Another Day Older and…

. . . deeper in debt” ~ “Sixteen Tons” performed by Tennessee Ernie Ford, written by Merle Travis in 1946.
Each month when I pay the Navient bill, I write down Mr. POAI’s (Mr. Peace Out and In) student loan debt total. Since I pay the bill anywhere from the 1st to the 7th of each month, the amount the loan has increased over the month can vary.
I decided I’d write down what the loan total is each day. I’ve done that for just 3 days so far, and I see it goes up just over 37 dollars a day.
Yup, every single day, the loan goes up about $37, or what it’d cost for haircuts for my family, groceries for 1/2 a week, 1/2 a month’s worth of food for my dogs, a few pairs of jeans, etc.
Unfortunately, we are paying less than the amount of money the loan accrues in interest per month so the loan goes up, and up, and up.
Mr. POAI and I are working to determine how to best deal with the loan. As I discussed here, we’re currently on the Income Based plan where each year for 20 years, Navient determines how much we are able to pay each month. Then, the rest is to be forgiven, which sounds awesome, but then we’ll owe taxes on an enormous amount of money.
Although we take responsibility for the situation we are in, it is difficult not to feel like we “owe our souls” to Navient.
~Jaye