The Crushing Weight of Financial Pressure - Tuition, Rent, Survival
Your First Salary Isn’t Yours. It Belongs to Your Debt.
It is a cruel joke, really.
You spend years chasing a degree.
Finance. Engineering. Business. Medicine. Etc.
You survive impossible exams. Dreadful deadlines.
You graduate.
You get your first job after graduation.
And then the paycheck comes.
And it is already gone.
Before you even touch it, it disappears:
Tuition loans.
Bills.
Rent.
Groceries.
You don’t buy yourself anything.
You just buy yourself a bit more time.
You thought getting a job was the finish line.
Turns out, it’s just the beginning,
for repaying what it cost to get here.
You say things like:
“I’ll feel free once this debt is cleared.”
“I’ll start living once I’ve caught up.”
“I’ll save later.”
People scroll past your LinkedIn post and think,
“She made it.” “He’s earning now.” “Must be settled.”
If only they knew.
The other side of an International Master’s Degree.
Getting paid and not keeping a penny doesn't mean you’re bad with money.
It means you’re in the system.
A system where success is taxed to survival.
But here's the thing:
Every payment, every sleepless night, every sacrifice,
is building your future.
Your wealth will grow.
Your debt will shrink.
Your freedom will come.
And when it does,
You’ll know you earned it.
Not just with your degree,
But with your grit.
You’re not behind.
You’re just in the part of the story
where all the magic begins quietly.
- Akshet Patel