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Huge student loan debt? Live like a student

Posted May 07 2008, 01:58 PM by Karen Datko
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The husband of reader "Deezy92" graduated in 2000 with an Ivy League law degree and a whopping $140,000 in student loan debt.

It's now 2008, folks, and those student loans have been paid off for a couple of years. How did they do it? Deezy92 writes:

When we could have followed the lead of the other young attorneys and bought new cars and taken trips, we continued living as though we were students.  We had one car, which was a Dodge Neon. Dh took it to work and I walked everywhere with my kids. We rarely went out to eat. In fact, his starting salary was $115,000 a year, and when we received his first paycheck, we celebrated by eating at IHOP -- not a fancy restaurant.

Life is different now. Her husband earns $300,000 a year and they each have a Mercedes. But their overall strategy is still intact. They bought an affordable home and put money into it. It's now worth a lot more than they paid for it, and their mortgage is less than a twelfth of their income.

"People may scoff and say that anyone could be in this situation if they made this much money -- but high debt knows every income level," she says.

Read more at MSN Money:

Huge debts, paid off fast

How much college debt is too much?

Your 5-minute guide to money in your 20s

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Comments

 

Good job.  It takes a lot of self control and committment to continue living like a student once you get the prize.  I certainly couldn't do it.  I found that the more I worked, the more I spent on charity for coworkers and charity in general.  It sounds nuts, but the more money I made, the more of it I gave away even buying seniors their prescriptions for them - especially when they couldn't find their wallets.  We were in the red about $65k in our forties when we sold our home at just the right time, my husband secured a job at the same salary in Utah, and we moved! (out of CA for good!)  Problem solved.  I no longer work so I'm on a tighter budget, and we are 100% debt free and saving faithfully.

Emma47nutah (Posted 05.07.08 4:42 PM)

My husband graduated 5 years ago with his computer science degree. Was told he would make big money. Not the case. 5 years later he still cant find a job in his field in the area we live, so we are moving to another state so that he can find work in his field. I cant finish my degree until his is paid off due to we don't want that much debt load. Living in a larger city people keep telling me I will not like it. I use to live in a larger city until 12 years ago. There is other forms of transportation to save on gas in the cars, a lot of "free" things to do with the family, and something in his field. I just wish we did this 5 years ago.

Jo (Posted 05.21.08 1:19 PM)

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