But I'm not carrying an average student loan. I'm one of those lucky people who graduated with an above average student loan debt. (Unfortunately I could not say the same for my CGPA)
How much? Try around $42,000 when I finally went into debt repayment following the grace period. (for the second time, but that's another story)
Yeah, I don't just owe the Canadian and Ontario government a standard car, I owed them a luxury vehicle... or at the very least a sports brand.
So what does a $42,000 student debt loan mean? Well, on a standard repayment plan, you have to pay close to $480 dollars a month in order to pay it off with interest in 10 years!!! So for 10 years, give or take a month or two, you're paying the government $480 of your monthly earnings. Your starting interest costs (at 5.5%) is also $178 dollars a month and accrued daily, meaning it added around $6 dollars a day to my "money owed" total.
How much is $480 a month to me? $480 is more than I currently pay in rent. $480 is close to 25% of my regular income from my full-time job. $480 is A LOT of money.
Is there a way out of dealing with the full burden? Well if you're income is low enough, you can qualify for debt repayment assistance, a program set up by the Canadian government to help students who go into repayment but don't earn the salary in which to pay back their debt. (Though mostly, they just pay your interest (or partially pay your interest) so that your debt does not continue to spiral. They don't pay your debt for you... most of the time)
I was in assistance for the first six months I went into repayment due to only earning a pittance at a paid internship at the time and therefore had my interest forgiven by the government during that time.
But now I am not in student loan assistance. I eventually managed to turn my internship into a full-time job, but with the full-time status came a glorious pay raise... but a raise that conveniently just bumped me into a salary bracket that meant I was no longer considered "low income", regardless of the fact that around 25% of my salary going to my student loans generally means I'm not really making a whole lot of money either way.
(I'm really just gripping here... mostly because my situation could be much much much much much worse than it is now and I'm well aware of that having both witnessed and for a time lived it)
So... I live a life with an enormous student debt and with more or less only an entry level job to support it. Not the easiest thing for anyone to deal, and yet a lot of people not only live under these same circumstances, they live under it with much less earned or with more things to worry about, like children or maybe even a car payment.
I'm not writing this as a precursor to sharing a 'how I plan to repay what's left of my student loan in one year or less' story, although if I managed that it would be awesome but would probably require a lottery jackpot win in there somewhere. My story is about being mindful about my money. Setting realistic goals and then doing what I can to exceed them. And along the way hopefully paying down that enormous student debt before the next decade rolls around.
Am I not setting high enough goals for myself? Some would say yes. But those people aren't me and I happen to know that I generally don't make an effort on things I decide are impossible (even when it's not really) or if I stop caring about it (a real danger as I lose interest in things and get restless ALL THE TIME. Prime example is this blog *pokes*).
The point of this is for me to keep on caring, keep on working and above all else stay aware.
It's more than I can say I managed to do in my previous years. Which is a start.
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