Surprises

We decided that we would use our tax return to help pay off one of Phil's smaller loans. I was so excited. Making payments is nice, but paying off a loan in full just feels so good. We got our return, calculated the total payoff amount (principal plus accrued interest) and sent in the payment (around $5000). I checked it everyday until it processed and showed a zero balance. It felt like such a victory, not only did it bring our total loan balance below $100,000, I was also so proud of us for using our return to help pay off the debt instead of blowing it on something else.

Then, a couple days later Phil was looking at some stuff for school and said, "I don't think our total loan amount is right." What?! Both of us keep track of and talk about our money, but I spend the most time on our budget and paying bills. I had been tracking these loans regularly since we were married so I didn't know what he was talking about. He then explained that he had also taken out a loan directly from his school, it isn't a federal loan like all of the others so it doesn't show up on the website that I usually look at. It was for $16,000.

Phil wasn't trying to hide this from me, he just hadn't thought to specifically show it to me and I didn't know to look for it. I almost cried. We had just paid off that small loan, and even though $5000 seems like nothing compared to $100,000, it felt like a lot. It felt like progress. Now we had even more debt, A LOT more debt.

This experience helped me learn a few things. First, make sure both spouses can see everything that has to do with money. Phil had been seeing that number in his statements from the school, but just didn't really think about it until he got his final loan total now that he is in his last semester. But, if he had just forwarded on those statements to me, it wouldn't have felt like such a blow when I found out later on.

Second, debt stinks. Ok, so I already knew that. But do you see the numbers I am throwing around here?! I am talking about tens of thousands of dollars! You could buy a house, in cash, with the amount of debt we have (depending on where you live of course). That is a lot of money. And the sad thing is, we are actually on the low end of the student loan debt spectrum (or at least in the middle somewhere). We have a lot of friends who will have four or five hundred thousand dollars in debt when they finish school. $500,000!!!

Just don't do it. Go to community college. Or a trade school. Work your way through, even if it takes a little longer. Don't get loans. Just don't.