Quote:
Originally Posted by molson
The refund is ultimately going pay for my wedding this year. Otherwise, I was a bit over-extended on that (that wedding planning shit has a way of expanding past your initial expectations).
The extra income isn't a huge life-changer for me on a month-to-month basis, I was paid ahead on the loans, they were were locked in at a very low interest rate when I consolidated years ago, so I mostly just paid a little here and there to make sure the balance didn't increase, but it otherwise it made more sense to pay those slowly. So I may not be the right person to settle your argument. But most of the extra money will go towards my retirement accounts and paying down a HELOC balance (which may have the effect of me feeling a little more willing to spend on stuff like home improvements).
I started at $120k debt for college + law school in 2006 (way too much to take on, but, I was young and dumb and felt like I was at a dead end in life and my career, so I went for it.) Paid aggressively for a while, got about $20k in grants from my law school for doing public service along the way. I've had the last $45k for a few years now between paying only the interest, and the not paying at all during the COVID pause.
So I'm probably not the most sympathetic loan forgiveness recipient now in that they're not a huge life obstacle, but, I had a lot of lean years with this hovering over me, and my retirement investments were definitely delayed by years as I took that debt on.
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Thanks.
My brother in law is a financial genius. He was two steps below Jamie Dimon before he retired at the age of 48 to race cars. We have often discussed the student loan situation and he is in agreement with me that it would be an amazing stimulus to the economy since most people would use the extra money to go out to eat more, purchase a new vehicle, etc...so your wedding example backs that up somewhat.