I took out over {$100000.00} for an XXXX degree. This was foolish. I graduated in XXXX, and found a job at a school making around {$16000.00}. For many years I missed payments. Depending on the credit agency you consult, I 've made between 59-65 % of my payments. I am current with my loans as of today. I am making {$32000.00} a year or {$2000.00} a month, and paying a little over {$1000.00} a month in both private and federal loans. After taxes, I 'm effectively making around {$12000.00} a year. Navient, to whom I pay around {$800.00} a month, will not provide another payment option, and I 'm not sure I would want it if they did. If my payments were much less, they would no longer cover the interest accrued that month. Since I took them out, my loans have grown by {$10000.00}. Furthermore, I have no hope of paying this off in less than XXXX years. 

Frankly, if I were to default and Navient and the federal government garnished my wages for the rest of my life, I 'd still end up paying significantly less per month than I do now, at least under Illinois law. 

I admit I was naive to think taking out such enormous loans for a degree in XXXX was a sound investment. But there were hundreds of trained professionals at XXXX XXXX ( now Navient ) who could have decided these loans were predatory and did nothing. No sane individual would think giving someone over {$100000.00} to study XXXX at an unknown private university would ever return reasonable dividends. But I was the first person in my family to go to college, and believed the hype about college as the XXXX to employment and success, when for me, the reality is I would have been much better off without it, or at least this particular degree.