Written By Amy Beardsley
This essay is from a winner of the 2019 Student Loan Planner® Scholarship.
It was an early March afternoon; I had just come home from high school and was rushing to my room to put on my OfficeMax uniform, my shift started in 45 minutes.
My dad called me into the kitchen with a drawn, tired look on his face. He took a deep breath, and said aloud, “Sorry Vann, but we can’t help you pay for NYU. You have to figure it out yourself.”
That was the day I became the unequivocal version of an ‘adult’ and I was truly on my own.
New York University had been my dream school since I was sixteen years old. I wanted to escape the clutches of Southern New Jersey’s banal suburbia (even if I willfully ignored that NYU is the most expensive private school in the country; which at the time was estimated at $65,000 per year before room and board).
My town’s culture of never moving away or never trying anything new did not appeal to me, and I knew I needed more than just the status quo.
My Mortal Nemesis: Student Loans
The sweet (some say stinky) smell of New York City was in my mind. I was determined to figure out a way, essentially any way, to get into NYU, even if I had to sell my financial soul for the next 15-20 years.
I applied daily for scholarships during and after school. I wrote to professional sororities, companies, and societies that were willing to help finance my education at NYU. Even after all the scholarship, and grant monies, there was still a substantial amount of tuition for me to make up, and I had to turn and face my mortal nemesis: student loans.
Sixty percent of my civil engineering degree was paid by scholarships; however, the remaining 40% was through student loans. I quietly pushed the idea of repaying student loans to the back of my mind while surviving engineering school, living on my own for the first time and ultimately trying not to be eaten alive by the hustle and bustle of New York City.
However, once graduation was over, I got a big girl engineering job at a massive construction management firm, and the six-month loan grace period was long gone. Student loans became that annoying neighbor knocking at my door.
Before repaying these loans became a reality, I did not have any sort of financial knowledge. I could not tell you the difference between an IBR, and an APR. They all just sounded like weird acronyms derived by rich Wall Street bankers.
However, once I received that $900 monthly bill, I realized that I needed to learn these terms quickly or I was going to be living in the New York City streets soon.
3 Tips to Understand Student Loan Repayment
After trials and tribulations of three and a half years trying to understand my student loans, I developed three main tips for alleviating the constant pain of student loan repayment: understand the complexity of the loans, utilized available online free financial tools, and start side-hustling like there is no tomorrow!
Tip #1: Student loans are designed to trick, and manipulate the student borrower with fancy language, and long confusing numbers.
At eighteen years old, I did not know I would be signing up for a 20-year contract with SallieMae, forced to pay them one-half of my paycheck every month.
It is essential to research the terms of each loan (private, or federal), learn the difference between unsubsidized and subsidized federal loans, and what it means to have a fixed, or variable rate.
From your research, ask yourself important questions such as “Is refinancing my student loans a solution for me?” or “What if I want to go back to school? Will I still have to pay my undergrad loans during graduate school?”
Force yourself to understand the final cost to pay back, learning how the loan(s) got this big, and why.
Tip #2: Use the internet to your advantage.
This tip is perhaps my favorite and the most enjoyable. Living in the digital age, we have access to over a trillion sources of data and information. There are countless resources that are designed to help people understand debt, credit, and other personal finance categories.
Do your homework, and research federal sites like the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (shoutout to the CFPB in helping correct my credit score that SallieMae mistakenly reported a missed loan payment), or dig deep within the financial subreddits on reddit.com to figure out if the snowball, or avalanche, debt repayment methods work for you.
Consult blogs, or other websites of people who can relate, and have been in the hellish world known as student loans (e.g. studentloanpanner.com). Nevertheless, it is both unfair to yourself, and the debt you owe to blame it on not knowing, or never learning.
The internet can be a source of healing and finding solutions to everyday problems. Although sometimes we forget that, as we scroll through our newsfeed, contrived of our friend’s luxurious vacation, or a lavish plate of food.
Tip #3: Side Hustles
Now this brings us to my last tip: Side-hustles. Growing up, my parents always had side-hustles, which they referred to as their “extra jobs” so I was familiar with doing extra work outside of my nine-to-five regular job.
However, Tip #3 is new territory for many but can be lucrative with the more creativity you apply. Discovering the benefit of dedicating a few hours, a week to side-hustling was the gateway to my student debt freedom.
My side-hustle is tutoring. I was able to research this job using the aforementioned free tool, the internet, and some researching skills. I utilized Craigslist.com where I found copious ads that were searching for a recent graduate who would be interested in tutoring math and science.
I tutor students all over New York City who attend top high schools and are looking to attend the top universities in the United States.
What I love the most about tutoring is that my mind remains in tiptop shape, and the pay is quite profitable. This side-hustle directly contributes to my monthly student loan payment, and I can alleviate the extra stress of relying on my regular nine-to-five paycheck to repay my loans.
Side-hustling can require some specialized skills, but it can also be a great way to pay off your loans, or building savings one way or another. Take a moment to think about what you are good at or enjoy doing, and see if there is someone willing to pay you to do it!
Three and a half years later, I can honestly say I have developed a plan to conquer my student loans. I have not paid them all off, but I can say with pride that I have paid off three of my many loans.
I do not feel as though I am drowning in the dark unknowns of my loans, but every day I grow stronger in understanding them and finding new and innovative ways to pay for them. I do not want my name to be associated with debt, and I do not want my spouse or family riddled with debt stress from my own education.
Student loans were perhaps one of the worst financial aspects I endured during college. However, I was able to take this experience to grow and mature into a financially competent adult. Student loans do not define you, the actions you take to challenge and defeat them do.
