Student Loans Holding You Down?

For me, student loans weren’t a question of if, it was a necessary evil to pursue a college education.  I applied for every scholarship and grant known to man and still came up short. 

My mom had done everything up to that point to prepare me to be “the first one in the family to go to college.”  And frankly, there wasn’t more to give. 

So the student loan route I went.  It’s all a blur.  I signed a lot of forms, promised I would pay them back, and heard something about interest. 

Then came graduate school.  And more loans. 

If I could do it all over again I still would.  Those high-priced degrees and knowledge have allowed me incredible career opportunities that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.

But paying them back is a bitch!  Pardon the use of expletives as I sincerely try to refrain.

One thing I wish President Obama would do is increase the income threshold that allows deduction of school loan interest. 

I mean, isn’t the whole point of going to college (outside of the utopian goal of “gaining knowledge”) to increase your income potential, to make a little money to help out the family? 

But if I make a little money, I don’t get the benefit of deducting the interest.  I’m certainly nowhere near being among the richest 5 percent, but dammit…I aspire to be!  So I could use a little help on that Mr. President.

This is not to say the Obama Administration hasn’t been engaged on providing some relief for those of us hammered by school loans.  They have several proposals to prevent lenders from requiring payments of more than 10 percent of your income and to forgive all remaining debt after 20 years of payments (or 10 years of payments for those in public service work).

Alas, these are proposals that most go through the meat grinder known as the U.S. Congress.  This underscores the importance of knowing who your Member of Congress is and making sure they know what’s important to you.

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