I never thought I would get cancer. Or, rather, I hoped I would never get cancer. But at least if I did get cancer, I thought it would be after my student loans were paid off.
Nope.
I have managed to pay off most of them. When I left court reporting school I was staring down $50,000 in student loan debt. $30,000 incurred during my time in court reporting school, and the other $20,000 was the remnants of what had been a $30,000 debt to the state school I attended. I graduated with my Bachelor of Arts in 2002 and I left court reporting school with an Associate of Arts in 2012.
I’m down to just over $8,000. I had been using 0% credit cards to knock out chunks at a time and force myself to make higher payments because I hate paying interest. The transfer fees were less than the interest I’d pay if I just left them, and the tax benefit was less than the benefit of having lower payments over time. This is only a strategy you can use if you are extremely strict and never fail to make those higher payments. Credit cards are very, very easy to abuse and fall into a massive hole that you have to climb out of. Most people never climb out of that hole once they are in there.
The payment isn’t huge, but if I keep paying the minimum, I could easily be paying on student loans until I’m 50. That’s 11 years and one week from now for those keeping track.
I was hoping to pay them off within a year. Alas, breast cancer. Meanie.
This is my debt to pay, of course, and I will pay it. I am only using any money donated to me to pay medical bills and related expenses. This is the one bill I can ask to stop for a while if I need to since the balance I have left is government loans and deferment is an option. I’m hoping to keep making the minimum payment for now, especially since I can work and hope to keep working.
It’s just annoying. I’ve done everything right, paid everything on time, done all the things I need to perform in the adult phase of life only to have a life-altering diagnosis. I want to scream that life isn’t fair, but I knew that already.
I’ll get through this, and I’m hoping that annoyed is the worst thing I feel in this process.