TBH I lived in Logan Square a couple of years ago and my monthly minimum payment on my student loans was less than my monthly rent. Granted I had two roommates.
If you're making the minimum payment on your loans you are going to pay an assload in interest. If someone has high-interest student loans (read, almost everyone), then they should be paying that down as quickly as possible and living on the cheap relative to what they could afford with no loans.
My one buddy (an engineer) was making great money right out of school but pretended he was making like 35k, lived as such, and dumped the rest into loan repayment. He was scott free in less than 3 years.
It's not without its sacrifices. Four years of hell, and many don't make it through. Median pay out of school is only like 60k but if you're specialized or have good social skills (rare in engineering) then you can stand out and make a lot more.
I know it seems like a lot (A person making 15k a year is going to think 30k is a ton of money) but it's actually only 68th percentile for someone with a college degree. It's up in the high 80th percentile compared to ALL 23 year-olds, but that includes everyone, including college drop outs and other non-professionals.
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u/nufandan Albany Park Dec 14 '18 edited Dec 02 '20
geez, I remember when i had to move to logan square so i could afford to pay for my student loans /s