If you went to college you’ve probably got some. And you still got it because it’s the gift that keeps on giving with interest and compounded interest. Yes, student loans. Loans can be annoying because loans may affect stability and stability can sometimes rain on your dating experience.
There are generally two approaches to debt.
The first is to pay it off.
When I applied to enter the seminary, they asked me if I owed money to anyone. If you’re in debt you can’t enter a religious congregation, or at least not one I’ve heard of; and if you apply to a diocese, no, they won’t pay off your school loans for you no matter how good of priest you’d make. It’s not that you’re not “good enough”, nor that you’re unqualified. It’s not that they don’t like you. It’s just that you’re ineligible.
It was like, “Pay back what you owe to Bank of America first; then you can give your life away.”
If applicants were really crazy about joining, they’d miraculously find a way to pay their debt off within a year or two.
Not every single guy or girl in the world is that crazy about something though and there is another way available to the other 99.999% of single America not applying to be priests.
You can learn to live with it. After all, what’s borrowed is borrowed and at some point it’s time to start thinking about how to move forward comfortably. It’s an art to manage a loan without making life completely miserable.
For starters, there’s probably not much you can do about the loan payment itself, which still has to be paid even if you do file bankruptcy or move to Mars. The times are changing though and in an increasingly subscription based society, stability is having more to do with your ability to manage monthly payments.
A loan is really just a semi-eternal monthly payment, much like Spotify, Netflix, and in home high-speed internet. Between those three things alone, that could be an extra $100 in monthly payments or a payoff on those Chem textbooks you borrowed on. Check your monthlies and there may be something you could do without.
The fact is, convenience is relative and you can still be happy even if the cream of your paycheck is siphoned off to a loan. If, as a kid, I had half the gadgets I have now – which are costing me each month – I would have been the coolest, most technologically advanced teenager in the country. Now, however, I’m just an average guy who has a cell phone that’s two years out of date.
Handling a loan responsibly may even cut into date night. Yes, that means you’ll need to subscribe to the free events newsletter instead of buying fun off Ticketmaster.
Lose the loan, live with the loan, there’s no easy way out; and you may wonder if achieving financial stability is worth the daily hassle, especially when you’re trying to court somebody. However, if you’re in for the long hall and you think about how financial stability affects compatibility, a relationship, marriage
…yes, it may be worth the sacrifice. But that’ll all be a topic for next week.
