Over the course of my undergraduate studies at Howard University and my aquisition of a bachelor’s degree in biology, I accrued an incredibly large amount of student loan debt from private lendors.
There will be no “cancelling” of this type of debt.
To be honest, I doubt there will be any type of federal student loan forgiveness, ever.
When I signed up for these loans, interest rates hovered around 6%.... which didn’t even really mean anything to me then.
The interest rates on my loans have now surpassed 12%. This means everything to me now.
I was 18 when I signed up for these loans, and had almost no financial literacy.
I find it interesting that they allowed me to take on such a incredible amount of responsibility without making sure I was ready, willing, and able.
Maybe my mom tried to explain it to me when she cosigned my loans, but the societal pressures of receiving a good college education deceive you from the reality.
With a principal balance in the 6-figure range, the estimated final amount to be paid over the life of these loans will easily surpass half of a million U.S. Dollars.
Current monthly payments amount to over $1,500 and there is about 30 years remaining on the current payment schedule.
And now sometimes it feels like there is no end in sight.
And I’m not really sure what people are supposed to do in this situation. I live paycheck to paycheck. I make my payments on time.
But with interst rates so high, my payments are only covering the interest accrued, meaning that I am hardly making a dent in the principal balance owed.
The reality is that the only way out is TO PAY EVEN MORE every month.
OR
pay it all off now.
I mean, $142,249.64 isn’t even that much money right?
Since I’m not currently able to do either of those things, I have a few things I’m experimenting with to uplift myself, end my bondage to this system, and get out of pity city:
You can purchase a handmade candle from my fragrance company, FRAGILE GLASS.
You can make a monetary donation towards my student loan repayments via
> ZELLE // fragileglass.smell@gmail.com
> CASH APP // $ericmayes
> VENMO // @emayes66
You can share this page with a friend.
You can
follow me (instagram.com/ericmayes)
for updates on upcoming experiments to continue pay off this burdensome debt.
thank you for reading.
<3 ERIC MAYES <3
p.s.
I have federal student loan debt from the U.S. Dept. of Education, but that’s another conversation.