BONUS EPISODE Our Money Mistakes - College and Student Loans

We all have money mistakes.  Some of us have more and bigger mistakes than others....(slowly raises our hands to both).   FAILING FORWARD John Maxwell has a wonderful book called Failing Forward.  What he emphasizes is one of the most valuable lessons one can learn in life and it is this... Failure in and of itself is not bad.  The most important thing is how you respond to failure.  You can learn from it and try again and get better or you can walk away and let it prevent you from growing.  Most of you know our money story and know we've made quite a few money mistakes.  The biggest one of them being student loan debt.  The stress and magnitude of our student loan debt has been a barrier, mentally, emotionally and financially for years.  The enormity of our debt was also one of the catalysts for us to seek out help and eventually find the financial independence community.  We now have hope.  Hope not just for ourselves - but for a different future for our children. We have had lots of time to think about the things we would have done differently and steps we will be taking to ensure our children do not follow in our footsteps when it comes to debt.  OUR MISTAKES:  1. Lack of knowledge and options about how to pay for school without debt.  2. Taking out more money than we needed.  3. Not aggressively paying them off immediately after graduation.  4. Not taking advantage of the Public Student Loan Forgiveness programs (PSLF) WHAT WE WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY AND WHAT WE ARE DOING DIFFERENTLY FOR OUR CHILDREN:  1. Talking with our children and educating ourselves about options with how to pay for college.  Scholarships Extra-curricular scholarships Military 2. Options for College.  Community College Clep Testing Trade Schools 3. Defraying Costs for College 529 Plans Stay at home! State College vs. Private Schools   Previous Episodes: Episode 31 with Travis Hornsby, The Student Loan Planner Episode 14 with Tinian Crawford, DIY2FI Episode 12 with Grumpus Maximus  BOOKS MENTIONED: Failing Forward, by John Maxwell