“Sometimes you idealize the promise of what a college degree can get you,” said one borrower, “and you don’t realize you’ll be 20+ years down the road paying off your degree.”
At the end of last summer, amid the pandemic pause, Muriel Movida took $2,000 of internship earnings and made a single payment toward the debt she accrued getting her master’s degree. Then for about a year, she said, she didn’t look at her account.
“I was hoping the Biden plan would pull through,” she said, and cancel $10,000 of her debt. But “the realist in me was like ‘this isn’t going to happen.’”
The realist was right, and this fall, Movida has found herself reassessing her monthly budget to make room for the $400 payments she will be making with the SAVE plan, which cut down her payments after accounting for how much discretionary income she has. Every month, Movida pays about $1,000 in rent for the apartment she shares with her boyfriend, as well as about $500 for her car payment and insurance.
To make room for the extra $400, she canceled her $70 monthly ClassPass fitness membership, opting instead to take advantage of a $30 multi-gym membership program offered through her insurance and shopped around for cheaper car insurance, saving $100 a month.
Movida has been trying, too, to be more disciplined about eating at home and packing her lunch, instead of splurging at Reading Terminal Market near her coworking space. Already this year, she has been going out with friends less, which has benefited her mental and physical health as well as her wallet.
“My first impulse is always ‘Let’s go to happy hour,’” she said. “I’m kind of just redirecting and trying to find other activities.”
She’s grateful, she said, that she only has graduate school loans; thanks to scholarships and help from her parents, she didn’t have to take out undergraduate loans.