M.J. Abell Farm

By now, I’m sure you’ve heard about the 2030 Agenda, about how “you will own nothing and be happy.” You’ve heard about it, right? We have. But we have a different agenda. Our agenda is to owe nothing and be happy.

It’s been a very humbling week, to say the least. Until this past week, I had not fully grasped the gravity of student loans’ effects on people just trying to do better for themselves & their families. I also had not fully grasped the true shamefulness of the teacher pay scale. Even though my student loan would never be expected to be paid in full inside of a year, the total balance still amounted to nearly half my annual salary and prevented me from securing financing for land.

My attempt 7-8 years ago to meet MD teacher requirements and get a Masters degree came back to bite me yet again. This didn’t just affect me, though–this affected Mike and our children, too.

After a short pity party on Friday, and discussion with Mike, we decided the best course of action would be to pay things off. I owed a little on a vehicle; it’s now paid off. I owed a little on a credit card; it’s now paid off. We were going to wait a little while to pay the student loan, but after seeing the interest rate I was paying (13%, variable!!!), we determined it would be best to pay that off, too. After all, I started paying it back upon graduation in 2018, and had only made a $900 dent in it as of yesterday. It was never going to go away.

So…I paid it off last night.

And I cried a little (in relief, of course) because this is the first time since high school that I don’t owe any lenders any money.

That’s 22 years. More than half of my lifetime.

But the weight that has been lifted off of our shoulders–not just mine, but his, too–is indescribable.

Proverbs 22:7 says it best: “The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.”

Obviously, there are times when borrowing (financing) is the only way to acquire certain things–homes, vehicles, land, farm equipment…but it is so important that we teach our young people that financing is not a first option. Financing should be a last resort. Personally, I think it is also important that, as parents, we stop buying into the idea that college is necessary for all young people. For some professions, it is absolutely necessary, but we are doing a great disservice to our children if we continue to push college on all of them. The trades are an excellent option, offering young people a paid apprenticeship, certificates & licenses, and a leg up on their college-bound counterparts…with zero student loan debt at the end of their programs and the freedom to enjoy their lives.

I’m free now…and it feels good.

–Jaclyn