and her husband owe more than $400,000 in student loan debt. While this is partly due to her husband’s medical school education, at least some of the debt was unnecessary and “her fault,” she says.
“Student loans were so tempting, especially when I was in graduate school making less than $15,000 a year.”
Because she never took the time to figure out how long she would need to repay her loans, Alford took out and additional $8,000 to hold herself over until she found another job. In hindsight, she realizes she would be so much better off if she had found another way to get by.
“Every student should know how long it will take them to pay back their student loans, and what they’ll have to do or sacrifice to pay them back faster than that,” says Alford.
Understanding how your loans work is a great motivator. “They should also know how much daily interest their student loans accrue to light the fire under them to pay them back,” she adds.
