How to use student loans without feeling guilty???

[toothmagic]

Hi everyone, so this is a little of background information. I am D1 in DS, and at first I thought I was going to be able to use SL to pay tuition & fees and that's it. I truly didn't see myself living off student loans. My husband was paying for everything, but we were living way to far from school, and my drive would be 1hr minimum with traffic. We have class at 8am every day, and driving was insane, and I almost have an accident one time. So my Hubby was like, no more we moving.

The weather would be changing too, and driving with snow, it was going to get crazy (we live in a city that if there is like a snow dream lol, everything wets paralyzed) so we moved.

The only issue is that now he cannot afford everything because we moved closer to school, but to a more expensive neighborhood (not a nice neighborhood though, our old neighborhood and apartment was nicer and cheaper )

We could not afford to move because we still had to pay rent in our old place (60 day notice + fees yada yada). I began paying the rent in our new place with student loans, my husband is freaking out, and feeling down that he cannot make the payments. He could afford it, by saving every last penny out of his salary, but we have to live. Like our fridge is going emptier by the minute, we need to buy stuff like (laundry stuff), things for school.

How do people that don't have anyone do it? DS is expensive and not just the tuition folks.

We don't have family to help us financially either.

A couple that lives together usually both of them work right? Usually.

It's just so hard to make the math and end up with 300k in student loans, but we have to live too, right?

I am in state by the way, and I already own a tiny bit from undergraduate... no more than 100k though.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[charlestweed]

How close is your new apartment to your school? if it is within a walking distance, sell your car. Use the money you save for not having to pay for car maintenance/gas/insurance to pay rent.

If your apartment has 2 bedrooms, how about renting one of the bedrooms to another roommate?

I lived with 4 other roommates and only had to pay 1/5 of the rent. With the money I saved while in school, I rewarded myself a $38k BMW right after I finished school.

 

[toothmagic]

The apartment is not within walking distance though!! I've been considering renting the extra room though!!

 

[knewstance]

I have quite a few classmates that are married with children. Their spouse stays home with the kids and they pay with everything via student loans for their whole family. Others that are single while they have lower expenses do pay everything via student loans also. You are definitely a minority by having a spouse to support you while in school.

While taking out loans for living expenses is difficult to do, often times a single income household (especially earlier in the career) is not sufficient to cover all the bills. While going into debt to pay rent (whatever bill it may be) is not ideal, its kind of just what you have to do at this time in your life.

 

[Svart Aske]

I lived with 4 other roommates and only had to pay 1/5 of the rent. With the money I saved while in school, I rewarded myself a $38k BMW right after I finished school.

Now THAT'S sound financial advice!

 

[toothmagic]

Now THAT'S sound financial advice!

I wish my Hubby would agree to this though. I ran it thru him and he totally disagrees, He is very traditional.

 

[toothmagic]

I have quite a few classmates that are married with children. Their spouse stays home with the kids and they pay with everything via student loans for their whole family. Others that are single while they have lower expenses do pay everything via student loans also. You are definitely a minority by having a spouse to support you while in school.

While taking out loans for living expenses is difficult to do, often times a single income household (especially earlier in the career) is not sufficient to cover all the bills. While going into debt to pay rent (whatever bill it may be) is not ideal, its kind of just what you have to do at this time in your life.

Thank you so much for your reply. I cannot even imagine how others in DS are doing it without the support. My husband cleans, cooks, and pays ton of bills. Not everything is coming out SL, but it's hard to see him working so hard sometimes.

 

[charlestweed]

Thank you so much for your reply. I cannot even imagine how others in DS are doing it without the support. My husband cleans, cooks, and pays ton of bills. Not everything is coming out SL, but it's hard to see him working so hard sometimes.

Things won’t get easier after graduation. With a starting salary of $100-120k/year and having to make the minimally required monthly payments of $3-3.5k for your $300k student loan, you will be left with only $3-4k/month to live. Hopefully, your husband’s work offers health insurance for both of you….if not, you’ll have to spend another $1k a month. And I haven’t even talked about kids yet. Kids are expensive….you and your husband will also need to spend a lot of time to take care of them.

I don’t think it’s a bad idea to seek helps from your parents and your parents in laws. It doesn’t have to be financial help. My sister, who is a general dentist, and her husband moved in to live with our parents right after their graduations. My sister helped pay for our parents’ home mortgage (which was only $850/month) because both of our parents were retired. Our parents helped take care of her new born daughter and 1 yo son, cooked, cleaned etc so she and her husband could work 6-7 days/week. My sister worked 3 days/week at her newly built office and 4 days/week for a corp office. My sister had lived with our parents for almost 4 years. She then moved out and bought an $800k house. And she paid it off before her 40th birthday. My sister went to a state dental school and only owed $70k in student loan.