Financial Therapy: feeling cheated by student debt

Student debt is the wedge of your salary that disappears each month, says this article. The weight of student loans is different from the weight of mortgage or credit card debt because student loan borrowers cannot declare bankruptcy. Student loans are sometimes perceived as a mark of failure — failure of character, perseverance, or planning — further compounded if and when a payment is missed. For many, student debt means delaying or forgoing homeownership, marriage, and parenthood. There is a social and financial divide — “between those who have student debt, and those who do not — that will have ramifications for decades to come.”

“The ‘retributive view assumes ‘students could have made different choices to avoid or mitigate their debt. They could have chosen majors that pay more or schools with higher rates of success in the market. They could have worked a second or third job. They could have eaten ramen at home instead of going out.’ Within this view, student loans become a mark of failure — failure of character, perseverance, or planning — that’s further compounded if and when a payment is missed.”

“Much of the reporting on student loans throws around big numbers ($1.53 trillion in debt!). But for those of us who hold some of that debt — and those with no student debt at all — the cold abstraction of that framing can often feel alienating. To the individual, the $1.53 trillion is not the most pressing problem. The problem is the wedge of your salary that disappears each month. The problem is not being able to find work in the field you took out loans to prepare yourself for. The problem is spending hours of your life on hold with call center representatives who can’t answer simple questions. The problem is the growing certainty that you were sold a false bill of goods about the immeasurable value of higher education, and that’ll you’ll be forever paying down the cost of a broken dream.”

“The cost of education shifted from a societal investment — spread across the tax-paying public, in the name of a thriving society and economy — to an individual one. And no matter how astronomically priced that investment became, we continued to rationalize it as a worthwhile one. Even in a culture that idolizes high-profile college dropouts (Bill Gates, Steve Jobs), to refuse higher education in America has become tantamount to refusing to fulfill your potential. And if you refuse to fulfill your potential, any struggle can and will be blamed on you alone.”

Counseling with Elaine Korngold

Financial therapy integrated with career counseling can help people reevaluate their current situation and provide an opportunity to get a handle on their money and their life in new ways. Contact me to learn more.