About.com/The Balance Hosted Me in NYC!

How'd she do it? Grab a cup of coffee and join us for a Facebook
Live chat with college debt success story, Jessica Elberfeld
 moderated by Jean Chatzky!

I just got back from having an amazing time in NYC! The folks at About.com reached out to me in hopes of having me participate in a Facebook Live Session at their NYC office in the middle of Times Square. The interview was to aid in the launch of their new financial site, The Balance, where the financial editor of The TODAY Show, Jean Chatzky, would be moderating. How could I say no to that, right?!

My friend Scarlett went to the interview with me, and everyone there was so kind towards both of us. Security checked her in as my 'representation' so she got a real kick out of that :) I wasn't sure what to expect as the live conversation was set up to be pretty candid. But whenever you live this debt stuff day in and day out for many years, you can talk to it just fine; I didn't get too nervous about not knowing what questions were going to come my way.

Before we started the live interview, we were all standing around chatting and introducing ourselves. I have to say, being in a room with like-minded people who were there to applaud my debt pay-off accomplishments instead of question them, was very surreal. These people study money. They live and breathe it. Their studio (which was in the same building as Good Morning America!) felt like the ultimate safe-zone to completely nerd out in with zero judgement. I am telling you, it is rare to find a person, let alone a group of people, that can talk about finances for hours on end without falling asleep mid sentence.

In summary, the trip was awesome and the interview went well! Here is the live video if you want to give it a watch:

Here are some pictures from the trip!

Me & Jean!

Hanging out on Wall Street

The BULL!

Night out in Times Square!

Plane fun - I heart NY!

I was in The Wall Street Journal!

Does It Pay to Start at Community College? Maybe

"Does It Pay to Start at Community College? Maybe"

A reporter reached out to me back in June about interviewing for a piece she was writing on transfer students for the Wall Street Journal. Of course I agreed, and I am glad I did! Although the interview process was quite lengthy, the portion of my story in the whole piece is quite small. I am in no way complaining about that though; it's just an FYI!

Late last night my mom wondered if my article made it to the actual printed Wall Street Journal. I hadn't even thought about that and wondered myself, so I emailed the reporter, and sure enough! The article I was in, as well as my picture, was printed in the wealth management section of every Wall Street Journal nationwide. So naturally, I drove to Nashville's Barnes and Nobel as well as a Starbucks and picked up the few remaining papers for my family :)

That was a very cool feeling and a very humbling day. Big thank you to Jillian Berman for reaching out to me!

Click here to view the article!

Happy Last Month of 2015!

Hello out there. I figured it was time to check-in and provide an update or two on where I am these days J

 

I have a new job. Still corporate America, still a cubical, and still 8-5. BUT I like it a lot better than the previous one that I was at for the past 4 years. Although it was a lateral move, salary wise, there are budget saving aspects about it that will make it feel as if I got a pay increase for jumping ship:

 

-         It is 4 minutes from my house. That shaves off approximately 40 minutes each way every day and saves a ton of gas. Also, no more interstates every single day; thank you, Jesus!

-          They have a parking lot. It is free. No more having to give $65 a month to a crappy downtown parking garage to be able to park while at work. (Side note here, their parking spots are just a few steps away from the door which means no more elevators, escalators, stairs, and having to walk 1/3 of a mile outside just to get to your office. HUGE quality of life improvement!)

-         They do not have any restaurants, grocery stores, and cafes in walking distance like the previous job. So no more breakfast, lunch and snack buying temptations; I eat what I bought to eat from the grocery store that week. Sadly, that means no more Starbucks either, so there’s $25 a month alone.

 

So, where am I at on my loans? I last updated y’all on my balance in mid-June; it was at $36k then. I am happy to report that now, approximately 5 and a half months later, my loan balance is at $26k. So 10 grand down from my last update J

 

I am still aiming to be debt-free by late next near. 

Be a Unicorn

Being normal is easy. Too easy. It is a path that is very alluring in every way. Want this? Well, buy it, finance it, or put it on a credit card and it’s yours. It will never stop; you will always want more. You will want what he has or what she has or what they have. It is a nightmare that will be on replay your entire life. I don’t’ want to live like that. However, a lot of my peers do and they don’t even realize it. I am not in any way perfect with my budget, and believe me, I have expensive wants, but I do feel that I have a sense of control over it. What first made me realize this was reading Dave’s slogan, “Debt is normal. Be weird.” It is SO TRUE. Everywhere you look, people are in debt. And the problem with that? They don’t see a problem!! Because? It’s normal!! Face palm. If that’s the norm, normal sucks.

Sure, there are people who have been and always will be financially responsible. I have a large amount of student loan debt to pay off. Some don’t. But working through my pay-off plan, I have stumbled across many other things I would have never stopped to take the time to research: 401k, stock options, Roth IRA, etc. I hope to be debt free and in retirement saving mode by the time I am 29, almost 30. Talk about a goal I never thought I’d never thought I’d have at 29! Are there people out there my age who are debt-free and already have a significant amount in the bank and in their retirement? You bet. But I’m also willing to bet it is not a huge percentage of folks. I want to join that small percent. I want to pass up the beautiful Michael Kors purse and matching wallet so that I can put that money towards financial freedom. And knowing that my TJ Maxx purse is a symbol of that, makes me feel not so ashamed toting it around town.

Debt snowballing is not really normal. There are people who know nothing about it and there are people who wholeheartedly disagree with it. But that’s okay. I know I am going against the grain here, and when I stop to think about where my motivation comes from to keep this going, it is precisely that; I’m not normal. I am doing something very few people are doing and I think that is cool. I am standing out in a crowd. I am a unicorn. 

The New York Times

My Mom emailed me a link the other day to check out about people contributing their stories to raise awareness for the unfair private student loan repayment options. They are asking for responses (online or by email) before April 8th, 2013. I sent my thoughts and situation to them via email (studentloanaffordability@cfpb.gov).

I am not sure how far this will get, but everything is worth a try now-a-days. We never know if this is the help we are looking for around the corner.

One of the most eye-opening lines to me:
"Student debt tops $1 trillion, and some policy makers are concerned that it may affect the ability of young people to qualify for other loans, like those for cars and for buying first homes. While the bulk of student debt is made up of federal student loans, more than $8 billion in private loans are in default."

See the original article in The New York Times here.

Oh so sorry I have not been blogging.

There really is no excuse for not keeping up with this, other than merely not wanting to talk about it so that maybe it would disappear ;) It is around 3 months shy of a year since I last wrote on this page and not a lot has changed. In fact, I had Ramen noodles and Kroger brand Doritos for dinner just the other night (I swear I remember graduating college 2 years ago.) Anyway, as of February, I moved out of the townhouse my college roommate and I rented right after graduating. I now live in an older house with 2 girls from my work. Adding a roommate and subtracting about a decade worth of visual appeal lowered my rent by $200 a month, so I guess operating outdated appliances and hearing every move either of us ever make is worth it. Now that we are all caught up, here is what I have been doing in regards to my private student loans....

Back in September I received the news that Sallie Mae was taking applications for their consolidation program. I jumped to the phone immediately. After finally getting through to an operator whose accent I could understand, my application process began. I told the man my annual income, how long I had been living in my townhouse, how much I paid for rent, and all of my basic information. He then pulled my credit score which told him how much I owed on my car, credit card and student loans. He commended me on a good credit score, but told me that my debt-to-income ratio was rather high. Thank you, Captain Obvious. He asked for me to be placed on hold while 'they' entered all of my information into their consolidation formula. He later came back on the line to tell me I was denied and he could not approve my loans for consolidation due to my insufficient annual income.

After Sallie Mae's consolidation attempt failed, I went on to apply for consolidation through Chase and Wells Fargo. Both came back denied due to my debt-to-income ratio.

This is the point in your student loan journey where you begin to feel truly lost. You know there are others out there like you, but you feel as if you are the only one. It is so hard not to be a complete mental disaster and feel pure bitterness in your heart towards the world. I understand you have to pay for your education and there are other ways to go about it rather than taking out private loans, but who would have ever thought the repayment system would be this unjust?

Even being a 23 year old, I know I am up a creek. I am aware of the amount I owe as well as the amount my monthly payments will skyrocket to. Yesterday, after talking with some friends who are somewhat in the same position as I am, I began to dwell on my debt well into the night. It was absolutely all I could think about. For once food, television, nor the radio helped calm my brain. I felt severe guilt and intense regret about having private student loans. The only word I think can describe the mood that night is, anxious. Even though I am aware of what it means, I looked up the actual definition in order to get some descriptive words relating to it. Oh, and the word that is in bold, underlined, and has '*' on both sides of it, would be the word I feel sums up my entire relationship with the definition. Here it goes:
Anxiety: Distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear of danger or misfortune. The root meaning of the word anxiety is to 'trouble'; in either the absence or presence of psychological stress, anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness and dread. Anxiety is a generalized mood condition that can often occur without an identifiable triggering stimulus. As such, it is distinguished from fear, which is an emotional response to a perceived threat. Additionally, fear is related to the specific behaviors of escape and avoidance, whereas anxiety is related to situations perceived as *uncontrollable* or unavoidable. Anxiety is considered a normal reaction to stress. 

I assure you I am not some fearful girl cooped up in her room on a bunch of different medications from all of the stress of everyday living. I am quite the opposite. I take zero medication, I am social,  I have a lot of great friends, I stay active, and I love living life. I just for once know now how anxiety feels and I know my private student loan debt is what opens the flood gates to the uncontrollable thoughts that zap in and out like lightening. It really puts a whole new meaning to the phrase brain storming. Ha sorry, I'm aware that was cheesy.

In conclusion, private loan repayment sucks. Hopefully what you have gathered from this blog entry (If you have even read this far-sorry so long) is I am merely seeking direction on what I can do now, while I am young, in order to prevent a nightmarish adulthood.