Today Joe Biden announced a plan to cancel student loans up to $10,000 for people making under $125,000 per year that's not popular with many people — even in his own party.
Democrats say the plan doesn't go far enough.
Republicans say it reinforces the idea that people can continue to be fiscally irresponsible and that the government will bail them out.
Here's my personal anecdote:
My student loans started to be due for payment in December of 2019. In March of 2020, repayment was paused for all borrowers that had government-backed loans, including myself.
The pause in repayment meant that the loans also stopped accruing interest. It also meant that you could start repaying your loans while they were not accruing interest, therefore putting the entire part of the payment towards the principal loan amount instead of towards the interest.
Over the past two years, I have made such payments. Now, the rest of the loan will be forgiven with a stroke of the president's pen. I should be ecstatic — but I'm not.
I've worked six and often seven-day weeks for the majority of the time since I left college between full-time jobs I've held and gig work and side hustle opportunities I have utilized to make money outside of a full-time job.
When it comes to interest on a loan — my philosophy is that time in hours is your best friend and that time in months and years is your worst enemy.
In your youth when you don't have accrued wealth, you trade hours worked for money made. Even if you have a salaried job, you trade time for money. If you have more hours in a week that you dedicate to working outside of a full-time job, you can spend those extra hours making more money, then invest that money so that you can one day be in a position where your money works for you, instead of you working for your money.
The opposite is true for interest on investments. Time in hours is your worst enemy when you trade hours for money earned, but time in months and years is your best friend because you accrue interest on savings and investments over a period of years — on money that you accrued by working hours.
Between the ages of 21 and 25, I have put in thousands of dollars earned by working extra hours towards paying off my student loans.
Had I known that the loans would be forgiven, I would have put all of that money into the stock market, which crashed during the pandemic and has seen a significant amount of growth, especially in the leisure stocks — industries such as travel and hospitality — that were the hardest hit during 2020.
Or I would have contributed those thousands of dollars to saving for a downpayment on a starter home, as home ownership is another tangible way to build generational wealth.
I'm not an economist, a certified financial planner or a Wall Street broker. Nothing in this column should be taken as financial advice.
I am, however, a first-generation immigrant who works both a full-time white-collar and a part-time blue-collar job — and has for a majority of my adult life — in the hopes of building generational wealth for myself and future members of my family.
President Biden's latest action is a slap in the face for people like me.
I know that the likelihood of the president or even anyone on his team seeing this piece is slim to none — but this perspective needs to be out in the open. If I don't tell this story, which is not only my own but is shared by tens of thousands of Americans like me, I would feel as if I am not fully utilizing the platform that I have been granted as both a journalist and commentary writer living in America today.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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Victoria,
Congrats on your hard work, doing things the right way and paying off your debt. I also worked very hard, saved up about $200K and started a manufacturing company. Where’s my $10K grant from Brandon?
Margaret
From everything I have learned, Joe Biden is not our real president. Students will have to payback money borrowed for college. This is students’ responsibility.
Biden should be immediately impeached! This is illegal , buying votes.
Biden using my money and Congress money without being passed.
Everyone gets a break except for the middle class that ends up paying for everything here in the US and we’re paying for other countries too!! Like a war in Ukraine! I worked hard for my earned money most times 2 or 3 jobs! When I paid my “school loan off” I wanted to hang that bank paper that said “Paid in Full” more so than my diploma! This was a terrible idea! I say it was the biggest voter block payoff in history!! Another shift towards socialism! In the guise of “student loan forgiveness” NO President has no right to do! So the middle class is bailing out wealthy families who want to send their kids to college and pay for it rightfully so you had the child their your responsibility! Warning! What government gives you Government can take it away! Its time to go after the biggest offenders and rip offs that caused this financial gap Universities / colleges/ schools/ “The high tuition” cost that has gone through the ceiling. Make them pay the loans!!
Student loan forgiveness is discriminatory against low wage earners that will actually pay those loans. That’s almost as ignorant as sending a group of astronauts to the sun to explore it.
Colleges should pay off loans since student college X anyway