The future always looks a bit brighter when you sit down and calculate it out.

Granted, the whole "student loan" thing from undergrad doesn't help my rosy outlook, but I think if I can put away 17.5% of my paycheck each month, I should be able to save enough money by the time I graduate to pay them off. I think I'll go to the bank tomorrow and make myself a savings account that does this automatically. Since I'm in school full time, my loans are not accumulating interest, but as soon as I graduate, they will. This is why paying them off all at once as soon as I go into repayment is a priority. Plus with the money in a savings account, I'll be the one earning interest for the next three years.

Meanwhile, I am after:

"Anyone Can Learn 7 Languages" CDs
A trip to Japan & Korea
A new (used) car

In that order. Though depending on how long it continues to rain, the car might move to a higher level on the priority list.

I calculate that these items together would cost about 47% of my total yearly income. :(

However, given my spartan lifestyle and relatively low rent, this could be possible. 47% + 27% for rent + 17.5% for savings... this leaves 8.5% for all my other expenses (including food and insurance!) Insurance is about 3.5%... 5% for food, clothes, and entertainment. Hmmmm... who needs entertainment when you have work? But food costs about 7.6% at minimum. :\


I might have to go on the multi-year plan with these things as well.

It's all complicated by the fact that someone of my advanced age should start thinking about retirement. I looked into getting a Roth-IRA but at the time I didn't even have enough money to open one (who knew you needed money to open one?!)
I think I'll wait on that... after all, my worthless [hypothetical, future] kids will probably waste all that retirement money on worthless liberal arts educations where they'll become worthless geology majors who spend most of their 20s hiding in grad school instead of getting a real job.

Speaking of which, if I somehow got a job that pays 10x more than I make now, my spending goals would seem a bit more reasonable. I knew a guy who was hired right out of college with such a salary (you could, too, if you have a penchant linear algebra, matricies, and high finance.) Even 2x or 5x would make a difference. x1.5 more. Throw me a bone here.

hmmmmmmmmm... the possibilities... too bad I plan to spend the rest of my twenties being an adventuring vagabond instead of compounding interest and building equity.

We should not speak of such things.
I'm completely and utterly fucked when it comes to paying off these loans. I don't want to think about it because it will depress me more than it should when I'm trying to concentrate on being the best grad student I can be.

I think it's a huge slap in the face, how little money we will make. To make matters worse, our generation will be saddled with the burden of the Wall Street bailout just because a bunch of those people who might have penchants for linear algebra, matrices, and high finance couldn't keep their fucking heads in the game. Retirement? Please. I'm going to die of cancer--which, in a great twist of irony, I will be trying to devise a treatment for--before that happens.

All because no one ever pays bioscience PhD's what they're worth. For all the work we put in, there should be some sort of adequate compensation for that. But nope. All because I can't think in more than 3, maybe 4 or 5 dimensions (if I'm lucky), and I have no interest in economic models and simulations.

I should remain a student forever and keep putting off these loans. Maybe I'll die before I have to pay them back.

Or, an alternative: we could always marry rich. Or, you can. I might not have that liberty for a while, matching naughty parts and all...
» ranor on 2008-09-28 09:44:12

At the end of it all, I will only be able to afford a house in either the inner city or in Bumfuck, ID. Luckily, I have a backup plan: I'll just live at my house in the Philippines. I know enough about Faraday's law to steal electricity from my neighbors. I could live off the ocean--fish for all!

Unless the ice caps melt and cause the Pacific to swallow my house whole...

Or, unless the environmental abuses of the Philippines gets so bad that I can't even fish...

Were we born at simultaneously the best and worst point in human history?
» ranor on 2008-09-28 10:09:08

My dad likes to tell us stories about how he lived on one loaf of bread and one package of bologna for a week, and slept in his car in Oregon when it was freezing cold....

He makes quite a lot now though, and he seems to really enjoy telling those stories, so maybe such things are worth it? :P

So, I kinda forgot my point but I think what I'm trying to say is either that at least you have a plan that could very well work out, or that if you live like a hobo for a few years, at least you'll have stories to tell future generations.
» randomjunk on 2008-09-28 10:57:43

I am worried about getting through the month without having to touch the minimum amount in my savings, which doesn't really happen because when my parents are late with the allowances, my brother will take money from me. I'll be finding for a part-time job soon.

I hope you'll be able to solve your problem soon and also in getting a higher paying job.
» Nuttz on 2008-09-29 09:58:38

Your comment
I read every word of the comment and you've got a point. If people would actually listen to your advice and not buy things they can not afford, they would not be in debt. And here is a question for you: if they are really supposed to help the poor, then why is the average age of a homeless person in America nine years old? There are thousands of families out there in shelters or on the streets when there are thousands of homes they could live in. the only problem is that those homes are way too expensive. I see all the stats on the CEOs having millions then I see the stats that over 31,000,000 Americans have no food each night. Food stamps are supposed to help, only you have to make a certain amount and most of these families make a few cents too much to be on Food Stamps or to be elligible for any assistance. When I applied for food stamps a while back, I was rejected. $6.00 an hour for about 20 hours a week was too much money. I simply re-applied even though I am making more than that but my hours are the same. Of course, I have a homeless verification letter this time.

Zanzibar, thanks for commenting!

J
» Art4TheHomeless on 2008-09-30 11:31:28

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