Let's start with personal finances. I went to an amazing college where I got a fantastic education... but it also came with a boatload of debt. No bueno. I think I'm going to be really honest on here and give you actual numbers in hopes that a youngin (or a parent of a youngin) might be reading this and learn a lesson. To go to my private university I took out about $65,000 ($15,000 federal, $50,000 private) in student loans. By the time I graduated the total amount was $85,000(!) from the four years of collecting interest. Now that I'm out of college and in the real world that gives me a payment of $740 every month. That's A LOT for a young college grad. In the past 2+ years I have paid about $22,620 on my student loans yet the net amount of them is still $75,000 because about $12,000 has gone toward interest. If I had known this going in I would NOT have gotten student loans. Yes, I would still have wanted to go to my university but I probably would have A) gone to a community college/public university the first two years and B) worked first to save up at least half of the money for tuition before attending. These loans and their payments are going to be with me for the next 10-15 years unless I make extra payments, which I plan to because when I graduated I set a goal to have them all paid off by MAY 2018 (now that it's in writing in the public sphere I expect to be held accountable).
Now having this much debt (as you're applying for student loans people will tell you this is good debt- that is a lie, no debt is good debt) often times heavily weighs on me and can get me down. However, today is not one of those days. Today I have hope for two main reasons. One: I know I can get this debt paid off because I know people who are doing it and when that day comes it will be GLORIOUS! One example of someone I know paying of debt- my parents! My mom has been doing an awesome job of inspiring me because she's done it herself and my dad gives me endless support and says he's so proud of me with how I'm budgeting now. Another example- an RD (resident director) I know from college from when I was an RA (resident assistant). I woke up this morning, checked Facebook, and in the news feed was his post about him and his wife paying off the last of their debt just TODAY! Way to go Vince and Cay! You can read about their debt-free journey here. Two: Confidence in God. A couple of weeks ago in Adoration I was talking to the Lord about how much my debts were weighing on me and on my decision to move to Chile. I remembered Matthew 6:24 that says "You cannot serve both God and mammon [money]." I confessed to God in that moment that I feel like my student loans have me enslaved to money and that while I am money's slave I cannot (fully) serve Him. That was two weeks ago. Then last week I was back in Adoration re-reading my journal entry about that and I had a revelation: even while still having these debts I can have freedom in Christ. And that's partly what helped me to decide (again) to move to Chile. In doing that I would be totally placing my finances and trust in God. And fully trusting in Him gives me freedom and releases me from the slave chains of debt.
The Nation's debt effects us all. (Photo credit)
I know this post is getting a little long, but I have to get in my two-cents about the Government's finances and debt. Over this past month I feel we have been hearing non-stop about the government's budget and their fiscal (ir)responsibility. I believe that as a country, the U.S. has been recklessly spending. Yes, I put a lot of blame on congress and the leaders of our country, but I also blame me and my fellow citizens. Our consumerist and capitalist attitudes (not always a bad thing) led to some (a lot?) of this and it is not until our recent past that we have started letting congress know that we don't like how they're spending money we don't have. We should have held them responsible and spoken out years ago! But what's been done has been done and now congress needs to work together to come up with a serious plan to get us out of the major debt we are in. While I'm glad we averted a government shutdown, what they have come up with so far is not nearly enough. And as I leave you, I encourage you to check out this article which compares the government budget with a family budget and shows in numbers how their reduction of debt by 38.5 billion isn't doing much.
