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My One Year Student Loan Payoff Update

  January 28, 2022 marked my one year anniversary of paying off my student loans . Reflecting back on choosing to pay off my student loans leaves me with several take a ways that I want to share with you! In September 2020 I decided to become debt free by utilizing the debt snowball method to pay off all my debt. Before this I had struggled to save and really understand basic financial principles. As a first-generation college student, I received a scholarship to attend undergrad for free, but the scholarship did not cover summers. During the summers I took out student loans to cover costs without paying interest rates or how much I was taking out. By the end of undergrad I had amassed a little under $17K. Fast forward to graduate school I received another scholarship that covered my education. At the time I was a teacher in a new very expensive city and I had missed the cutoff to have my paycheck last me throughout the summer. So, I decided to take out a loan for two summers to keep
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How to Get a Free Doctoral Degree

Hey Guys! It’s been awhile right?! I know but I am back and ready to give you all the information you need! If you missed it last week on my channel , I discussed how you can get a free doctorate degree. If you’ve been following my doctoral journey, then you know that I am currently working towards my doctoral degree in higher education. I recently finished all of my coursework and I am officially working on my dissertation proposal this semester. I chose to work at a university so that I could not only work with students but so that I could also receive a discounted education. In the beginning of my journey, I received a $1,600 stipend towards my courses, and I paid fees out of pocket. I also received several scholarships along the way that helped to cover most of my fees. Last year my university decided to cover doctoral degrees at 100% for all professional staff which was a major benefit. While I understand that most folks do not want to join the education world don’t let this s
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The Department of Education Changed the rules for student loan forgiveness

 The Department of Education has "silently" changed the rules to student loan forgiveness that will affect at least 800,000 borrowers. On September 29, 2022 the Department of Education made a few changes for those who obtained the Perkin's and Federal Family Education loan.  Here is the language directly from the Dept of Education "As of September 29, 2022 borrowers with federal student loans not held by ED cannot obtain one time debt relief by consolidating those loans into direct loans". Previously individuals who did obtain theses loans were able to receive loan forgiveness. Figure 1: This is a thumbnail of my latest YouTube video "Student loan forgiveness guidelines have changed" where I am sitting in my office while looking at the camera with a suspicious look.  Many speculate that potential lawsuits could be the reason why the Dept of Ed has changed it's language recently. Long story short the banks who insured these loans will not receive an
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All Things Student Loan Forgiveness

Hey Guys! I know it’s been awhile since my last post so I decided to do a recap of student loan forgiveness to get back on track ! By now we’ve all heard about student loan forgiveness and and heard out fair share of critics.  Here’s the facts: 1. Singles who make less than 125K and couples who make less than 250K are NOT eligible for loan forgiveness  2. Pell grant recipients will receive 20K in loan forgiveness while those who did not will receive $10K 3. There is no overage. If you owe $4K you will only have $4K forgiven based on the restrictions above  4. There is nothing you need to do if the Department of Education has your income on file. If not, an application will be available in October 2022 5. The final student loan pause needs in 12/2022 Below is a thumbnail of my YouTube video “Do I Regret Paying My Student Loans?” where I am looking away from the camera with my finger under my chin. There is a perplexed look on my face. I recently was asked I regret paying off my student
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Biden to Forgive Student Loans in August 2022?

  Alright folks I’m back with another student loan update! According to CNBC, Biden is set to make a decision on student loan forgiveness by the end of August 2022. Now while I’m not entirely sold that this is actually happening, there are several things for you to be aware of. First things first there is still no clear information on how much will be forgiven. While Biden did discuss student loan forgiveness of $10K during his campaign trail other sources have reported higher amounts of 50K. Of course, none of this is set in stone and we are all waiting to hear something. This is a thumbnail of my latest YouTube video on “Biden to Forgive Student Loans in August?” I am looking at the camera suspiciously while seated in my office. The background is red. There may also be income restrictions of who may qualify for student loan forgiveness. Single folks may have a threshold of 125K-150K while those who are married may be between 250K-300K. There is also some talk surrounding what typ
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Top 5 Tips for First Time College Students

  Last week my office hosted our very first summer camp for transition age youth with disabilities. Many of the students were away from home for the first time and had never been exposed to a college environment before. The aim of the camp was to provide the students with an introduction to college life to assist them in their transition from high school to college. The students had a great time and so did our office. But that got me to thinking on what would I recommend for first time college students. As a first generation college student myself there were so many things that I didn’t know and I wanted to make sure our campers would be better prepared than I was. Take a look at my top five giveaways for first year students: 1.       Advocacy Many times students are so used to their parents doing everything for them that when they get to college and staff cannot event speak to their parents without consent they are like fish out of water. Things do not just happen in college. You
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Balancing Being a Doctoral Student and Working Full Time is HARDT!

  Balancing schoolwork and working full time can truly be a task. As someone who works fulltime and is working towards a doctoral degree, I feel like I have mastered the art of being a student. This past week as I was working on an assignment I began to beat myself up a little about not utilizing the long holiday weekend to complete a few discussion posts. This started me to think about how I stay organized between work and school.     Figure 1: This is a thumbnail of my latest YouTube video “Balancing Doctoral Life & Full Time Work” where I am sitting at my desk looking at the camera. I am wearing a black shirt with my arms folded.   The first key is organization. My planner sets the framework for this. It helps me to stay on top of things and plan long assignments.  I also organize my syllabi in a binder or keep them within eye view so that I am always aware of upcoming assignments. Figure 2: This is a planner with two sticky notes, a pen, tape, and notepad on a desk.   My mo
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