When I recently came across an article titled “Obama Signs Student Loan Forgiveness Plan,” my first thought was that it wasn’t real. No way would the United States government seriously allow students out of their loan debt. Then I saw that it was written by a reputable source, and I was so happy thinking that maybe life after college isn’t just the hell we spend the rest of our lives digging ourselves out of. Maybe good things do happen to good people!

Just kidding, though! While Obama did sign a new student loan program, it doesn’t just pay off our loans. As if we could be so lucky! Instead, it will allow us to refinance our loans a little easier. It also allows us to partake in a pay-as-you-earn program, which basically says we don’t have to live in a cardboard box to pay off our student loans on time. But this also means we have the opportunity to extend the amount of time before we finish paying off our loans. We have the fine choice of choosing to live with our parents, or in a cardboard box if we so choose, or live comfortably in debt for 20 plus years. After 20 years of on-time payment, the government will completely forgive the rest of the loan debt. Twenty years of on-time payment. So, basically by the time we all reach our mid-40’s, we won’t be in debt any longer!

If you plan on taking advantage of the 20 year payment plan, try not to get your debt too high! It seems that the higher the debt, the harder it is to get forgiven. No surprise there, though. So if you have student loan debt that is even more money than you thought existed, you might want to try keeping the rest of your life-debt as low as possible so they will forgive student loans before you get to be old and wrinkly.

Oh, and in case you were planning on getting married to someone who also has student loans, don’t. If your significant other makes a pretty good salary, it’s almost guaranteed that both of your monthly payments will skyrocket. In fact, some websites are predicting that people will get divorced just so they can file separately for their debt!

This sounds completely promising.