January 28, 2022 marked my one year anniversary of paying off my student loans . Reflecting back on choosing to pay off my student loans leaves me with several take a ways that I want to share with you! In September 2020 I decided to become debt free by utilizing the debt snowball method to pay off all my debt. Before this I had struggled to save and really understand basic financial principles. As a first-generation college student, I received a scholarship to attend undergrad for free, but the scholarship did not cover summers. During the summers I took out student loans to cover costs without paying interest rates or how much I was taking out. By the end of undergrad I had amassed a little under $17K. Fast forward to graduate school I received another scholarship that covered my education. At the time I was a teacher in a new very expensive city and I had missed the cutoff to have my paycheck last me throughout the summer. So, I decided to take out a loan for two summers to keep
The Department of Education has "silently" changed the rules to student loan forgiveness that will affect at least 800,000 borrowers. On September 29, 2022 the Department of Education made a few changes for those who obtained the Perkin's and Federal Family Education loan. Here is the language directly from the Dept of Education "As of September 29, 2022 borrowers with federal student loans not held by ED cannot obtain one time debt relief by consolidating those loans into direct loans". Previously individuals who did obtain theses loans were able to receive loan forgiveness. Figure 1: This is a thumbnail of my latest YouTube video "Student loan forgiveness guidelines have changed" where I am sitting in my office while looking at the camera with a suspicious look. Many speculate that potential lawsuits could be the reason why the Dept of Ed has changed it's language recently. Long story short the banks who insured these loans will not receive an