There are four little letters haunting most of us that attended post-secondary institutions in Ontario: OSAP. For those of us fortunate to have been granted loans, we at least had a six-month grace period before we had to begin making payments.
My generation is struggling with financial strain left, right, and centre. We’re spending a ton of money on undergraduate degrees and nowadays, you need some sort of post-graduate degree to even fathom scoring a job you might enjoy. If you’re lucky, you come out of your undergrad with just $30K in debt (average cost of four years of schooling), and hopefully you have some way of being able to start paying it back.
In addition, we also might want to do things like travel, move out, get married, buy homes, and have children… but in this economy?? A lot of us will have to pick and choose.
I was lucky enough to come out of school with only $7500 owing (at one point, I was working 3 jobs in school and 40+ hours per week – wouldn’t recommend), and a great amount of savings that enabled me to pay it off quick.
Now, we’re working on getting my partner’s out of the way. He graduated from his Master’s in 2018, and we started paying towards it almost immediately, rather than waiting until the payments with interest kicked in come November of last year.
We’ve had a few setbacks (job changes, employment gaps), but our top priority is getting that debt off our plate. People are too quick to try and ignore their debt and, as a result, keep on spending money they don’t have.
If you’re reading this and that applies to you, I just want to let you know that you’re hustling backwards. If people don’t understand that you have goals to meet that will secure your future, they’re not for you. Here are my top tips for rising above your debt, student or otherwise:
1. Learn how to say “no.”
Honestly, going to grad school made saying “no” a lot easier for me. I couldn’t go out to the bar as often as I used to because I had to read, write, lesson plan, and take care of myself. The people who understood are still in my close circle today. There are people that are going to try and make you feel bad for your decisions, but remember that you can’t pay down your debt with their opinions.
All situations are different. I didn’t move back home after school and I was working contracts for my first two roles after school, so I had to be choosy. It’s easy for people to want to go out all the time and neglect their debt when they have a helping hand (or two). Keep in mind that your situation is just that – your situation. Act accordingly.
2. Pay more than you need to.
Even if you set your debt repayment to be at the minimum, overpay whenever possible. Of course, don’t forget to pay yourself first and save for a rainy day, and take care of whatever other mandatory expenses you have. With all the money you should be saving because you’re being choosy with how you spend your time and money, this shouldn’t be too hard to do (at least from time to time).
3. Keep track of your payments.
My partner and I keep track of how much money we send to OSAP, and when. I also have a document where I track what our monthly bills are, when they come out, and what the source is (i.e. credit card or pre-authorized debit).
We evaluated our expenses and our finances and decided to cancel our streaming services (Crave and Netflix) to save a little bit more each month. It may seem small, but it’s still about $40 extra in our pockets every month. Think about where you can cut corners.
4. Reward your progress.
Everything you read above makes it seem like we have no fun. We still do – we just make sure to spend more of our time at home doing fun things. When we do go out, it feels like more of a treat because we don’t do it all the time. We’re fortunate enough to have a bunch of gift cards that we can use, too, so that’s definitely helped.
We make our coffee and tea at home, we buy cases of beer (about $2/drink) instead of going out and having someone pour it for us for at least $8 a pop, and we spend a lot of time outside without our phones, which is incredible when we’re prisoners to 1-2 screens at a time at work.
Decide what matters. Set your goals. Pay your s**t off.
Khadijah Plummer Consulting 