Friday, June 5, 2009

Let's talk money

Like many people, most of my anxiety, stress and depression is related to finances.  For me, my student loan is responsible for 98% of these feelings, with the remaining 2% accounted for by normal money angst.  So, I have been trying to figure out how to best address this.  Before I get to that though, let me explain the current situation.  My student loan amount is roughly $200,000.  I have 30 years to pay it off and I must pay interest during that time, which will cost another $100,000.  That means in the end I will have paid $300,000 for my education.  Now, I have been paying on my student loans for three years now.  Of course my monthly payment goes first to the interest (they need to make sure they are getting paid) and then a little goes to my principal amount.  My monthly payment is just under $1000 per month, which I have been paying now for three years.  During this time, my principal balance has only gone down a little over $3000.  As I said, interest first and then principal balance.  So, here is my new plan.  I need to find someone to lend me roughly $195,000 (interest free) and then I can pay off Sallie Mae and begin paying off this new lender directly.  The way I see it, if someone has that amount of money they can lend me, then they probably don't need the interest :)  What do I need from you all?  Help me find someone to help me out!  I have asked Oprah, but she never got back to me...yet?!?

Oh, and to add to all this, today I found out that I filed my taxes incorrectly (it is hard to do that from another country I must admit) and I now owe even more money.  C'est La Vie.   

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