Should I Wait For My Student Loans To Be Forgiven?

[Music] brought to you by the every dooll app start budgeting for free today I have no knowledge of financial literacy at all and I'm in a space where I am really trying to get my life together um so I am on baby step two but I just have a general question about the amount of college debt I have and some concerns with that um so I understand that you guys say to start off with the lowest up the lowest amount that you have first in debt and then to work your way up my college loans are $93,000 um and I know that uh after working for the government after 10 years these loans can be forgiven so I'm kind of confused on if that's something that I should be even paying like a lot of attention to or if I should just say okay well after 10 years they're gonna be forgiven anyway I just don't know what to do with that so Selena number one I want say you that I'm proud of you it is hard to turn and face the storm and that's what you're doing amazing welcome to Our Gang or our cult whatever you want to call it whatever the internets call us we're glad that you're here it's amazing thank you um can I ask you a wild question sure who was president 10 years ago who was president 10 years ago my brain doesn't work that way I don't know exactly pressure so you know what the federal student loan relief policy was 10 years ago what was it yeah I don't know but I know this yes I know I had a lot of extraordinary brilliant law students who did not go into um private uh large firm law because the government said it was going to pay off all their student loans in 10 years and I know that many of them went to do public defender stuff they went to help the least of these in our local communities and that relief never came yeah because somebody else got into office and then somebody else got into office and somebody else writes a bill and then somebody else sends us to the Supreme Court all I have to say is if I look around I don't have a ton of trust that the government's going to do what they say they're going to do in 10 years yeah I do have a lot of trust in my ability to get up and say okay as for me in my house here's what we're going to do next and that's a sad state of reality but that's just me choosing reality yeah yeah I agree it feels nearly impossible for me to even think that $93,000 is something that I can pay off myself why who told Selena then it's it's a lot of money and then the interest that I see like two years ago I was at around 87,000 and then I look again this year said 93,000 that's because you you didn't have a clue about personal finance and now you're getting a hold of this thing you're going to pay extra you're going to do the baby steps we're going to get you out of debt in a few years and the worst part of your story is I hate to tell you this it makes my heart hurt but it's kind of awesome that me and my wife paid off 110 Grand and me and George's friend Jade warshaw her and her husband paid off like what $450,000 of student loans so here's the deal you don't see that you can do it George and I are on the other side of the tunnel we know you can we can tell you we can show you the math we can show you the path but you got to believe and Selena cuz we do are you working right now I am working and I'm making the most I've ever made but I just feel like I don't know where my money is going there we go that's a great problem to have and guess what next year you're probably going to make more money than you've ever made and the year after that you're going to make more money than you ever made and so what are you making right now I'm making $96,000 that's amazing and what's your total debt load add up all your Consumer Debt my total debt load is around 102,000 okay what's the other 9,000 other than student loans well I have two credit cards one is uh 4,100 the other is 4,800 and then I have my phone which is 800 I'm also paying a car that I didn't include in that debt and that's 375 a month okay so making 96 let's imagine that you get a little raise and you're making six figure sooner rather than later and you have about 100,000 in debt how much do you think you could throw with the debt each year if you got on a budget you worked extra you cut your expenses you live like a broke college person you think you could throw 30 grand 35 a year at the debt if I eat beans and rice like you guys say we go think you could you could you could manage to throw three grand a month at the debt if you really tried three grand I don't think so right because what the expenses I gave you were just the debt like the things that I have in debt but I still have bills I still have rent and I pay everything by myself I know that but I'm saying if we got real creative with every single line item on top of working extra I think you could find it whatever the Gap is you can go find it you're that resourceful and if you do that just based on napkin math you're done with this thing in less than 3 years and you get your life back how old are you 30 so you'll be 33 years old and completely debt free or you could be 40 while politicians still dangle the carrot and you spend all this time waiting and hoping and waiting and hoping and now we still have a 100 grand left ahead of us at 40 years old right I'm not taking the chances I think the variables are there's far less with Selena than there are with all the outside factors and so Selena here's what Bonkers looks like Jade warshaw and her husband did not have a bed they slept on an air mattress for years me and my wife sold our house and we moved into a dorm a College residence hall with a toddler because we said enough is enough is enough is enough and I ate in the dorm I mean in the in the in the in the cafeteria at the University to save money wow here's what I'm saying when you decide enough is enough when you decide Selena's worth going to war for beans and rice become a delicacy it's not a sacrifice it becomes a a small price to pay for Freedom right you know what I'm saying yeah yeah definitely but it's you have to you have to flip that switch or it will always look like $96,000 $96,000 $96,000 by the way how much is this car you're driving around that you didn't include in your total debt um so the thing is I am helping my mom to pay this this is her car and I just have it temporarily so I don't really know how much the entire car is because at some point I'm planning on giving this back to her when she's ready but you're driving it yes I'm driving it why why are you paying for your mom's car um she was working from home she got into some um some health issues and all of her responsibilities were a lot so we decided that I take the car just until she's back on her feet can she afford a car she's ready yeah it doesn't sound like she can but you're paying it I'm paying it she could afford it until she couldn't afford it she's working from home how much how much is how much is what kind of car is it it's a 2019 Toyota R 4 okay I want you to get what the payoff amount is on that car and I want you to ask yourself a hard question um cuz it's it's a depreciating asset said so it's worth less money every month over every year yet your payment is the same and I want you to ask yourself what if we just sold this car and when Mom needs to come back online and start working not from home anymore then she can buy a $3,000 she can buy whatever she can afford with cash and you're going to buy whatever you can afford with cash and suddenly boom you got $300 back a month back in your budget to go towards student loans right you're right we talked about that too sell it sell it sell it and toy does have a great resale value so sell it be free from that one okay now George what kind of tools can we give her to help her out I'm going to gift you my book Breaking Free from broke and there's a specific chapter in there that I think is really going to help it's called margin is breathing room in there I lay out every one of my best ideas for you to find some margin in that budget to get you to 3,000 bucks a month or more and you're already making 96 you got some skills I think if you put those to work while cutting expenses you'll get this amazing thing called margin and you will be in control of Selena's life and you live right down the street from these politicians Selena you've seen what they're saying but the truth is they don't care about Selena only Selena is going to care about Selena and so you've got to do what's right for you and your family and I want you to have a different life than the generations that came before you and that means we're not going to carry debt into our 40s and 50s and 60s and Hope on the government to fix our life we're just going to fix it he let's also hook her up with um a year of every dollar greatest budget app budgeting app in the world and Selena it's going to teach you how to budget it's going to help keep you accountable to it hang on the line and we'll get you hooked up it'll show you all the nooks and crannies you can be saving when you go oh my gosh I never actually looked at all of that at one place yes all my income all my expenses I can do better I can find $3,600 a month right and suddenly it it it just is every or it shines a light on just how bad things are and you got to get your butt another create your free every dollar budget today the simplest way to budget for your life