Student Loan Debt

Guys. My car is paid off!!! I am working on paying down my credit cards (less than $3,000 total)
and then I am going to work my ass off to pay off the student loans. I am just FED up. Fuck FedLoans. Fuck loan forgiveness. It's too stressful and not worth it to fight through it.

I have to submit employer verification, income verification yearly. If my income changes, I have to reapply for income based. These three things have to happen for loan forgiveness. I have to make 120 on-time payments before the loan forgiveness is made.

I'm about to give you the full story of my student loans. I am going to break it down as simply as possible so if you have any questions about "gaps" let me know.

I graduated college. A couple of months later, I started my position at a nonprofit. I made what you could expect an entry level position would make. I qualified for income based payments. My payment was $0 initially. I recieved a raise, and then my payments went to about $50. 

I got married. My husband doesn't have student loans. We filed taxes together. FedLoans, or whatever program reviews my income, decides that my income, is OUR income. Makes sense right. But the forgiveness program is designed to forgive loans for people working in my position. MY POSITION should determined MY income, right? Not. What the fuck ever... I was DISQUALIFIED for income based payments. My payment was then about $550. Yes, that's right. 100 times the most previous amount. Can I "afford" it? Yes, I can PAY it, but that means my husband is left in full responsibility for paying the mortgage on our home. 

There was a new income based program launched and I qualified. My payments were still about $550 dollars, but at least the payments would qualify towards the 120. 

Some more changes happened, and my payment was dropped to about $450. Since I was used to paying the $550, I began to pay a bit extra on some specific loans. I did this because during the time that my payments were $0 and $50, I had interest that capitalized on the principle. There was a short period of time that I owed more than what I began with, even after paying for a handful of years. 

I had some financial stress, and I decided to pay only what my bill statement showed for a time. Then I noticed something strange. 

Although I was approved for income based, and paid the amount my bill statement showed on time, I had payments that DID NOT qualify towards forgiveness because they were less than the amount determined by my income application.  My account had been put on a "Paid ahead status," meaning that although I had an amount determined by income driven plan, my bill would reflect how much a owed based on how much I has paid. This had never before been explained to me. How would I know to pay something other than what my bill statement said? I have looked through the previous mailings and statements and this information is NO WHERE.

I have 37 "qualified" payments from the last 7 years. I need another 83 payments. 7 years. 7 years of payments assuming every payment is income based and that I work for a non profit.

I have paid in nearly $16,000 in the previous 7 years and still have a remaining balance of $45,500. Yep. Putting it all out there. You know know some details of my financial life. Please don't judge. I only wish for support and encouragement while I work my ass off with numbers, which I HATE (just ask my boss) to figure out a realistic budget and stick to it while putting as many pennies towards these loans as I can.

Training

So I have began a training class with Brook and I am so glad that I did. It was very apparent how much she needs the continued training. I was very embarrassed by her behavior when we got to class. Her leash manners are terrible. After talking with the trainer, I understood it to be as a result of taking her to the dog park so frequently. She only knows dogs as playmates.

It's important to me that my dog has good obedience. We take her with us everywhere and I look forward to having her with me when we go places. I would like her to get the Canine Good Citizen or therapy dog certifications. Possibly both.

I am not self disciplined enough to train her on my own using resources like YouTube or books. I have to be in a class with an instructor that I can ask questions.

We first had a six week session of training in the spring (April-May). She did not attend the graduation ceremony because she was scheduled for her spay that same day (May 24th). Our training was knowledgeable and a great person for reference. But the style was too much lecture. And the topics would be too many for one session. Some of it might have been the people in class who would ask questions and because she knew a lot, she would share her knowledge. But, for our young pup, who was kenneled all day and then brought immediately to class, it was too much sit time.

Then, we did not continue training in a consistent manner. So here we are- 3 weeks in, and scheduled for 15 more weeks of training (18 total). So far, I like the trainer. Even more importantly, the schedule is perfect.

I have spent a lot of money on this. I have purchased a new leash (although ours was an approved length, it is just too long for our little girl), a new harness (to stop pulling), a gentle leader (to prevent jumping), MANY treats, and a treat pouch. I know the investment will be worth it. I hope my husband will continue to support me and that it won't be a struggle to train her because he approaches it in a different manner. I really hope he will go to more of the sessions with us.