Hi everyone! If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, then you know that I accumulated a ton of student loan debt over the course of my higher education experience. You also know that I spent all of last year aggressively repaying one of my two student loans and that I now owe less than half of the amount that I started repaying in 2006.
If I can toot my own horn – my progress is pretty impressive by any measure.
Those of you who have been around JerseySmarts.com for an even longer period of time may remember when I was interviewed by USA Today back in 2006 about the enormity of my student loan debt (JerseySmarts.com Article | USAToday.com Article). Well, earlier this week – some five years after the good folks at USA Today plastered my mug on the front page of their newspaper (above the fold, thank you) – I had a follow up interview with the newspaper to give them an update on my student loan repayment progress.
USA Today Provided a Brief Update and Quote on My Student Loan Repayment Progress
Sandra Block – the personal finance guru at USA Today who wrote the original story back in 2006 – interviewed me this past Wednesday for about 20 minutes. It was really a lot of fun! Ms. Block is an excellent interviewer and she really allowed me to tell her the story of my last five years. In fact, she referenced my student loan repayment progress and even quoted me in an article that was published on USAToday.com yesterday. You can read the article (I’m referenced and discussed in Point 3) by clicking here.
I’m really pleased with the article and the few lines that are allotted to my story within it. As always, Ms. Block did a good job of cutting through my story’s fluff and boiling it down to an easily digestible “real story” for the readers to absorb. And I hope that the readers did absorb the reality of my experience and that my story helps them with their own repayment plan.
If anyone out there would ever like to talk about their student loans or discuss their repayment plans, you should always feel free to send me an e-mail. I’d be glad to share more about my experience and do my best to provide you with my reality-tested advice. Of course, you could also keep an eye on JerseySmarts.com because this is where I ply my writing trade, but you already know that, right?!
In short, I’m glad to be back in USA Today after five years of dedicated, hard work repaying my student loans. And I encourage you all to stay tuned. I’ve got about $51 thousand left outstanding and I’m getting ready to gear up on my repayment of that loan in the coming months.
The light at the end of the student loan repayment tunnel is becoming brighter, clearer, and more in focus after all! 🙂
Nobody cares! The people demand a review of Chef Vola’s.
GGL is incorrect – GGB’s student loan story is so worth people’s time that it is printed in USA Today. Besides, Ewok is preparing the Chef Vola’s review for JerseySmarts.com. Ewok is very methodical and takes his time preparing his written work…
My son recently graduated from a New Jersey college, and we were hoping to consolidate his NJClass loans. This is the message on the HESAA website:
“The funds available for NJCLASS Consolidation Loans have been exhausted. HESAA anticipates having additional funds for this program in the very near future. Please check back to this site for updates which will be posted as they are available.”
This is very frustrating, as his payments for multiple small loans is very high, and consolidation would make the monthly payment more manageable as he is just starting out. Do you know what our options might be?
I can’t find any information about this on the web anywhere…….
Hi Susan – thanks for the comment. I think what happened was that the NJHESAA program ran out of their money for the consolidation program. The money for that program is acquired through the sale of bonds to investor pools, so I think the Governor’s Office put a freeze on any state agencies selling those bonds for the time being. Chances are that now that the budget has been passed, they’ll get back to selling bonds again. I’d call over to the NJHESAA offices and ask them what their time frame is to get these funds available again.