When I look back on all of the decisions that I have made throughout the course of my life, the one that I am probably the most proud of was going to college. The reason that I am so proud of myself for going to college is because of the huge positive impact that this decision has had on my life. When I take time to see all of the things that my college degree have done for me, it is honestly hard to imagine what my life would be like without that degree. I know I would have found a way to get by and survive, but that is the key difference between how my life is now. Because I do have such a good job as a result of the college degree that I obtained, I don’t have to worry about simply surviving and getting by. Instead, I am able to enjoy my life to the fullest and completely thrive. Obviously, I don’t go through life without a single financial worry, but because of the amount of money that I make (which would not be possible if I didn’t have my college degree), it’s not like I am in a situation where I am living from one paycheck to the next (which, as most people who are currently in this situation will tell you, means that you are just one misstep away from falling into financial ruin).
Now, while going to college for most people is a decision that they don’t have to think twice about, this wasn’t the case for me. The reason that it wasn’t a clear cut decision is because of the financial situation I was facing. During my last two years of high school, I not only held a full time job in the summer, but I also held a part time job throughout both of those years of high school. Unfortunately, although I worked extremely hard during those two years and saved as much money as possible, when you are only making between $5.50 and $6.00 an hour (which was the best paying job I could find given my age), it’s hard to accumulate a large amount of money. It’s for this exact reason that I didn’t know if I would be able to afford college (because due to financial issues of their own, my parents were unable to provide me with any assistance). To further complicate things, when I graduated from high school, I had an opportunity to start at a job that paid between fifteen and twenty dollars per hour, which seemed like a ton of money at the time.
Fortunately, I decided to take the money I had saved, continue working during college and cover the rest of my costs with a student loan. While the idea of getting into so much debt at a young age seemed scary, I knew that the debt had more benefits than risks.
As I have found out, getting a student loan was actually an excellent decision. The reason is because over time, I have actually been able to save even more money (which increases the value of my education). The reason I have been able to do this is through getting a student loan refinance. If you currently have a student loan, you owe it to yourself to look at the option of getting a student loan refinance and seeing what kind of impact that would have on you.
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