My $2k hearing aids got stolen when the office I worked on got burglarized (seriously, who steals custom fit hearing aids?). I replaced them with the $500 Bose Hearphones and haven't looked back. My hearing aids were not high end, the only advantages it had was that it was more discreet and it's batteries lasted a whole week, but with the Hearphones I also get noise cancelling(love it on bart and the open office), easy access to volume control, it's rechargeable, it connects to my phone via bluetooth so I can listen to music, take calls, talk to Google Assistant, etc. All for 1/4 of the price of my cheap(by hearing aid standards) hearing aid.
I went to college and graduated with a Computer Engineering degree from SJSU without any financial help from my parents, the government or anybody else. Oh and I had to support my child from the second year on as well. It took me about 30% longer to finish it, and I was sleep deprived most of those years due to having to work AND go to school, but I graduated with $0 debt.