Manage Your Loans

Today I was checking out the Manage Your Loans section of the Sallie Mae website. I checked my e-mail here and there because I forget my username/password combination so I figured, maybe I got my username wrong. On my hotmail account I receive a MSN Money newsletter from one of the Women in Red columnists and they have a blog on MSN Spaces (really long introduction for how I got to this particular article/story, so bear with me).

On that MSN Space there is a story about Student Loans. There are really many questions we must ask about student loans, but I will get more into that in a little while.

After finding this post I did a google search for 60 minutes and Sallie Mae and came up with this Inside Higher Education article and the 60 Minutes article on the story.

Now, if you take all the information from those articles and posts, read a few of the comment sections, etc., then you may come out feeling like, if you have loans from Sallie Mae, you might be getting cheated somewhere down the line.

I am waiting for deferment paperwork from my school (because apparently my school is supposed to give me the paperwork) so I will not use my grace period and I can get my checks from work (TAship) and pay down my student loan debt, and my husband's student loan debt. We live on a budget, relatively, and are cutting back costs here and there so we can be ok. We may be moving to another apartment complex soon (thank goodness) that is closer to my new school, which is very good for me, and closer to his parents (in-laws, not good - but eh, it's temporary). But we have most of our debt under control, for the most part.

Maybe it is because I am a fanatic about numbers and continue to look at the bottom line when it comes to finances. Paying yourself is great, paying down debt is better. Maybe I think this because the interest rate on my savings account sucks and I would so much rather put an extra $100 on my last credit card or my student loan interest than to put it in my savings account, if the money is going to sit there anyways then I should let it work for me, right? Let us say you are in my case, I have not so great credit. I have been paying my bills on time (finally) and have paid off 2 out of 3 credit cards. I only have about $500 in credit card debt right now which I could pay off but am not doing so because we need to get over the "hump" that is our wedding. Once the wedding costs have gone away I will feel perfectly comfortable with paying off my debt with any remaining funds (but I honestly do not think there will be any remaining funds after all is said and done).

So I'm not exactly swimming in debt, although I have borrowed $23,169 from Sallie Mae and owe $355.04 in interest which adds up to $23,524.04. More money than I make in a year, but not nearly as bad as some other people I know of. If everyone would commit to living below their means then maybe we wouldn't live with so much debt. But our society is over-flowing with capitalism and abundance. Buy this, try that, subscribe, lease, purchase. What does this mean for the consumer? Make money or starve? I am sure that people could minimize and still live comfortably. My fiance and I do not have a luxurious apartment, we don't even own a television, but we eat and sleep and I have my computer, which is pretty entertaining most of the time (my addiction to World of Warcraft is what is keeping me from blogging). But my ideal world where people avoid debt as much as possible is not a reality.

Oh well, maybe someone will read this post and the next time they go to the grocery store they look for a cheaper bread, just a few cents here and a few cents there and they might send in an extra payment for their credit card debt or their student loans or add to their retirement - or something. Or maybe my post will fall upon the dead radio silence that can be the internet, who knows.

The good news (unrelated to finances/loans) is that I am trying to clean up the apartment this week in order to minimize our stuff before we have tons of visitors in July for the wedding. I am positive that my family is going to want to see the apartment and am also just as positive that they will be absolutely shocked if it is in its' present state. Woe is me for cleaning is my task for the next couple of weeks. Wish me luck, maybe I will publish pictures soon (if I can find the digital camera... where did we leave it?).