The pandemic is bringing up a lot of issues around money to the forefront of people’s minds as unemployment skyrockets, people get evicted, and there seems to be no end in sight.
A big issue connected to many people’s financial life in the U.S. is student loans. Many unsubsidized student loans have compound interest, a concept that isn’t really taught in high school.
Many young people take out loans to go to college, not realizing that they’re going to end up in enormous debt far over and above what they took out.
This has come up online a lot over the years, especially around elections and calls to forgive predatory student loan debt. But a few stories lately have caught even more attention, like on TikTok, or now on Twitter.
A woman named Sara Kelly shared her story of paying as much money as she took out for her education and ending up owing even more.
“I borrowed $38,876 for school from one private lender. Since graduating, I’ve paid that lender $31,501. How much do I still owe them? $47,023.” she wrote.
The tweet attracted a lot of attention and Kelly added some more info to clarify her situation:
There are always people who are critical of stories about people with too much debt who come out of the woodwork to say “you should have known better” but most people believe that only a good education from the best college they’re accepted to is the way to improve your life.
That’s what we’ve all been told by people higher up the chain. What a coincidence that this story has made those people even richer, while everyone else struggles under a debt they can never pay down.
Kelly wasn’t alone. Many others shared that similar things happened to them:
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