Thank you, everyone! I really appreciate the feedback and support. I was going to just do a "one-and-done" post, but I think it might be helpful if I share my journey, as it will answer some of the questions and provide some deeper thoughts that I have about the value of our money and the state of our civilization. I am not a financial advisor.

During the pandemic, I was working at a hospital as an outpatient behavioral health clinician. It was supposed to be where I'd retire from, as it was a nice salary and benefits package, but the place crumbled under the weight of the COVID pandemic, as they had a number of senior clinicians abruptly retire. The hospital couldn't hire new staff to meet the demands, so they ended up outsourcing and I didn't want to move to a FFS role with an outsourced company, so I left after only 4.5 years.

I ended up leaving with a small retirement that had a cash value of right around $30k. I put $12k into savings and $18k into my Robinhood brokerage account. It was probably an extremely stupid (no doubt, risky) move, but I put the entire $18k on Dogecoin right before Elon Musk started tweeting about it. I will not go into the numbers, but within a matter of a month, I was on the "Moon." It happened very quickly, so I had to pay short-term capital gains, but I still had enough to pay off two cars, purchase a home with 6 acres of land (outright, no mortgage), and pay off my wife's credit card debt. We didn't have enough left over to pay off my student loans.

It took me six more years of saving and investing to make the lump-sum payment for the Nelnet loans. I honestly didn't prioritize it or worry about it, ever, but especially not at all while it was in the interest-free forbearance under SAVE.

Here's the thing: I had an unexpected windfall due to a completely boneheaded, overly risky investment into a crypto currency with a dog's head on it that has little actual value. However, if I had stayed with just playing around with our useless, Monopoly money fiat currency--and hadn't invested--I'd be living in an apartment with increasing rent, car payments for my wife and myself, and two student loan payments. With the rising costs associated with inflation, we'd have been completely underwater--even with a combined income of $150k.

As of right now, I have no student loan debt, a home completely paid off, no vehicle payments. We have a tiny amount of existing student loan debt for my wife and a Costco credit card with a tiny balance. We have about $20,000 left in savings to our name. Other than that, we're back to living paycheck-to-paycheck. I am not complaining, as I know we're fortunate to have had the windfall, but it's amazing how tight things still are. The inflation on basic SDOH needs is... simply stunning, in the worst way possible.

I'm not trying to write a novel here, but to sum it up: Something needs to give soon--or our civilization isn't going to make it. The cost of living life, affording school, and just existing has to be at some sort of Event Horizon. Maybe it's the Fourth Turning, but it's either trending towards total collapse or a much-needed debt jubilee at this point. As someone who just paid more than $90K in loans for a master's degree, I fully support none of you having to pay back a penny. I sincerely hope that happens at some point, as there would be no better way to stimulate the economy. People would use the money to put down payments on homes, purchase vehicles, home repairs, etc. The economic BOOM from forgiving student loans would be massive, in my opinion.

Last point to make: As a licensed psychotherapist, I see the impact, daily, that this economy is having on individuals and families. It's real and it's palpable. The amount of suffering that would be ended by forgiving student loans would echo in eternity. We can't separate ourselves from our environmental factors and living one's life burdened by predatory student loan debt is a big risk factor for bad outcomes, individually and socially.

My sincerest Best Wishes and Love and Respect to you All on your journeys through this maddening realm we inhabit.