Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Apartment Living

Z and I found out some slightly disturbing news this past week.  Our student loan debt has actually gone UP since we graduated from college.

WAIT.  WHAT????

That's right.  We are in more (student loan) debt now than we were when we started "paying off" our loans 4 years ago.  How is that even possible?  We thought we were doing the right thing because we were paying more than the minimum every month.  That's what people like this:


tell you to do, right?  Well...it turns out that we I had a few loans that were those pesky variable rate interest loans.  And over the course of the great recession, those interests went up.  And Up.  AND UP.  And we had been paying purely interest on those loans for pretty much our entire adult lives.  This is what my face looked like when I found out:
 http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/11259335-fred-south-african-monkey-which-appalled-a-full-district



and then I did some of this:
 

I've now reached a state of resigned complacency.  Kind of the way I think  Henry VIII's wives were feeling while passing time in the tower of London (come on...you did marry a guy that had beheaded his last 4,5,6 wives...you didn't see this coming??)

We discovered this horror because we attempted to get pre-approved for a home loan.  Needless to say, we weren't approved.  We are doomed blessed to live in this beautiful apartment for at least another year.  Probably more like two.

I'm trying to stay positive about it.  I've decided to make our little slice of heaven as heavenly as possible.  We may not be able to paint the stark white walls.  We may not be able to demolish the kitchen.  The...ahem...unique faux-marble-shell-shaped sink in the bathroom is staying.  As is the mold in the bathroom and the kitchen.  But that doesn't mean I can't hang pretty things on the white walls, right?  And ugly cabinets do not have to mean terrible meals!  And who says that shell sink can't be the cleanest shell sink this side of the Mississippi??

So here we go, folks.  A new blog.  My attempts at nesting in an apartment and sprinkled with my thoughts on life.  Enjoy the ride.
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4 comments:

  1. smg.March 28, 2012 at 11:43 PM

    Do you know if you can get these loans consolidated into a fixed-rate consolidation loan through the Dept. of Education (loanconsolidation.ed.gov)? Not only would the rate become fixed at the weighted average interest rate of all your combined loans, I think it would also qualify you for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, where if you stay in a "public service" job for 10 years (like teaching), the remaining balance on your loan after that time is forgiven. I think it would be 10 years from consolidating though, and not 10 years from when you first started paying. Even if some of the loans are private, I think right now there is a brief period where they are allowing private and public loans to be consolidated together, but I think it ends sometime this summer. Just some things!

    --Sean

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. smg.March 28, 2012 at 11:53 PM

      Oh, with consolidation, you also might be able to do Income-Based Repayment, which limits your monthly payment to a certain percentage of your income.

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    2. EMarch 29, 2012 at 5:08 PM

      The private loans can't be consolidated, but I'm looking into consolidating the federal loans. The private loans, though, are the ones with super high interest.

      Thanks for the info about the loan forgiveness program! I'll look into it. And thanks for reading :-)

      Delete
    3. smg.March 29, 2012 at 9:18 PM

      Yeah, I think the private-public consolidation unfortunately only applies to privately-issued FFEL loans? I dunno.

      And no problem! Z sent me. haha.

      Delete

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