This past week, I was enjoying some time away from the metropolitan area, and was enjoying the beach town of Ocean Grove, New Jersey. While on the way to NJ, I stopped by Staten Island to have brunch with some friends, which was also a nice way to break up the drive. One of the people at brunch is a recent college graduate who left college with $10,000 worth of federal student loans. At brunch, she asks if she should start paying her student loans off since she recently accepted a full time job.
Advice for a recent college graduate
I tell her, honestly, $10,000 is not that much money and with federal loans, the modest interest rate makes it okay to slowly pay this off. She counters that for her own peace of mind she would like them to be gone. I suggest that she pays into them what she can and to pay it every single paycheck if not more frequently, since I had learned the hard way that student loan interest accumulates DAILY (Who does that???). Therefore, the more consistently she pays them off, the less interest will accumulate and the more the principal will be paid off.
I also suggest however, that if she can reframe her mind a bit to be okay with the loan balance being open, to wait it out a bit. I tell her there’s been whispers of forgiveness for months and that I’m also riding out the last $2500 that I still owe on my own student loans.
Fast forward to this past Wednesday morning, when I wake up hungover in NJ, which is very rare for me these days. Breaking news and group text chains announce that Biden has a student loan forgiveness plan. I’m ecstatic for two reasons: 1. Apparently I can predict the future, good for me. 2. So many of my peers will be able to take advantage of this policy, including the friend from brunch.
A Look At My Own Student Loans
Of course, I will also benefit, even if it is for a lesser amount. When I graduated college in 2018, I had $19,500 worth of student debt. Had I followed my dreams to move to China post-graduation, been irresponsible with money, and not paid any of my loans down, the government would’ve taken care of all my student loans since I was a Pell grant recipient (Pell grant recipients can get up to $20,000 of student loan forgiveness).
I’ve always been one to live my life with no regrets. I can’t regret anything in my life because somehow someway I believe it has all intertwined to bring me to where I am today. I will always be grateful to my past self by believing that she made the best decision at the time. It would’ve been nice to have an extra $17,000 in my life to work with had I not paid my loans over the years, but I am still glad that I gave myself that peace of mind, budgeting skills, and pride of paying off my own loans.
I am so ecstatic for anyone who gets to take advantage of this loan forgiveness. You deserve all the abundance in the world. And if you aren’t able to take advantage of this policy, trust that the universe will still bring abundance to you in multiple other ways.
An Opportunity for Growth
If you can’t be happy for the good fortune of others, maybe it is a sign that you need to do some inner healing around your self-worth. Feelings of frustration and unease are a good cue to signal our triggers and where more healing needs to be done. The easy thing to do would be to stay stuck in your frustration if you feel like others are better off than you, but the better thing to do is take a step back, analyze why you might feel this way, and ask Where Are You Growing?
Grow through whatever you’re going through.
