It was not until I was 30 that I made the decision to go to college. I was scared out of my mind, but determined.

Not having gone to high school it took some time at community college to reach the point of being able to work at college level.
So I began at my local community college in 1990 where I obtained my AA transfer degree, on to a State University for my BA and then a Private University for my MA where I graduated in 1999. Total amount borrowed was $50,939.

Upon graduation I began making my student loan payments to Sallie Mae and quickly realized it would be impossible to keep up on the high total of the individual payments for these separate loans. I consolidated.

During my time in college my husband was simultaneously supporter and saboteur. Eventually I found myself the victim of domestic violence. In 2001 I filed for divorce. It took 2 years to finalize. The entire 2 year ordeal had all the makings of a Lifetime movie primed for sequels. I lost everything I owned. I was forced into Chapter 13 bankruptcy. For my own safety I moved out of state, changed my name and cut ties with everyone but my family.
I was unable to use my previous licensing without returning to college to meet my new States requirements. I had no money for college and was unwilling to rack up more debt. Even if I met these new requirements I did not want to obtain a credential of public record enabling my ex-husband to more easily locate me. I left my previous life and career behind.

During this 4 year Chapter 13, my student loans were under court-ordered deferment.
Once the Chapter 13 closed it was time again to make my student loan payments which were now nearly $800 a month. Up until this point I was only able to find PT work and unable to make these high payments. I began making Income Contingent payments and never missed one, no matter what the personal cost.
In 2006 I found FT work but did not earn enough to make the full payment and still had to make Income Contingent payments. The highest salary I have earned since graduation is $49,000.

In January 2011 I was laid off. I have yet to find work and my loans are on Unemployment Deferment. My student loan balance continues to grow. As of today that balance is $104,726.

Overview of my loans (not actual costs):

1990-1994
* AA-Community College: $4,466
* Not having graduated from high school it took nearly 4 years at Community College to both get up to college level and graduate with A.A. transfer degree
* Worked PT to supplement

1994 to 1996
* BA-State University: $15,973
* Worked PT to supplement costs

1996 to 1999
* MA-Private University: $34,100
* Internship with small salary helped to supplement

1999
* Total Amount Borrowed: $50,939

2000
* I consolidated all but one loan for $3600. This loan had a very low interest rate so it made sense to pay it separately. I have paid it off.
* Remaining loans of $47,339 were consolidated at 7.625%.

2011
* As of today the balance on consolidated loans are $104,726. I cannot possibly make the full monthly payment on this inflated amount, more than half of which is interest.

I have applied twice to Sallie Mae for IBR. It seems futile. I meet the qualifying criteria but they magically lose my supporting documentation even thought it is mailed in the same envelope as the application, or all transmitted in the same fax.

I have had so much trouble with Sallie Mae over the years. I know I'm not the only one with complaints against them and that for each of mine there may be many who have worse, nevertheless here are a few highlights from my personal experience...

* When I divorced I changed my name. I have submitted a name change form and supporting documentation countless times over the past 10 years and it was just last month (Dec 2011) that they correctly updated my account.

* They have been notorious for losing paperwork of all kinds; IBR application, Income Contingent Payment application, Unemployment Deferral application, Name Change Form and supporting documentation all mysteriously "lost". It doesn't matter if I send it by regular mail, fax or certified mail, its always the same story, either they did not receive the application or they did not receive the supporting documentaion. Not knowing what their records show, I always include my correct AND incorrect name and my account number on each page of every correspondence.

* On several occasions, for periods of up to 10 days at a time, I've been hounded by phone up to 12 times a day being told I'm late on a payment although I've never missed making a payment. After an enormous amount of time, effort and stress on my part I finally got to the bottom of this. It's always the same...I discovered that they did not receive my Income Contingent paperwork. Without this form being received and processed my payment went from the Income Contingent amount back to the full amount and I was therefore delinquent on the difference. Each time this happens they want me to take a deferment or forbearance to cover the "in-between" time.

* In all these years the only thing I have received from them by mail are delinquent notices or payment coupons. Never a form. Never a statement. Never anything else they claim to have mailed to me.

* My Sallie Mae online account became locked and no one would resolve it. I had no access to my account information or online forms for nearly two years. I called many times to request they mail me what I could not access online, they said they would them but never did.

* They sent a letter to a total stranger in my previous city/state of residence (it was not a previous address for me), asking him for my current contact information. To this stranger they provided my name, address and phone number (not safe!). He called me using the phone number Sallie Mae provided him to let me know he received this letter! Each time I talk with Sallie Mae my contact information is confirmed, it's been conformed more times than I can recall. If they don't ask me I make it a point to confirm it with them. It has not changed in 6 years.

* They have sent several letters to my father asking him for my contact information. My father sent these letters to me so I could see with my own eyes that they already showed my current contact information.

* I have contacted the designated Sallie Mae Ombudsman for assistance when I could get nowhere with the phone reps. He talked a good game but did not follow through on most of the items discussed, contact info, name change, sending me the forms I needed, unlocking my online account, etc…

* It seems the entire process is designed to force deferments until they run out and drive me into default. It's like going to Vegas and hoping you can beat the house. The odds are against us.
I always intended to pay what I borrowed. I paid off one small loan, consolidated the others to make them more manageable...then life happened, and it happened in a way I could never have prepared for.

Although I continue trying I will never be free of this debt because I will never earn the kind of money needed to pay it off and because the balance will continue to grow.
With it's usurious practices, including capitalized interest and irresponsible communication, student loans have become noose around my neck. Just think of how much students could spend, contributing to our economy, if we did not have these loans driving us into inescapable poverty.

It's unnerving to listen to the media reports about these loans approaching $1 trillion dollars, and how no one reports on how much of that number is actual money borrowed and how much is the unbelievable interest this industry is allowed to charge!
We also never hear about people my age, and older. Sure we hear a little about older returning students, but that's all. There are many who have, either for their own education or as co-signers for their children, struggled for decades just to make ends meet. They are not buying homes and the other things that drive our economy, they are paying interest upon interest.

There are so many things wrong with this system that I hardly know where to begin. What I do know is this…

* I did not know about capitalized interest until I saw my student loan balance begin to grow. Had I understood capitalized interest I likely would have made a different choice about taking out student loans.

* Short of winning the lottery I will never be able to pay this ever-growing balance.

* Even if/when Sallie Mae gets it together and approves my IBR application I will be in my late 70's when the remaining balance is forgiven. At that point, with capitalized interest over the next 25 years, the balance may be around $400,000. That forgiven balance will become taxable income. I will be living on a monthly Social Security check that will be garnished up to 15% to pay taxes. In effect, my debt will shift from Sallie Mae to the IRS. And Sallie Mae is already being paid by the Federal Government!

I strongly believe we need some form of true student loan forgiveness. How to structure that forgiveness will no doubt be the topic of great controversy...but really, are we going to be a country that hounds our Senior Citizens for debts that can never be collected, driving us into poverty or worse?

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Amend the current IBR program to retroactively begin the year the student started making payments instead of starting the clock from the day they are approved.

2. Forgive based on an age. Age 60 seems reasonable as would give us at least a chance of making small strides toward a late retirement.

3. Change the current tax law regarding forgiven student loan debt so that it is truly "forgiven" rather than paying taxes on that forgiven balance. In the 111th session Rep. Sandy Levin, MI introduced H.R. 2492 which proposed exactly this. It never went anywhere.

At the very least we need the restoration of consumer protections for student loans (both Federal and Private). As it stands, someone can go into excessive debt because of gambling and have those debts discharged in bankruptcy. At the same time, those of us who have worked hard for a better life and made continual and sincere efforts to make good on these loans are treated like second class citizens by not affording us the relief afforded to any other kind of debt.

It has taken nearly 10 years of extremely hard work, on so many levels, to get back on my feet and to restore my credit. I am not thrilled at the prospect of filing bankruptcy again. But I am even less thrilled with the prospect of living in abject poverty as a Senior Citizen.

I know that many will not consider this option palatable, feasible, or even remotely possible, but I thought i'd take a moment to share my own personal sacrifice/success story.

Here's a little background:

* 1998 I embarked on very costly Professional Pilot training, incurring more than $35K in student loans
* 2001 I changed my major from Professional Pilot to Aerospace (9/11 was part of the reason as pilots were being laid off in droves.) Incurred another $15K in loans to obtain the BS in Aerospace degree
* 2005 I enrolled in a Master's degree program, incurring another $30K in loans.

Although my educational path was not exactly straight, I have enjoyed what I consider to be a successful career in aviation so far. My salary has been in the $60-70K area for about 4 years now and all indicators point to continued growth. Accordingly, I have been able to pay my monthly student loans (never late, never defaulted), as well as my other living expenditures and loans. That's not to say that times weren't tight occasionally, but I have managed to stay above water.

However, with that amount of debt, I grew mentally anxious knowing that i'd be making monthly SL payments for a large chunk of my working years. This of course on top of a house that i'd like to buy at some point in the near future. All of this got me to thinking "how can I pay this debt off faster?" Aside from imposing a severe austerity plan on myself, the options were very limited.

Here's what I did: I went to Iraq to work for a year as a civilian contractor.

Like I said earlier, this may not be palatable or even feasible for many (or most), but I decided that a one year sacrifice far outweighed the 15 years (or more) that I would be paying on my loans. Those 15+ years didn't seem all that appealing to me if the end result was to hamper my ability to buy a house, raise a family, buy a car, go on vacation, etc.

To be honest, it's the best decision I have ever made. Even though I resigned from a good paying, upwardly progressive position, the fact that I am now debt free makes that good job seem completely irrelevant in the grand scheme.

I didn't go there to build my resume, I went there to make money. But I did find my way into a management position in my field of aviation. This was a very welcome surprise and excellent opportunity. My salary was $180K, including all hazardous pay uplifts. Also, the first $91,500 was tax-free, which is what put me over the top in paying my student loans off.

Here's what I experienced: It was extremely hot there. I lived in a CHU (containerized housing unit) with A/C and a small bathroom/shower. Management CHU's get a bathroom, non-managment CHU's did not have a bathroom and shared a community bathroom of 10+ showers and toilets. Sharing a bathroom is not as bad as it sounds. Consider it no different then going to the showers/bathroom at your local gym. Nothing a person can't handle. I was fed 3 full meals daily at an all you can eat dining facility. The work hours were long......I worked 84 hour weeks (12 hours X 7 days per week), but you put yourself in a work mindset and its not as bad as it sounds. It was literally the fastest year of my life. It came and went in a blink it feels like.

Why am I posting this? Because I know what it feels like to be under the crushing weight of student loans. Those loans were an obligation I took upon myself, and I feel like I have benefited out of the education that they provided. But more importantly, I just wanted to provide my experience and maybe help out someone who may not have even given this option a thought.

Is it right for everyone? No, absolutely not. But if you have a solid work ethic and are willing to sacrifice a year out of your life to free yourself from crushing student loan debt, I personally think it is an option worth looking into. I'm personally glad I made the decision to go to Iraq, as I am now 100% debt free.

PS....I have no vested interest in prodding people to work in Iraq, Afghanistan, or any other foreign locale. This is my experience only. Maybe it will help someone.

During college I made an enormous mistake: I accumulated $83,786 in student loan debt. I left school in 1998,consolidated my loans at 7% interest, and paid from $200-300 a month for 5 years on an income sensitive repayment plan through Sallie Mae. Currently my loans are held by American Education Services/ISM (sub and unsub) and total a staggering $140,000. My debt has increased because I have not been able to pay enough per month to even keep up with the interest that is accruing. IBR (Income-based) payments have helped greatly in that I pay a percentage of my income, and I am not in default, but it doesn’t allow me to make any headway on my debt. I re-consolidated during a brief time where the law allowed it, at the advice of the Student Loan Relief Organization (to whom I paid $1,000 for their advice) and the College Debt Corp., but that only helped in that it bought me some time. My current interest rate is fixed at 7.625%. I DO NOT intend to default on my student loans. I DO plan to pay them back. I understand that I will likely be paying on this the rest of my life, well into retirement. I have no other blemishes at all on my credit history. I am not past due. I have little likelihood of a windfall or other dramatic means of paying this off ahead of schedule, or even to make the regular payments of $1,000+ per month. I have a B.S. in Music & Psychology and a Master of Music in Voice, so it is not likely my income will increase dramatically over my lifetime. I currently make roughly $50,000/year working for a large non-profit (I am terrified my employer will learn of this debt), soI WILL be paying this back well into retirement (I am now 46 years old). In my current circumstances, I cannot pay $1,000 or more per month. I know that I got myself into this situation,but it distresses me that my horrible judgment during one period of my life is likely to impact my life negatively forever. It was SHOCKINGLY EASY to borrow enormous amounts in student loans. I don't plan to have kids, and thank god this loan will not pass on to anyone when I die. If I could get my/any lender to lower my interest rate, or stop charging interest, and just let me pay off the principal with a monthly payment I can handle, I could gain some ground, rather than continuing to increase my debt load year after year. However, I'm not aware of any way that this can be done. I am very fearful of living the rest of my life with this hanging over my head,not knowing what the possible consequences could be. Thank you for letting me share my story. I definitely believe the federal student loan program needs reform. We need to help keep other students from getting into this situation. Thank you so much for your efforts to help protect students and families.

Being a single mother of 2, I decided to return to school as a full-time student in the medical field to provide a better living for my growing family. In the beginning, I thought it would be ideal to not have to live paycheck to paycheck and to be able enjoy the finer things in life for me and my family, but I was wrong. I admit that I do owe some of the $50,000 + in student loans but the interest rate is really really to high. How can you owe this much when you were only borrowing $2520 a school semester . I have been searching for a job in my field of study only to find that it doesn't pay as much as expected in the state where I live and furthermore, you have to continue on in the medical field to be able to repay the high cost of the education. How can you possibly repay that huge amount of a loan on an income that pays less than the amount that is owed on the loan? With the economy the way it is today, it will take some people a life-time to repay their loan especially when the accrued interest is forever rising because it is taking them longer to repay.

In 2004 I was recently divorced and moving to New York to attend graduate school. At this time I was unfamiliar with the debacle of student loans as I had enough scholarships, work study and help from family to thankfully get through my BA without any debt. When I was accepted and turned in my financial aid paperwork I assumed that with zero financial assets I would receive some financial aid at least. I desperately needed to go and I was making a giant leap of faith. NYU sent me a letter saying that they recommended that I take 26, 000 in loans for my tuition from citibank, as all of their students had been so pleased with their services. Let it be known that NYU has been found guilty in court for receiving 1.4 million dollars in kickbacks from Citibank in conjunction with these student loan recommendations. I was accepted to the art therapy program, which means that I make less than a social worker.
I never received any financial aid, despite the fact that I requested it and applied for the small need based scholarships through NYU at a time when I occasionally had to pay my rent with a credit card. I took out extra money from government loans to help pay expenses while I worked for free at my internships, worked extra days to make money, went to class and wrote papers overnight. I had no problem with the workload. I knew I was going to take on a big challenge and I was happy to put in all the effort that I could.
Upon graduating I began working full time at a hospital for 30,000 a year. This gave me two paychecks a month for about 900 after taxes. My student loan bills for the month were about 850$. I found another position that paid about 40,000 and managed to pay my loans consistently for about 4 years. The payments were reduced to about 650 a month due to variable interest. The budget was extremely tight. I went one winter in NYC without any heat. I eat simply, I entertain myself. I read a lot of hand me down books, I find good second hand deals on most things.
Trying to capitalize on my professional skills and create more opportunities for myself and others I co founded a small arts non profit. I cut some of the hours at my regular job to put in more time to build the organization. Eventually, as I had ethical issues with my partner's behavior I chose to resign from this organization. Since then I have been working only 3 days a week at my regular position and making a few extra dollars through painting or freelance work.
In October 2011 I began missing payments. The government loan was happy to offer deferment as they will continuously add interest. Citibank was another story entirely. After just one month missed I began receiving multiple phone calls a day, harassing and bullying were par for the course, though one or two agents did advise me to just ignore the calls until I had a solution. One agent claimed that Citibank was legally obligated to contact all co signers should I go even 30 days past the due date. I contested this and asked him to name a co signer on my loan, because I did not have one. Still I was terrified that they would go after my family. Whatever consequences that came to me were mine to handle, but my parents will retire soon. Soon I found out that they were only trying to frighten me. As I had nothing to pay them with at all, the story continued.
In December they called in the loan and asked me to pay them 45, 000. I explained that if I didn't have 400$ I clearly did not have 45,000. I offered to pay 100$ a month as I thought I could reasonably make that promise. They did not accept my offer, nor did they make a counter offer, I requested mediation through the Better Business Bureau and received a response saying that I should pay them immediately. I left messages with volunteer lawyer services and never received a return call. I contacted the financial services through 311 ( a city informational service in NYC), but it was clear that they can only provide the most basic advise, such as "put your money in a bank and save it", not how to make money, invest money, or protect your money from unaccountable thieves.
My loans defaulted shortly after this. I wondered why it was more profitable for them to turn the loan over to collectors than it was to take a smaller amount from me? How do they profit from such a fast default? With negotiations I could have paid them something. I offered to make some payment every time I spoke with a citibank official, but the answer was always the same, pay everything now or pay nothing. Despite my repeated effort at negotiations they claimed that I was unwilling to pay. When the "customer service" agent told me I had to pay 45,000 now or else and I explained that I didn't even make that in a year, she said, "Well, that is your choice." It is certainly not my choice. It's just basic math. If I sold everything I own it wouldn't add up to 45, 000 dollars!

Then of course the debt collectors began calling, repeatedly, lying, threatening, bullying, also unwilling to accept a payment amount that I could afford. They also labeled me as "unwilling to pay" though I repeatedly told them I could pay 100$ a month. Eventually someone called me and said he would accept 100$ if I immediately gave him my account information and set up an automatic payment. Warily, I looked through all the consumer protection information on student loans as fast as I could. They all advised against this, stating that the debt collectors often take out exorbitant fees without warning you. With my budget so tight, this could cause my other payments to bounce. When I spoke to the agent again and asked for a contract in writing, he refused. He berated me for not paying. I said I would be happy to pay if there was a written contract. He continued to berate me and refused any written contract. I find it very strange that they cannot accept my money when I offer it with a request for a fair agreement.

More research showed that I could write some complaints, but there was little chance that there would be any action against their company. I no longer speak to them and so far my family has no idea what is going. Thankfully no one else is legally tied to this loan. I am the only one they can go after. I still am not able to pay. I did read some newspaper articles about a Citibank VP being put on trial for human trafficking last year. This doesn't make me feel bad for not paying them. If I thought that my inability to pay might actually be a message to them that the system isn't working and the market needs to correct itself, I wouldn't mind so much. I have a feeling though that they are really profiting off this debt. Somewhere they are making more money from defaulting us than they would by changing their tactics.

I wish lots of hope and courage to everyone who is going through this. I know at times I have been very frightened. I do sometimes consider leaving the country, though I don't have money at the moment to start a new life somewhere. I do know that when I have been at the end of my rope, encouragement comes. Hang in there.

I am the youngest of seven children born in San Antonio, Texas. Growing up, what we lacked in finances my mother overcame with love and my father with his wit. My father would always tell me “the most important thing in life is your education and no one can take that away from you.” So at an early age I was determined to go to college. Despite the fact my parents had no money and no one in my family had attempted it before, I was going to do it. That was easier said than done. There were many times when I was another statistic. I was in a violent dating relationship while in high school and my life was in danger every day. I was the pregnant 16 year old Latina but luckily didn’t drop out of school.
I rose above and finished high school and applied to college. I had no idea how I was going to pay for my higher education so I did what I knew best. I WORKED. I worked several jobs while at UW-Madison but still had to take out student loans. Now going to college sounded like a great idea but in actuality was one of the toughest times in my life. I was alone; away from home, family, and friends and experienced the pain and humiliation of discrimination. I graduated in 2003 and the following year decided to pursue my graduate degree. Again, I had no idea how I was going to pay for it but was determined to just do it. I worked several jobs while in graduate school but had to take out more student loans. I graduated in 2006 with my MSW, the first in my family to have a graduate degree (a good statistic) but with over $60,000 in student loan debt (bad statistic). A family member told me taking out that much money was the dumbest idea they had ever heard and laughed at me.
At the time, I figured it was the price I had to pay in order to live the good life. My husband and I moved to Austin, TX in December 2010 and I was excited to be close to home. I turned 30 and was looking forward to starting a family. However, my dreams were put on hold. I was unemployed for over six months and desperate for work. I managed to find part time work but it was not nearly enough to pay my student loans. I had become a sad statistic, “American with a college degree unable to find work during the recession.” I read an advertisement in a newspaper about a contract social work position overseas and applied. I never thought I would get it and did not want to leave my husband. But after weighing my other options, I decided this was the best move for me financially. I want to be debt free before I have a family.
Here I am now sitting alone in Germany, over 5,000 miles away from my husband, family and friend. As many of you know working as a social worker does not pay well. Someone close to me once said “you’re a drain on society.” Meaning my work was paid by government dollars and did not turn a profit. I would like to believe that all my work with domestic violence survivors, violent men, troubled youth and military families is not in vain. This was my choice and I am doing the responsible thing by paying my debt. Another family member told me this was the most selfish thing they had ever heard…moving across the globe for money. That hurt. I just want some respect for what I have chosen to do with my life. Here I am, riddled with student loan debt, ridiculed by some, alone in a foreign country and unable to start a family all for the “American Dream” but I still have courage. It is a high cost to pay and I’m sure I am not the only one.