I talk to women every day about their options for their student loan debt. Lately, I have been hearing something even more appalling than robo calls and illegal collection practices.
Women are now delaying having children because of their student loan payments. That is right, many of my clients are too scared to have children, even though they make decent money and have a stable job. Their crippling student loan payments are prohibiting them from starting a family. Some of my clients are not even getting married, because they do not want to burden their future husband with all of their debt. They feel that going into a marriage with such a large burden would doom their marriage from the start. They feel an immense amount of guilt and pressure, and they think that they have no where to turn.
There are lots of reasons a woman should be able to decide to start a family later in life, but it is horrifying that student loan debt is one of those reasons. The staff at GM Law Firm, LLC wants to help.
Student debt has recently skyrocketed. Now 44 million American borrowers hold $1.5 trillion in student loans. Glamour magazine reports that women are holding almost two-thirds of the outstanding student debt, which is more than $800 billion.
Women now outnumber men in colleges and we pursue graduate degrees more frequently. So, we tend to end up with larger loan balances than our husbands or brothers.
I am hearing stories at GM Law Firm, LLC from clients with payments over $1000 per month! It impacts their decisions about marriage and motherhood. Some delay getting married, and others just delay having babies. Often they have really great jobs, and along with their husbands make 6 figures. That should be the foundation for a really great life. I am sickened by the fact that student loan debt can undo that.
It is absolutely crippling for some, reports CNBC.
AAUW has recently completed a new research report called, Deeper in Debt: Women and Student Loans. The report reveals how women not only take on greater amounts of student loans, but because we earn less over our lifetimes, we have less disposable income to repay. That way we end up requiring more time to pay back our student loans than men do.
That’s why, every day, I am sitting across the desk from women who are looking for a holistic approach to managing their student debt. When your whole life is affected, you need help that you can count on to relieve the burden and your stress.
Sometimes they also have a parent, grandparent, or friend that was kind enough to have co-signed on their student loans, adding even more pressure and remorse to an already stressful situation. If they default, their co-signers will get harassing collection calls, can get sued, garnished, and can even have their bank accounts levied!
To put it into numbers, 42 % of women have $30,000 or more in student loans, whereas only 27 % of men have debts over $30,000. As women, we are also twice as likely to calculate that it will take us more than 20 years to finish paying off the loan, according to market research firm ORC International. Yes, 20 years! With that pressure constantly building, GM Law Firm, LLC’s clients are stressed out, and afraid to have children. I have so many nurse clients who make decent money, but have a ton of student loan debt. They cannot afford to have children, and do not feel stable enough to bring a child into a life of debt. They often tell me that it is almost too late for them, and that they have missed their chance to have children.
I recently saw a poll by Future Family that showed that 44 % of women they surveyed had student debt. 50 % of those women admitted the loans were affecting their decisions about starting a family. That boils down to about a quarter of all American women with student debt using it as a reason to delay having children.
When they say one-in-four women with student loans are putting off having children, I can easily believe that. In my office, the percentage is higher. Women come to me asking how to get out from under this heavy burden to get on with their lives, and much of the time that means starting a family.
This decision affects the rest of your life, and the lives of your future children.
Contact us at GM Law Firm, LLC today to discuss your options for your student debt. You don’t have to wait any longer. And you might not have much more time. Do not wait until it is too late to have the life you always dreamed of.
Comments are closed.