My wife and I had both just earned our MBA degrees through Colorado Technical University’s Online Program and had taken a trip to Denver to walk in the Graduation ceremony.
Sarah and Michael get MBAs
A true “mountian top” experience!
Michael and Sarah on Pikes Peak
We had taken out loans to pay for our education and while we were actively enrolled we did not have to make any payments.
Now that we had graduated, well...
The clock started ticking!
We had been dealing with student loan payments for a few years after we had got our undergraduate degrees.
Balancing the payments with our other financial needs was tricky.
The thing about it was that it wouldn’t have been so bad but when I graduated with my B.A. the year was 2008.
I took my degree with a smile and hit the streets looking for what I thought would be a sure thing because I wanted to be a teacher.
“And we always need teachers.”
Or so they said.
The job hunt had not gone well, I was not “America’s Next Top Teacher”, and instead I had been working day-to-day as a substitute in the school system trying to get an in.
Not working a full-time job meant several things for my finances.
I had a paycheck to paycheck life, which wasn’t new, but it was hoped that I wouldn’t have to do that anymore once I went to college.
Then there was also the issue of not having health insurance so I never went to the doctor or dentist.
I was unable to save for my future and soon there were college loans to pay back with an already limited budget.
We were doing all that we could to stay afloat.
Yet the economic description for it would be underemployement.
I had a college degree for a job that didn’t require one.
This means I wasn’t getting paid the anticipate rates or amounts that would be necessary to make the cost of college worth it.
I continued to have dismal results in getting a higher paying job that was supposed to be the light at the end of the tunnel.
Finally, I decided to do something about it.
Degree Debt Circle
Then so I did and then I got the Third Degree.
You may have noticed that at the end of my posts I include my Credible Referral link.
You see the thing is about that clock ticking earlier?
Well now our time had run out.
We were going to owe several hundred dollars a month each on both my wife’s loans and my own.
The student loan payments were going to be so high that we had to do something.
Calls were made.
Other income-based repayment plans were researched.
Nothing was going to help us get them low enough.
Our budget was already strectched to the limit!
We had to make a drastic change!
So we did.
We sold our home and lived with a friend for about 7 months as we searched for something with a lower mortgage payment.
This service allowed us to consolidate and restructure our student loans in order to lower the payments to something we could afford each month.
Without this service we would have fallen into financial ruin.
That is why I want to share my Credible Referral link with you and do so at the end of each post.
That way if you are looking for a place to help you get your financial life in order, they can help you and it can be “win-win” for both of us.
Right now if you “successfully refinance a student loan over $20,000, you and your friend (that’d be me) will receive $250!”
So when you see that referral spot at the end of my blog, know that it is not just another ad, but something that means a lot to me and hopefully something that can be of a help to you too!
Created by Michael Paine
