Booth, who lives in Washington and works for the federal government, plans to get the rest of her debt forgiven within the next two years through the Department of Education’s Civil Service Loan Forgiveness Program. By documenting her progress, she hopes to encourage others to follow in her footsteps. “I want other people to feel less trapped in debt like I was,” she said.
She also talks about her offline loans these days. “A lot of friends have been more supportive than I expected, even the few who don’t have debt,” she said. “I have a friend who will say, ‘Hey, do you want to go out to dinner this week? Is that in the budget?’
Conversations about student debt have come a long way in the past few years. What was once an embarrassing or even shameful topic is now, for some at least, part of a normal Tuesday night chat about where to eat. Part of this change is generational. Millennials, the generation most likely to have student debt, defied taboos against discussing finances; some surveys have shown that they are more likely to bring money with friends, co-workers, or even strangers on social media.
Moreover, the student loan crisis has become a national dialogue. “Because it made the headlines a lot, my parents became a lot more understanding of my financial situation,” said Lauren Howey, 39, a teacher in Greenwood, Ind., who owes about $25,000 in student loans. “They are from a generation that thought it was wrong to go into debt, and they were so mad at me when I did. Now they are more open-minded about it and send me articles and resources, which I appreciate.
A new way to look at loans
Many Americans have also come to view student loan debt as a structural problem, rather than the result of poor personal decisions. “When I started telling people about their student loans in 2016, a lot of people felt guilty about them,” said Travis Hornsby, who founded Student Loan Planner, a service that helps people in debt work out repayment strategies, after seeing his wife. struggling with six figures of medical school debt. “They were asking things like, ‘What have I done to my family?’ We’ve seen people hide it from their spouses all the time.