Like many of us, college life has to eventually come to an end. We get to finish classes, say goodbye to friends near and dear, enter the real world with arms swinging. The end in terms of financing college, however, is a whole other story. For those who are fortunate enough to not need financial aid, this may not be important to you. But for the other 50% of us, we now prepare to repay the amounts borrowed over four years. For most students, the option to pay interest while in school was not a clear option (which may not be so coincidental). Unsubsidized Stafford loans over four years, have accumulated interest and already begun compounding. For many four year colleges, the interest has already accounted for another couple thousand dollars. Yippee! Not only was school too expensive to self-finance, but now we are forced to devote the next ten years of ours lives to paying down the loans. When the end of that ten years comes, many of us will have children of our own. Which leads us down the same path of paying for an expensive eduation, that quarantees no better life-just helps open doors…It’s up to us as individuals to close them.
