Gina’s story put a huge smile on my face. Gina Nykerk wrote an inspiring article titled How I paid off $16,000 in Student Loans. And she did it at the age of 23. She also did it the old-fashioned way – by sacrificing and throwing big money against the debt until she killed the nasty little sucker.
What a breath of fresh air at a time when more and more students are being taught to drag their student loans out over 10, 20, 30 years and more.
Here is a great quote from her article and my observation on her approach.
“After I graduated from college a few years before, I did what most college students do. I started spending all the money I was barely making. After all, $32,000 a year straight out of college feels like a lot of money after working part-time for $12 an hour.
I got an apartment of my own, a gym membership, and a weekly date at the nail salon. I hadn’t even started to pay my parents back for the used-car they had given me. But life felt fun and carefree—as life after college was supposed to.”
What I love about her quote is that so many students are in the same position she was in and thinking the same thing about their loans and their future. Many students are coming out of school with the idea that their student loans are “good debt”. That they have “low interest rates”. That it’s “cheap money”.
And the idea that they deserve to start living their new life by putting their student loans on an almost lifelong payment plan.
Gina provides a beautiful example of wisdom, and plain street smarts, in her story about paying her student loans off super-fast.
In my next post, I will go into more detail about the brilliant lesson Gina has for those of you with student loans. I hope you will use her story as motivation to drive your student loan balance to zero!