Sunday, February 20, 2011

Let's start killing student loan debt!

Ok, so here we go.  We all know the wonderful circle of life...debt, and in my case student loan debt.  First, a little about me.  I am married to my college sweetheart, have a job that I love and a beautiful little 5 month old baby boy!  We live in the great state of Minnesota and are currently "enjoying" the 2nd snowiest winter on record in the Twin Cities!

Now for the fun stuff.  Despite my wife and I both holding decent paying jobs, we are struggling with debt...specifically student loan debt.  It is amazing what they DON'T tell you when you are going to college.  They don't tell you that student loan debt will hang over your head for years.  They don't tell you that there are many alternative ways to pay for college without having to take out huge government loans.  They don't tell you that moving on to graduate school should be an opportunity for the school to pay for your education and not you.  They also don't tell you that going to a private school doesn't guarantee anything other than paying a lot more to receive the same education you could have gotten at a public school for much less.

So, here we are.  12 years after undergrad and 7 years after graduate school, my wife and I have just over $130,000 in student loan debt.  We spend over $800 per month on our loans.  With a new baby and the normal costs of living, we could use some help.  This is where you come in.

I'm not going to ask for large sums of money, though you can certainly choose to donate that way.  I'm going to try an experiment to see if I can pay off our student loans with the help of friends, family and total strangers.  If you can spare $1 or $2 or $5, please click on the DONATE button on the side bar and send a small sum to my PayPal account.  Spread the news, tell your friends...can I depend on the generosity of regular, ordinary people?  Let's find out!!

I will also post the exact amounts of our loans in the coming days and give an update on donations received and new loans balances every 2 weeks.  Please consider helping my family.  Thanks!