8 Successful Student Loan Stories
Paying off your loans is hard! Sometimes, as a student (or even after you graduate), it can be a bit daunting to commit to paying your loans off.
You might have heard the worst student loans stories. It’s easy to be scared. But, all student loans don’t end up in disasters. There are successful student loan stories will be sure to give you the push that you need and inspire you to start paying off your loans today!
Here are 8 successful student loan stories to keep your belief strong in our education sector:
Zina Kumok – $28,000
Zina Kumok paid off 28,000$ in student loans. She did this by cutting off her expenses as much as possible in her first year and stuck to a budget throughout.
Any extra money that she had was put towards her loans. In her second year, she received a small raise at her job, and she moved to a new city that was significantly less expensive.
By her third year, she moved in with roommates which helped cut the cost of utilities in half. By November that year, Zina was debt free!
Melanie Lockert – $68,000
Paying off 68,000$ of student loans in five years isn’t nothing short of a miracle. But Meanie Lockert did it! Melanie Lockert moved from New York to Portland, Oregon, where she worked towards living a minimalist lifestyle.
She also started her own business which took off and managed to double her pay. Melanie lived off of half her income and put the rest towards paying off her student loans. Within 5 years, she had no more loans to pay off.
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner – $40,000
Michelle worked full time all throughout school and paid off her loans by cutting expenses as well as earning more money.
Building an extra income was a large part of Michelle’s plan to pay off her loans. The month that she finally did, she had a whopping $11.000 of extra income!
According to Michelle Schroeder-Gardner, the key to paying off your debts is paying a little bit more than the minimum each month.
Beth Walker – $75,000
Beth Walker worked full-time during her education and lived with her parents throughout, which significantly cut down her rent cost.
She put $1000 every month towards her loans, saved the rest and eventually bought a home with her savings.
As her income increased, Walker used her raise to pay off even more of her loans and did so within 7 years of her education.
Charlie Riley – $25,000
Charlie Riley automated his student loan payments and used budgeting apps to keep on track of his monthly budget.
As a result, Charlie managed to pay for a wedding, buying a home as well as traveling to a few places across the world while still paying for his loans.
Riley says that paying off his student loans ultimately came down to all the choices that he and his wife made, as well as by paying extra whenever possible.
Kaysie Garza – $30,000
Kaysie Garza started paying off her student loans even before she graduated university. After college, she started working at an entry-level copywriting position with a salary of $30,000.
She chose the cheapest apartments, bought second-hand furniture and reduced all her expenses, because of which she could repay her student loan in just 19 months!
Vince Schiano – $81,000
Vince Schiano had a whopping 81,000 dollars of student loans to pay off. Vince Schiano recognized early that his experience in the gym could help him pay off his student debts.
He spent $350 getting certified as a gym instructor and earned $1,300 by conducting classes five days a week. As of September 2016, Vince had managed to pay an extra $12,000 of his debt by working out!
Thomas Nitzsche – $20,000
Nitzsche put his student loan on a graduated repayment plan, where he had to pay $80 per month to approximately $120 per month. He reduced his expenses by renting out his house and moving in with his mother to pay the debt. Thomas Nitzsche is currently debt free as a result!
We hope that these successful student loans stories will inspire you to make the right choices when it comes to paying off your loans in less than 7 years. Some tips we learned from these stories are:
- Cut down extra expenses
- Look for cheap apartments
- Find a side business or a side job.
Whether you’re looking to refinance your loans or take out new loans, MEFA (Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority) is an excellent organization to help you out with your plans!
Remember, there’s no incorrect way of paying off your student loans and in the end, becoming debt-free will definitely be worth it!