Student Loan debt has become a burden
I graduated college with $100k of student loans. I made the mistake of consolidating my government loans with my private loans right before my repayment period started. At the time, I wasn’t as knowledgeable about student loans and my financial future. Ultimately, I ended up increasing the interest rates on some of my debt, while lowering it on my private loans.
When my grace period ended, my student loan payments were $875 a month. Yep, $875 a month. After rent, utilities, food, car payments and some other required expenses, I had almost no money left in my budget. I was essentially holding on for dear life.
I knew long-term, I would eventually make more money and reduce the stress my student loans placed on me.
I also knew my student loan balance would increase significantly. Well, it’s technically not mine, but I knew I’d be helping my wife out with her law school debt once she graduated.
$150k more of debt added to our balance. This resulted in additional monthly payments of $1,600. That’s a total monthly responsibility of $2,500.
Again, long-term, I knew we’d make enough money to start paying off our student loans getting to a better spot. I just never knew when that would happen.
Winning the lottery greatly reduces my student loan burden.
I cannot tell you how many times I laid awake at night thinking about winning the lottery.
Honestly, I’m not even sure I care about winning the big prize.
Winning $1 million would quite literally change my life. It would pay off our remaining student loans (roughly $100k at the time of writing; yes, we’d been able to pay off a lot of debt in 10 years as we did have some help). We could pay off a good portion of our house and allow us to invest money in the market (for long-term purposes) and also contribute to our kids financial future (either through the market or a 529).
But, what if, WHAT IF, you managed to win the big prize? Multiple hundreds of millions of dollars after taxes.
Here’s how I’d spend my winnings.
When I think about what I would do, it always brings up a lot of emotion. I think about my parents, close friends, their parents, along with a long list of people who have played a huge role in my life.
- I’d have to retire my parents. Pay off their house, vehicles and any other debt they’d have. Make sure they have enough money to live comfortably and spend as much time doing things they love (preferably spending time with their grandkids)
- Provide generous payouts to my close friends who have been with me through thick and thin. I can never decide on how much to give each one or if they’d all receive the same amounts. I’ve always though, if I win, then we all win
- I do think quite a bit about how I’d deliver the money and thinking about the surprise and look on their faces would be priceless
- Repaying my friends’ parents who helped raise me. I have 3 friends in particular who took me in as their own. They weren’t my “friend’s parents”. They were also my parents. They spent a significant amount of time and money taking care of me, cooking, buying food, taking me on vacations
- Taking care of people in my wife’s life who fall in the above 3 categories. We both come from similar backgrounds and have been very blessed throughout our lives. Giving back to those who play (played) a big role in our life is so important to us.
I’ve always been a huge proponent of giving back to my community. It’s been ingrained in me since I was a little kid.
- The daycare my kids attend is one of the first places I think about. They’ve done so much for my kids and helped them grow in the year and a half they’ve been there. The staff are amazing people and they deserve to be well taken care of.
- Other organizations such as Big Brothers Big Sisters that provide opportunities for our youth. Supporting our youth is so important as they are our future.
This is about the time that I usually fall asleep. Somehow, all of those thoughts happen in about a 30 minute span. I can never get through all of those thoughts and have a well though out plan. But, this same series of thoughts happen so many times. It tends to keep me up for so long.