So Money - Episode 493
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Melanie Lockert

Creator of Dear Debt Blog

Many of the questions I get for Ask Farnoosh are about student loans and student loan debt. It’s a problem that’s plaguing our country and with the rise of inflation, looks like it might get worse before it gets better. Today’s guest has an incredible story of her own where she got out of $81,000 in student loan debt – both undergrad and graduate loans. Her story was, in fact, named one of the top five most inspiring personal finance stories of 2015 by Yahoo! Finance. She chronicled her journey on her award-winning blog Dear Debt and now inspires readers to break up with their own debt in a pretty fun way… by writing their own breakup letter to debt and sharing it on her website. Melanie also turned her story into a book, Dear Debt: A Story about Breaking Up with DebtMelanie frequently contributes to news outlets and publications including Business Insider, The Huffington Post, Oprah and more. When she’s not running her blog, she works as a freelance writer and event planner.

In the interview we discuss…

  • We’re going to learn how Melanie went from graduate school to food stamps and then to successful author who cleared $81,000 in debt.
  • The advanced financial lesson she received as a young child.
  • And the crazy odd jobs she held while digging herself out of debt. One in particular, she says, was quite lucrative and something many of us can do around the holidays.

If you’d like to learn more about Melanie, visit her website deardebt.com or follow her on Twitter @DearDebtBlog.

One of my favorite quotes from the interview: “Once I started treating money with respect, I started making MORE money.” – Click To Tweet

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