I have a $150k art school student loan (mostly for a MFA) that will be paid in full when I turn 65. At that point I will have no retirement savings and will have to continue working until either my children can support me or I die. I work as a front-end developer on a completely self taught skill-set
I wish this article existed before I went to graduate school. Had I not been buried under this debt I would likely still be a practicing artist.
Not that this addresses your pain of not being an artist, but have you tried freelancing? I bet if you tried, you could get that debt paid off in 2-3 years. Email me if you want and I can help you think it through.
As a front-end dev, you should be getting paid pretty well. Here in Austin, front-end devs make $75K/year or more (more if you have extensive Javascript experience.) Living in a city that allows you to live frugally (like Austin) would enable you to pay off your debt in 5-10 years.
