Higher Ed Utah

When speaking of the Great Depression, my mother used to shake her head. “Those were hard times. . . . We had no choices. We had no options. We were lucky to have clothes on our backs and food on our plates.” I could tell by the look on her face that she spoke what was truth for her.

Hard times have returned and it is still frightening to realize that there is no way to pay all the hands reaching into our pocketbooks. Many of us borrowed money for continuing education, fully expecting to pay it back in a timely fashion. We figured if we got a degree the chances for financial stability were good. It’s what we “banked” on.  Unfortunately for some of us, things have not worked out as we planned. There is way too much month left at the end of our money. Not only do our “ends” not “meet”, they don’t even wave at each other!

I think we make the worst decisions when we don’t know all of our options. There are tools available to fix our broken student loan budgets. Some of them include: deferment, forbearance, and income-based-repayment. Additionally, we might qualify for reduced or graduated payments.  We won’t be able to make the best choices until we explore the possibilities, and UHEAA can help us in that process if we give them the opportunity to do so. They can be reached at 1-877-336-7378, Monday through Thursday, 8am to 8pm, MST. On Fridays the hours are 8am to 5pm. E-mail inquiries should be directed to uheaa@utahsbr.edu.