Dr. Adrienne Colman, 30, lives in Atlanta, GA, and earns $100,000 a year as a physical therapist. Colman faces $230,000 in student loans for her undergraduate and doctoral degrees, but she doesn’t lose sleep over it. She’s only a few years into her career and already earns six figures. She expects her income will keep growing, which will help her pay off her debt down the road.
This is the latest installment of Millennial Money, which profiles people across the U.S. and details how they earn and spend their money.
Read more about about Adrienne's budget breakdown here: https://cnb.cx/3hzlOiD
In the meantime, she isn’t willing to sacrifice everything just to put more toward her loans each month. She doesn’t live extravagantly, but she does want to enjoy her life. She makes room in her budget for travel, nights out with friends and family and weekend shopping trips.
“It doesn’t make me feel great that I have that much student loan debt, but I don’t let it hinder me in the way that I live my life,” Colman tells CNBC Make It. “I’d rather live my life than throw thousands of dollars into trying to pay this debt off.”
Colman puts $453 total toward her private loans each month. Normally, she also pays $229 per month toward her federal loans, but those have been deferred through the end of the year due to Covid19. She expects to pay off her private loans in eight years and her federal loans in 25. At that time, any remaining balance on her federal loans will be discharged, and Colman will pay taxes on the amount forgiven.
She also has around $2,600 in credit card debt, mostly from shopping for clothes and accessories, and she is paying off around $17,000 for her 2017 Mazda CX5.
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