Source: http://ncoal.com/blog/?p=3180
By Alex Noble - Last updated: Saturday, September 18, 2010 -
Debt is bad. Let’s get that straight at the outset. The world is awash with financial wizard wannabes that will tell you otherwise. So, let’s get something else straight, in this society if you owe someone money then they own you. If you are in debt, you are in bondage, and the deeper the debt the more unforgiving the bonds that hold you. You should also remember while you struggle in your bonds, that desperate times make for desperate masters.
Among the cruel tricks played on naive and inexperienced college students, student loans rank second only to the ultra high rate student credit cards foisted upon the young the second they set foot on campus. Advisers on campus frequently tell students that education is the only thing in the world worth going into debt for.
Please consider that colleges are in the business of selling education and act accordingly. Those same advisers will frequently dismiss concerns about repayment of student loans by telling you that an education can’t be repossessed. Technically, that’s true, but the government can and will slap a lien on your entire life in lieu of that.
I beg you as a fellow human being to take my example and not make that mistake. I’m a naturally debt-phobic person who likes to pay as he goes. Nevertheless, I took out a series of student loans in college in order to stop a future ex-wife’s complaining. She assured me she would help pay them off later. Yeah, right.
Well, things happen. The economy tanks and I take a 40% reduction in income at the same time the ex goes to court and gets her child support tripled. I couldn’t make ends meet and pay students loans also. I was literally living paycheck to paycheck. You can stall the student loan mafia for a while, but not indefinitely. Eventually, they will come for you. That’s what happened to me.
The day came when I was informed that I could afford to pay $760 a month for nine years and there was no need for me to do anything as they would be taking it out of my checking account. My pleas for mercy went unheeded until I told them I would quit my job and they would get nothing. Their idea of a compromise was $440 a month, for 29 years.
So, that’s where I am now. Please, take my advice. Don’t be a government slave. Don’t fall into the student loan trap.
