You know what's bugging me lately? Personal finance bloggers. I don't read a lot of them, but the two I started reading lately are kind of interesting. But one in particular is starting to bug. She has no concept of what a student loan payment is. Seriously, girl has no debt from school. And that's great for her. And she is doing an admirable job of keeping herself out of consumer debt, living on a small salary in a big expensive city. But given that she hasn't had to fork over a chunk of her monthly income to student loans, I really think she should stop crowing about how much money she saves every month.
Why do I continue to read her blog you ask? I don't know. At first, I sort of liked it. It seemed like she was trying to get by, just like everyone else. She has really good ideas for cheap living now and then, especially when it comes to food, etc. But lately, I'm feeling a distinct tone of judgment coming from her towards people who aren't as lucky/organized/frugal as her.
Let's recap my life for a few minutes $410 comes out of my bank account every month for student loans. And that is low my friends. Low. But what could I do with that $400 every month? My credit card debt would be rapidly dwindling, as opposed to very slowly dwindling. And then I could throw that money in savings once my credit cards were paid off. And why do I have credit card debt? Because I was unemployed for a good chunk of the last year. And I did work crappy jobs and I did use my savings. But there were tons of huge life related expenses that had to be paid. I'm not happy that I have credit card debt, but all I can do now is pay it off.
Do I love owing $70K from law school? No. But I didn't really have a choice in the matter. Oh wait, I guess I could have worked for several years first, which definitely would not have allowed me to amass the kind of cash you need to go to law school.
So yeah, lately, this girl, she's bugging me. The good news is there are tons of personal finance writers out there who know exactly what my life is like (and tons of others like me), so I may just take my reading elsewhere.
3 comments:
I completely agree - people that don't have large school loans can't comprehend the pain. I'm having 350 taken out each month, which is going to double in December. Other than moving home with the parents or striking it rich with the lotto I don't see how I'll be getting out of debt. Would you mind linking to some of the better personal finance blogs?
You make a valid point that people who don't have student loan payment don't understand what it's like.
I don't have loans only because I worked literally full-time while in school and lived with family. And of course I paid the price - my grades suffered and it took me an extra year to finish. but the work experience was invaluable (being in journalism) and I wouldn't have traded that for anything. And my grades didn't matter all too much given my major. They say if your grades are too high, you're not writing enough.
I acknowledge that I'm very lucky that at the moment I don't have loans to repay. My parents paid for undergrad and as of now I'm debt free with a savings to boot. Grad school, if I choose to do grad school, will put me into debt. Sometimes I want to be "in debt" because I feel guilty for being financially stable at such a young age. And I know my spending habits are really awful right now, and perhaps having no money to spend would help me sort that out.
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