Digging Ourselves Out

Like so many people our age, we have DEBT. The word just disgusts me, but for the most part, this debt was inevitable. Now I said for the most part, because there are things that we could have done earlier in our lives that would have helped ease this current burden, but we were young, much too young to realize the importance of saving and being frugal. After all we didn't have kids yet, and I did what I was told, which was go to college.

Let's talk about college. Because this decision has played a major role in my life. If I could do it over again, I would still go and do pretty much everything exactly the same. But I was left with debt.
Here is what I have learned from that:

1. Only borrow what you need to go to school. Do not borrow enough so you can get a PS4, or to have just some extra money laying around. You are paying major interest on this money, and you should only take what you ABSOLUTELY NEED. Like Books and Class. Also, and this should go without saying, but I will say it anyways. APPLY FOR GRANTS AND SCHOLARSHIPS! My husband went to a tech school and only he and one other guy applied for the scholarships the school was handing out. That worked better for him, he got more money, but it was sheer laziness why the other guys didn't apply. It doesn't hurt to try, but it will hurt you if you don't.

2. Work. If you can, which pretty much everyone can, find a job and work while you go to school. Everyone says that they can't get a job, because school just takes too much of their time, and if they had to work their grades would suffer. These are also the same people that would frequent the bars and frat parties. They had time for that apparently. SOAPBOX WARNING: I was a wife with two children while I attended school, and my grades were better than my peers, far better, and that is because I used my time wisely. And by time, I mean the small amount of time that I got after my kids went to bed and before I went to bed.

3. Save. If you are working, then save, save every penny that you can. Because when you get done with school, you are going to have to find a job, which will probably require you to move to another city, which will cost money, and if your loans were deferred until you graduated you only have 6 short months to get your budget lined up to accommodate these new loan payments you will have to make. SHOCKER! You may not be able to find a great paying job in your field immediately after you graduate. You may have to put in some time at a lower level position somewhere, that pays crap, until you get experience or your big break and land you dream job. I was at the top of my class, but because the economy was tanking, no one was hiring. Saving money while in school will ease this stress.

I know that the information above should be a no-brainer, but I hope there is someone out there that can benefit hearing it from someone who has come through to the other side.