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Showing posts from April, 2022

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

Get University Courses for Free!

  Did you know that some universities offer free courses? COVID really did a number on higher education with declining numbers and students choosing other pathways to success. As a result, colleges had to pivot to keep numbers afloat, so they did not lose funding. One of the ways they did this was by allowing students to take free courses. I’m not sure where the funding came from (it may have been HEERF Funding), but it was a great opportunity for students to get what they needed at zero cost. I'm sure many of our free college for all folks would argue that this should be a permanent  option.  Figure 1: This is a thumbnail of my latest YouTube video “Get University Courses for Free” where I am smiling with my hand under my chin. My hair is styled in long twists. Since the start of my doctoral program in August 2020 I have taken two free courses and will take another one in May. These courses have helped me to finish my coursework very quickly! While the first free course that I too