Day 98 - "She Works Hard for the Money"

Here come the bills.

Most of my loans have come out that blessed six month grace period that kicks in after you leave school. I owe this bank $80 a month, another one $100 a month, and have decided that I'm going to be paying off my BA until my children start college - and then I'll have to worry about their undergrad degrees.

However, there's one loan in particular that is making my skin crawl when that bill arrives every month with the $298 and change monthly bill to pay off a loan. Keep in mind, the principle on the loan was $6,000 and change. The interest capitalized for the two years since I had taken out the loan is one and a third times the principle.

Lesson learned? Unless it is an actual bank, with the FDIC logo and branches with people to talk to, don't take out a loan from a company that just lends out student loans, because you'll pay dearly.

Like me, to the tune of almost $300 a month. That's three-fifths of my biweekly paycheck.

With all of the talk about health care reform, how about we do a student loan reform? Down with all of these companies who loan to students with little to no credit! Down with the loan sharks who pray on students whose cosigners have bad credit! Down with interest rates on student loans that are higher than the interest rate on my Old Navy credit card!

Okay, the last one I exaggerated, but not by much. Not joking.

At this point, I'm almost glad that I took this year off between finishing my undergrad and starting graduate school. I mean, I could potentially have graduate school paid for, but this undergrad degree, the one that everyone claims is the key to success, is going to send me to the poor house. So much for all of those scholarships.

I guess I should have taken that free ride that I had gotten at another school. My parents probably would have been glad for the lack of loans that have to be paid back to private institutions. Just those Stafford loans.

Oh, loans...

-AA