Hey friends
Hope you all are doing well this week. I am still pretty stoked from paying off my student loans recently and even made an entire video about it.
I thought it still deserved to be cemented in the newsletter as well though!
Bye Bye Debt
It still feels pretty surreal to talk about.
I remember first graduating from school and looking at the student loan portal telling me that i owe $25,600.
At the time this seemed like an amount that wouldn't get paid off in 10-20 years but your boy somehow did it in less than 5!
I got into school off of entirely financial aid since I was living with a single mom growing up who had little to no income, especially at the time I was applying to school.
So with that being said it was hard enough to afford the school to being with, I was not looking forward to having to owe money right when I was starting my career.
I also always heard a lot of horror stories about people who barely got to use their degrees and ended up being crushed by this debt.
going to school for a creative profession I got a lot of judgments and heard things like
”will you actually make money with an art degree?”
”you are going to debt for no reason"
and a bunch of more dumb shit like that.
I even let it get to me and one point and switched my major to business.
That did not last long though and before i even took my first business class i was back in the design department.
I know now though that I can do a job I love and not have to make any compromises on my earning potential.
If you practice hard and continue to grow as a creative that you can make a lucrative carrer being a designer or an artist it all just depends on the work you want to put in and the opportunities you are presented with
Is school worth it for designers?
I think overall my time at CSU Chico was a net positive on my life.
The costs were pretty insane but nowhere near what it was like to go to a private art or design school and luckily for me, there was a lot of help I got from the government and ways they cut down costs.
I still am not sure if it was 100% worth it from a design curriculum standpoint though. I did learn quite a bit and a few professors stood out but it felt a little underwhelming.
my peers were not that invested in the identity or career of being a designer and I rarely felt inspired outside of a few students who excelled. Im sure this experience would have been very different at a fancy art school
One thing I will say tho is during my time at Chico I grew so much as a creative and individual. I did a lot of work outside of the classroom that helped me become a better designer and I think prepared me for my career ahead.
I made a whole video speaking at CSU Chico to the design class and it was all about my journey from college to now. So if that sounds cool, check it out HERE
Paying back loans
I could not make any contributions toward this debt while in school because I was so broke I could barely make ends meet as it was with my normal monthly expenses.
So once I finally graduated I knew i had to start a plan on paying back this insane debt, I owed 25,600 at the time of graduating and it would continue to grow with each loan having around a 5% interest rate
I wanted to get the principal balance down as fast as possible because the less you owe obviously then the smaller damage that interest is each time they charge you the percentage
My plan was pretty simple, I was going to pay as much of my expendable income as possible each month.
Luckily when I first graduated I was living at my girlfriend’s parents’ house for very little money so I was able to use the extra money from my first design internship and put it toward that
I even used the $4000 total dollars I got in graduation party money and put it all too my loans, that sucked at the time but it ended up being worth it
It was all going pretty smooth until C*vid happened…
Pandemic Payments
I was consistently paying my loans and then c*vid happened, Biden paused the interest.
A lot of people saw this as a time to save money and stop paying but I knew it was the perfect time to pay as much as possible because it would all go to lowering the actual principal balance and not be wasted on interest.
I paid super aggressively during the first year of the pandemic and got my balance down to like $12000.
I was feeling confident and then they announced they may cancel up to $10000 in loans…
This put me in a tough spot, but ultimately I decided to just get my balance to that exact amount and then stop paying in 2022 just in case they actually pulled off this student loan forgiveness program
That never ended up happening and not just that, they announced in 2023 that interest would start ago lol
Final stretch
2023 was probably my best financial year as a designer. I was making pretty good money off of clients and also content stuff like brand deals.
So I decided I was going to finish off the last $10000 this year and was super aggressive at times paying over $1000 a month just towards my loans
A common thread that helped me save money and pay like this was not falling victim to lifestyle inflation.
Each time my income kept going up I did not raise my expenses or take on new dangerous monthly payments like a car payment or expensive habits
In December I finally made the last payment and it felt so good to put that last $1000 toward truly feeling free from debt.
Learning and Reflection
I am very proud of myself for doing this over the years and just wanted to show some of you that you can truly make money as an independent designer or artist no matter the niche or specialty.
I never thought I would be financially stable on my own this fast but it just goes to show that sometimes the hard work truly pays off.
I was only able to do this too from the amazing support from all of you, this design community that we have built and continues to grow over the years makes me so happy.
When you put your mind towards something and consistently work towards it those little drops in the bucket eventually start to add up/
Good luck wherever you are in your journey as a creative, with your school or student loans, and even just as someone trying to become more financially free.
If you enjoyed this more condensed write-up of my journey, I would love for you to go check out the full YouTube video!
Stuff to Check Out
Fav Design of the week below
Weekly Wrap Up
Pain of Truth Album Art Concept
Thanks for reading!
I plan on keeping this newsletter free, but if you want to support, the best way is to buy me a coffee:)