JENN I feel this SO MUCH. My loans from undergrad + an MFA + MA + PhD are 6 figures (insert screaming emoji here). Sometimes I fall into a shame spiral ("why didn't I have the financial literacy to know NOT to take so many loans?!"), other times I feel jealous of my friends who have gotten loan forgiveness/never took loans, and then other times I can feel compassion and tell myself that I needed those loans to supplement abysmal TA funding and I needed to buy a car to live in small town MA. Since I can't work 40 hours a week in an office or on campus for health reasons, I never even considered PSLF as an option. Right now I'm doing a loan payment plan that is really cheap (phew!), but I do feel nervous about the future with my loans, like I'll be paying them forever. I'm grateful you're sharing your experience here to make it feel less taboo to talk about!
KATE! Thanks so much for also sharing your story with us. There need to be many more avenues for forgiveness than just PSLF, because, as you rightly note, going to a traditional office job is not feasible for many people. And I feel you on the financial literacy part. I'm often like, "I'm a really smart person who manages money well elsewhere; how did I let this happen?" I honestly think that at the time I was making those decisions to borrow, I had no real understanding of future earning potential and the effects of snowballing interest. I understood in theory, but not in practice and the "practice" has been sobering. I'm glad to hear you're on a cheaper plan but I really hope that the government keeps working toward forgiveness because it's so hard to be bound to that kind of debt for so long. Solidarity, my friend.
The snowballing interest caused my balance to increase to more than 5 times what I borrowed. In the last 2 or 3 years of my dissertation,my spouse experienced a series of health problems culminating in his early retirement for health reasons. A multi-year battle with Social Security disability followed. We lived on my income but sometimes we couldn’t pay both medical bills and student loan payments. Every time I stopped and restarted student loan payments, the unpaid interest was capitalized. By the time my spouse received SS, I had a loan balance well into 6 figures. If I had been the one disabled, my balance could have been discharged. There were no options for someone like me who was supporting a disabled spouse. And while his health problems prevented him from working, they were not severe enough to require me staying home and caring for him. The latter would have provided a path to forgiveness. I also received some bad in formation when I consolidated my loans in between undergrad and grad. I was advised to consolidate all my loans, including the PLUS loans I took out for my daughter. As a result, when I started repayment, I only qualified for ICR, meaning my payments were twice what they would have been under IBR. But the payment pause and the adjustments that came during the pandemic accelerated my payment count. I received loan forgiveness (and a refund for overpayment) last year. The system is broken.
Julia, thank you so much for sharing your story with us. Yes, indeed, the system is so broken and it makes it so that the people who need the most help, such as your family, feel the burden so much more. I'm so glad that your loans have been forgiven, but your story makes it even clearer that so many more people need this level of reprieve.
Wow. Thank you for unshaming this and sharing your story Jenn. So important for others in your field to be able to read about your journey.
This is one of the many unfair systems in our country, which put such a heavy burden on those who are trying to do the 'right' thing, but someone under a broken system.
I was fortunate in that my graduate education was mostly before the scandalous increase in costs.
On your new venture a couple of resources to consider:
- eResidency - Form an EU company in Estonia to run your business. (https://www.e-resident.gov.ee/). This won't qualify for a Dutch residency permit but is makes life much easier with the business taxation. First EUR 40K is VAT free.
- Practice.do. Take a look at some of the folks around this app, especially Ama La Vida. I use it for coaching doctoral students.
Good luck on the move. AMS is a very cool place you will find some kindred souls in the likes of the Free University, Breda Technical University or Twente University.
JENN I feel this SO MUCH. My loans from undergrad + an MFA + MA + PhD are 6 figures (insert screaming emoji here). Sometimes I fall into a shame spiral ("why didn't I have the financial literacy to know NOT to take so many loans?!"), other times I feel jealous of my friends who have gotten loan forgiveness/never took loans, and then other times I can feel compassion and tell myself that I needed those loans to supplement abysmal TA funding and I needed to buy a car to live in small town MA. Since I can't work 40 hours a week in an office or on campus for health reasons, I never even considered PSLF as an option. Right now I'm doing a loan payment plan that is really cheap (phew!), but I do feel nervous about the future with my loans, like I'll be paying them forever. I'm grateful you're sharing your experience here to make it feel less taboo to talk about!
KATE! Thanks so much for also sharing your story with us. There need to be many more avenues for forgiveness than just PSLF, because, as you rightly note, going to a traditional office job is not feasible for many people. And I feel you on the financial literacy part. I'm often like, "I'm a really smart person who manages money well elsewhere; how did I let this happen?" I honestly think that at the time I was making those decisions to borrow, I had no real understanding of future earning potential and the effects of snowballing interest. I understood in theory, but not in practice and the "practice" has been sobering. I'm glad to hear you're on a cheaper plan but I really hope that the government keeps working toward forgiveness because it's so hard to be bound to that kind of debt for so long. Solidarity, my friend.
The snowballing interest caused my balance to increase to more than 5 times what I borrowed. In the last 2 or 3 years of my dissertation,my spouse experienced a series of health problems culminating in his early retirement for health reasons. A multi-year battle with Social Security disability followed. We lived on my income but sometimes we couldn’t pay both medical bills and student loan payments. Every time I stopped and restarted student loan payments, the unpaid interest was capitalized. By the time my spouse received SS, I had a loan balance well into 6 figures. If I had been the one disabled, my balance could have been discharged. There were no options for someone like me who was supporting a disabled spouse. And while his health problems prevented him from working, they were not severe enough to require me staying home and caring for him. The latter would have provided a path to forgiveness. I also received some bad in formation when I consolidated my loans in between undergrad and grad. I was advised to consolidate all my loans, including the PLUS loans I took out for my daughter. As a result, when I started repayment, I only qualified for ICR, meaning my payments were twice what they would have been under IBR. But the payment pause and the adjustments that came during the pandemic accelerated my payment count. I received loan forgiveness (and a refund for overpayment) last year. The system is broken.
Julia, thank you so much for sharing your story with us. Yes, indeed, the system is so broken and it makes it so that the people who need the most help, such as your family, feel the burden so much more. I'm so glad that your loans have been forgiven, but your story makes it even clearer that so many more people need this level of reprieve.
Wow. Thank you for unshaming this and sharing your story Jenn. So important for others in your field to be able to read about your journey.
This is one of the many unfair systems in our country, which put such a heavy burden on those who are trying to do the 'right' thing, but someone under a broken system.
No real advice here, just saying I see you.
Thank you, my friend!
I was fortunate in that my graduate education was mostly before the scandalous increase in costs.
On your new venture a couple of resources to consider:
- eResidency - Form an EU company in Estonia to run your business. (https://www.e-resident.gov.ee/). This won't qualify for a Dutch residency permit but is makes life much easier with the business taxation. First EUR 40K is VAT free.
- Practice.do. Take a look at some of the folks around this app, especially Ama La Vida. I use it for coaching doctoral students.
Good luck on the move. AMS is a very cool place you will find some kindred souls in the likes of the Free University, Breda Technical University or Twente University.