Monday, February 09, 2015

Student Debt 2015 edition

As you are probably painfully aware at this point, my hobby horse is Seminary/Student debt. Specifically, I bury people in pie charts, in order to keep the issue on the agenda of the ELCA.
Well, I rendered unto Caesar today, so I have a clear idea what 2014 looked like money wise. Here it is in chart form:
Paying for my previous degrees cost me 19% of my total income last year (around 6% of my income went to paying the interest...). That's quite a bit.
After taxes, debt, and tithing, I was left with 36% of my take home pay to feed the cat and buy books (and pay medical expenses, keep my car running, etc).
I don't know what my life would look like with that 19% in my pocket, perhaps I would be more generous to charity, perhaps I would save for the future, who knows--we're not in that parallel universe. We're not in a universe where Seminary Education is funded well, or where the interest rate on student loans is 3.86.

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