Responsible. That’s a word that gets thrown around by people who know me, but from the title of this blog post, many will assume that I am anything but, especially where money is concern. So how did I amass this much debt?

Student loan is the answer as you may have expected. After graduating from undergrad, I went right into graduate school where the cost of tuition per year was $45,000 for my first year up to $50,000 when I finished. That was tuition by itself without the added cost of living.  

How It All Started

I have heard countless numbers of people say they didn’t want to worry about debt while in school. I was like that too. While I was aware of the amount of debt I was amassing, the assurances of my friends who were in the same program as me that we would make good salary upon graduation led me to keep piling on debt.

It didn’t help that the anxiety I had from looking at my loans and feeling there was nothing I could do about it during that moment led me to put my debt at the back of my mind. 

Finding Out How Much I Owed

However, now that I finally finished graduate school I totaled up everything that I owed and found that I currently have a total of $171,000 in student loans. This is a combination of subsidized, unsubsidized, and Grad Plus loans. My parents were gracious and trusting enough to lend me their own money throughout school to cut back on my loan cost which I will forever be grateful for. In total, I owe them $41,450. Between the student loans and the loan from my parents, I have about $212,000 in debt. 

My Goal Moving Forward

It may seem ambitious, but I plan on tackling my debt and being debt-free within 3 years. I will outline my finances as well as my plan in doing so in the upcoming posts. I plan to be 100% transparent with all my finances and continue to show my progress.

Through this blog, I hope to share my personal finance journey. I know that there are other people in my situation. Most people, luckily, do not have $200,000+ debt, but for those who do and even those who don’t, I hope that my blog can serve as an encouragement to those looking to tackle debt and know that they are not alone in their effort.