Many of us like to further our education beyond high school and I am one of those people. It is so amazing to spend a day at school and learn many new and different ideas, concepts, and other things while in college that I enjoyed doing all of it. I have learned a lot since attending college and have appreciated the advanced education I have received since graduating high school in 1999. I now have my Masters degree in Business and earned it back in Dec 2010. We all know that getting to this point of education is not cheap and comes with a heavy price tag, especially as time goes on and the economy gets weaker, each year. I earned my Bachelors degree in 2004 and was proud to earn the degree especially knowing it was paid for, in full, due to my diligence and hard work. In 2008, I began to feel out of touch with the educated world and went back and forth mentally about going back to school. The main reason was if I were able to afford it or not. I decided to go back to school since I had a stable job and was making good money and the economy was doing well. I decided to apply for student loans and would be able to pay them back quickly since everything was going well. After about a year into my two year commitment to earning my Masters degree, the economy slumped into a major recession and my company declared bankruptcy and took away a huge percentage of my pay. I was devastated and my financial world, like many others, turned sour. I didn’t want to stop in the middle of my education as I felt having to repay the loans at a now, most inconvenient time, would further my delay in graduating, and I didn’t want to spend that much money and not finish my project! Fast forward to now and I am happy that I have my degree, however, the loans are due, yet the economy and my personal finances are not much better than almost two years ago. It is leaving me frustrated that I owe so much and my plan on paying the loans off quickly is gone. I have looked around for help on alleviating some of the burden from government programs and such to no avail. All I have found are programs and grants that help you before or during your education; not after. Why is it that furthering your education is a great thing only while you are thinking of going back or in the midst of attaining your degree? Where is the help for us post-graduates that need help or want to join programs that will give us help on our student loans without applying for more expensive education or joining the military for 5 years? All I can say is I hope that there will be programs developed soon to help me with my situation. I am not adverse to signing up for programs, helping others, etc. I just would like to not have the only option be to turn back time to 2008 and redo my plan.