Group writing project: Personal Experiences With Loans
This week the PF Bloggers write about (shudder) our personal experiences with loans. If it’s not too traumatic, please feel free to share your experiences with us too!
I paid for college myself. My parents couldn’t afford it, though they did help out in any way they could, which often meant a textbook here or there. My dad was able to get me a new lap top one year, which just made my Christmas. At any rate, as many of you that have paid, or are paying, for college on your own know, student loans will usually enter the equation.
I was lucky that my parents didn’t make enough money, so my federal loans took care of most of my tuition. I was only having to pay out around $1000 a year from my own pocket. Even better, since I was working full-time, I was eligible for periodic payments, meaning I got to break that down into a payment plan so it wasn’t all due at once.
There were a couple of small loans that I took out to take care of books and other unexpected fees – some of the textbooks got to be pretty expensive, and naturally they chose the newest editions so that I couldn’t get a used book. At any rate, somewhere in my brain it clicked that I didn’t have to prove what the money was for, I only had to prove that I was in school.
Can you guess where this story is going?
So one semester I get this wild notion that I’ll apply for $20,000 so that I can keep that money in my account and take some time off of work. I figure up my bills and look at it as an opportunity to take about six months off from work – because I really needed a break, school and working full time was hard! – and then I could focus on school more and maybe finish sooner.
I like to think of myself during this period of my life as the dumbest smart person that I knew. Seriously. I had book smarts a plenty, but I didn’t apply common sense to everything I did…clearly.
So, the lender lets me take this $20,000 loan out and I feel almost like I’ve cheated the system – and technically, I did. But, this cheating makes me feel bold and empowered, so I quit my job.
You know that fantasy you have about telling your boss where he/she can shove it when you win the lottery? Well, my exit from the company wasn’t quite that bad, but it was close. Needless to say, I won’t be invited to reapply there…fortunately for me it was a fast food place and the need has yet to come up where I would need to apply for a job there again. However, the principle is that my behavior was wrong, but it stemmed from the fact that I had money. Sadly, it was only $20,000, but that was a lot to me and I thought I had all the money in the world.
I digress.
Anyway, so I put the money in my checking account and things go well for awhile. But, you know me and my DVD obsession. I get the burning sensation to do a little shopping. And why not, I have to pay this money back anyway, it’s like putting it on a credit card. Plus, it’s just sitting there. I’ve paid all of my bills and now I want to have a little fun. The devil on my shoulder wins out and I go shopping for DVDs.
Six months goes by and I’m running out of money. I was at least able to make it through the six months, but I hadn’t found a job and wouldn’t have enough money to make it through month seven, so I was beginning to panic. As my luck would have it, there wasn’t one job that I could find. I tried working at a temp agency. That was a bad idea. I worked in this warehouse where I pulled t-shirts for sales orders. I HATED that job. It was the worst feeling in the world to know that I had to get out of bed in the mornings to go to this job, not to mention I’d just been out of work for six months and still longed for the freedom.
I struggled through that and continued to look for another job. I finally landed a job in banking, of all things. Just a simple teller position where I managed a cash drawer. Easy enough, I’d handled a cash register in retail, the bank would be a piece of cake. Well, let’s just say that I had my eyes opened. And that’s when I realized I was wasting my money and my future by making stupid money decisions. That’s when I started sitting down with personal bankers and asking questions. They thought I had an interest in banking long term and was showing initiative. At the time, I confess, I wasn’t interested in banking long term. I was interested in taking care of numero uno. So, the questions were for me to help me.
Then I started helping people in the same boat as myself – although I’ve yet to meet anyone who’s taken out a student loan just so they could quit working for six months…I think that takes the cake on stupid money moves - and I realized that I liked helping people figure out their money.
And the rest you guys know. Obviously, I’ve made mistakes – a lot of them – but I’ve learned from them, and I’ve made better decisions because of the lessons I’ve learned.
Ok, so I’ve asked for it. Let’s hear what you think of my experiences with loans!
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