Want to know what it’s like having a baby if you have debt? “Imagine you are drowning, and then someone hands you a baby.” (Jim Gaffigan) We had our sweet baby M my last semester of law school. When I was pregnant and people found out that I was also in law school, I received […]
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WHAT I LEARNED FROM PAYING OFF STUDENT LOANS
When I took out student loans for law school, I really had no idea how they would impact the rest of my life. Unlike my love life that all of my friends and family members seemed to have a strong opinion about, no one seemed to challenge my decision to go to law school, taking […]
HOW TO GET STARTED PAYING OFF DEBT
When I was first learning to drive an automatic car, I thought it was the most confusing thing on earth. Not only did I have to pay attention to traffic, use my blinker, and do the many things you have to do to drive a car, but I also had to worry about switching gears […]
HOW TO DEAL WITH FINANCIAL SET BACKS
Simen Hegstad Krueger, a Norwegian cross country skier, trained his whole life to compete in the 2018 Winter Olympics. On the very first lap of the race, he slipped and fell face down in the snow, his Olympic dreams completely crushed. But, in an amazing turn of events, he was able to untangle his skis […]
CHEAP OR FREE MOTHER’S DAY GIFT IDEAS
Did Mother’s Day sneak up on you this year? Or is that just me? I feel like time has been FLYING by lately and have found myself a titchy unprepared for Mother’s Day. That’s not great when you are on a tight budget like me. Because shopping last minute *usually* means you’re not going to […]
THIS IS HOW MUCH DEBT WE CURRENTLY HAVE. (APRIL UPDATE 2018)
When Danny and I lived in Utah, we would frequently go snow shoeing (in fact, he proposed to me snow shoeing on a hike where we had our first kiss 😉 ) Have you ever been snow shoeing before? Its a TON of fun but it also can be a ton of work, especially if […]
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE STANDARD STUDENT LOAN REPAYMENT PLAN
The Standard Student Loan Repayment Plan is a 10 year repayment plan that fixes your payments at a monthly rate (never less than $50) for you to pay off your loans within 10 years. I call this the “mortgage” repayment plan. It’s just like making payments on a house. You make a fixed payment over […]
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE INCOME SENSITIVE REPAYMENT PLAN
Curious about the Income Sensitive Repayment Plan? Here is everything you need to know. The Income Sensitive Repayment Plan is a 10 year payment plan for low income borrowers who have FFEL Program loans and who want to lower their monthly payment. Under this plan, payments increase or decrease depending on your annual income. Figuring […]
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE EXTENDED REPAYMENT PLAN
Curious if the Extended Repayment Plan is right for you? The Extended Repayment Plan is exactly what it sounds like– a repayment plan that extends the life of your loan in order to help make your monthly student loan payments smaller. Instead of being in debt for 10 years under the standard repayment plan, you […]
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE GRADUATED REPAYMENT PLAN
Curious if the Graduated Repayment Plan is right for you? The graduated repayment plan is a repayment plan for borrowers who are starting out with low incomes but expect to see an increase in their incomes over time. This makes sense for a lot of recent grads who take entry level jobs but who will […]