"You Got Completely Screwed On Your Education"

If your private student loans are in default, you're not out of options. Go to yrefi.com/ramsey. >> So, I'm in the process of trying to pay off student loans and between like my federal loans, there's about like there was 21 to start with. >> How much? >> But now there's there are 21 loans. >> Yeah. >> 21 loans. How much do you owe, Hillary? 326,000. >> Say that again. >> 326. >> 326,000. So, are you a doctor or a lawyer? >> I'm a pharmacist. >> A pharmacist. >> Yeah. >> Wow. So, you're making 120? >> I make about 150. >> Good. Okay. Are you single? >> I am. I'm a single mom of two. Yeah. How old are you? >> I'm 31. >> Are you married? No, you said you're a single mom. You're not married. You told me that. Okay. >> All right. Wow. >> So, has the balance grown because of interest? What's what's going on here? You've just been making minimum payments. >> So, I graduated in 2020 and I paid off through that. I had like two separate loans. So I have paid off my all my previous private loans which was 70,000 and then I have my federal ones which have been on forbearance and are still in the middle of forbearance but I've been paying on them since well I've been paying on them since like the other one got paid off >> but now the interest and I tried to pay off as much as I could before the interest started but now the interest is starting and I can't seem to figure paying off >> okay >> paying them Well, let let's pretend that you lived on a h 100,000 and you put 50,000 towards this. >> You've not been doing anywhere near that. >> I put >> what >> this past year I put like this past year I was trying to put towards my retirement and like plan for my retirement because I don't want to like >> Well, that's a competing goal. >> You either want to get get out of debt or invest. It's you can't do both at once and make progress. >> Yeah. So, if you stop retirement and you stop everything and you live on beans and rice and you attack these student loans like your life depended on it, >> could you put a hundred towards them? >> Probably not 100 with like my kids are seven and three, so I have daycare, but once like they're no longer in like full-time day, my little isn't in full-time daycare, then I can. So like I could definitely put like at least the 23,000 plus the other amount that I've been. So I could probably put around 40 to >> maybe 50,000. >> Yeah. I want you to Okay, let's get let's get it to 75 which is a four-year plan. >> So within that though, I was trying to pay off like I mentioned they're they're separated between 21 different loans. >> Yeah. You list them smallest to largest. List them smallest to largest. pay minimum payments on everything but the little one. But I want you putting $75,000 a year towards debt. And if you're putting $75,000 towards debt, >> nothing towards retirement. >> Nothing towards retirement. You're broke. You have got to do something different. You've got to attack these student loans and get rid of them. They're not a pet and they're an ugly zoo animal. >> Yeah. >> You got I mean, you got completely screwed on your education. You paid like five times more than you should have to become a pharmacist. >> Mhm. >> You know that, right? >> Yeah. I'm not sure. I'm not sure why it ended up being so much, but yes, I I know. >> Yeah. I'm not sure either because it shouldn't have been anywhere near, you know, $400 and something thousand to become a freaking pharmacist. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. All right. Now, anyway, we're where we are. If you do 75* 4, that's 300. four years. So eventually 100% debtree. The goal here is to make more payments than the interest is acrewing. So the balance goes down. That's the goal. And right now you haven't been putting enough toward it in order to make that happen. So we're telling you, pause investing. Pause everything. Throw all of your energy towards that smallest debt so that you can begin to make traction. $75,000 a year. $6,000 a month plus 6,500 a month. Okay? And that that lay out your budget to do that. Hold on. We'll get you signed up on every dollar and it'll help you walk through this. But you're going to have to tighten the screws down and knock it out. Otherwise, this is going to just keep staying a death cycle on you. Why refi refinances defaulted private student loans for struggling borrowers. Learn more at yfy.com/ramsey. Y Refi refinances defaulted private student loans for struggling borrowers. Learn more at y ref.com/ramsey.