Just like yesterday, I thought that I’d bring you another entry that never made it to prime time on JerseySmarts.com. The entry below was prepared back in April 2010 and edited further in May 2010 – back when I was in the heyday of writing about my aggressive student loan repayment. The topic of this entry was the very real connection between student loans and housing costs. My driving point behind this entry was that the more new/recent graduates spend on their student loans, the less money they have to put into the housing market (either through rent or a mortgage), and thus the economy would suffer until something happened to alleviate the cost burden of student loans.

Anyway, I don’t have to write too much more about the topic because you have this half finished entry to read. Enjoy!

However, with this article, I decided to write something a little bit different – how my housing situation impacts my student loan repayment schedule.

On the surface, some people might not see the very real relationship between paying where I live and how that impacts my ability to repay my student loans. The truth, though, is that aside from my self-prescribed huge payments to the student loan companies each month, my next biggest expense is rent. Ever since I started renting in the Monmouth County area, I’ve been lucky enough to share the rent expenses with roommates. Since I’ve been able to share the rent costs, my monthly rent expense has ranged from $500 per month up to what it will be come this July – $893 per month. In the grand scheme of things, that’s not so bad.

Down to $84 thousand...

However, if I had to take a guess at how much money I’ve spent on rent since I began renting in the Monmouth County area, I’d estimate that I’ve spent about $80,000 on rent. That’s a lot of money, huh? In fact, now that I owe about $84,000 in student loans, you could see how there might be some connection there… But focusing on what I’ve already spent in rent isn’t worth the aggravation. That’s in the past and, frankly, I make a decent enough annual salary where I can afford to pay a good rent to live in a good place.

There was probably some potential in that entry, but it’s over now!