Crippling Student Debt
23 Jan
Students now owe the federal government a record $13 billion in loans, not including loans owed to provincial governments or personal and credit-card debt ,says the Canadian Federation of Students.
I try not to speak about my very rapidly growing student debt after six years of post-secondary education because there is not much I can do about it until I start work full-time. Even still, it is going to take me years to repay.
Right now my current debt:
OSAP – $25,000 ( i think, it could be more)
TD Student Line – $18,000
My debt isn’t as bad as many other students with the same education because of the summers I spent working midnights on the General Motors Truck Line and working up-to three jobs at time. But as I tell many people, I am different that most people. I am very Rory Gilmore. I was going to school and I wanted to be successful ever since I was little. Many of my friends from home didn’t attend post-secondary because of the lack of funds or waited many years before going back.
I don’t know how or what governments and schools can do to combat this overwhelming debt students are dealing with, but all I can say from a student perspective is that money has been a stress that has taken my attention away from my education way too many times.
Also, some of my colleagues were on A-channel discussing student debt this Wednesday, check out the broadcast here. If only I stayed a little bit longer.
One thing neat about social media is all services and applications growing everyday. One that I am completely jealous of is mint.com. It is a personal free money management service, however it is only available for Americans, or anyone with an American bank account. Maybe it is because I need something like this right now because I am a poor student, but I think it is truly a great service that many of the banks should be taking advantage of. It does really neat things like making charts of where you spend your money. You can make budgets and it can alert you if you are getting close to your budget. As well as many other neat things. Maybe if I had something like this early in my education, I might not be so poor.