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One thing that is true of so many people today who have attended college is the huge student loans they have incurred and many are now in the process of paying off. I am one of those.

Even though my student loans were not as astronomical as some, it is still a burden. I’m still making payments years later.

It’s evident that people are looking for a way to get out from beneath this burden. Many are working a number of jobs. Others are defaulting. While some are looking for forgiveness on their loan.

It’s a sin to see what is happening within the education industry. No wonder there are so many competitive alternatives being offered especially in the online space.

Seeing some companies making adjustments as to how they hire their employees will also alleviate this burden as they move away from educational credentials.

This is good news.

Time will tell what will happen in the educational space.

Until them, we have to contend with what we have.

In this episode our guest – Melissa Boutin – shares with us her journey from the Island of St. Kitts and Antigua and how she was able to pay off $68000 of educational debt way before time.

Even though she’s not totally debt free, she’s working towards that. She’ve already taken one huge step in that direction.

She shares these 5 tips on how to avoid huge school debts after graduation:

Tip #1: Understand the debt you are signing up for

Tip #2: Avoid private student loans as much as possible

Tip #3: Don’t take more than what your career potential earnings will be

Tip #4: Apply for scholarships

Tip #5: Have a strategy to deal with student loan prior to graduation

Here are a few things to know about Melissa.

Favorite Dish: Soup especially the ones her dad made

Favorite Saying(s) and their meaning(s):

Saying(s):

• – Don’t watch what people have because you don’t know how they get it.

Meaning(s):

• – don’t envy
• – you don’t know how they came about having it.
• – focus on what you want to achieve
• – what you want to achieve in life you need to look inward and work on that.

Black Rocks – St. Kitts

Place(s) You Must See: Block Rock

Definition of Success:

• working towards living the life you envision for yourself while being grateful for where you are right now and the goals you have achieved so far
• you are successful in this moment because of accomplishments
• embrace your accomplishments and remind yourself of such

Lessons learned:

• to pursue your dream, you may have to leave your comfort zone
• learn to adapt
• keep focused on your goal(s)

Tweet: work towards living the life you envision for yourself while being grateful for where you are ~ Melissa Boutin

Greatest Accomplishment(s):

• paid off student loan from St. Kitts in less time than expected
• pursued and accomplished my educational goals
• used my engineering training to create a program for Millennials
• used my architectural training to discover an error in the plans for my parent’s home

Melissa’s Bio:

Melisa Boutin is passionate about helping Caribbean Millennials do better with money, starting with tackling student loan debt. In January 2016, after making the final payment on her international student loan from a Caribbean bank, she launched a Student Loan Answers workshop at the University of the Virgin Islands in St. Thomas, U. S. Virgin Islands.

After resounding positive feedback and praise for the workshop, Melisa created yourmoneyworth.com to provide accessible and practical financial education resources to Millennials in the Eastern Caribbean and the Caribbean-American Diaspora.

In addition to providing personal finance resources through yourmoneyworth.com, Melisa is on a mission to bridge the gap between Caribbean Millennials and Caribbean Banks

SEE HERE NEW BOOK INFORMATION MENTIONED HERE —> www.yourmoneyworth.com/book

Contact Melissa:

Twitter: @MelisaBoutiny

Instagram: Instagram.com/melisaboutin

Website: http://www.yourmoneyworth.com

Book(s) Recommended:

All your worth: the ultimate lifetime money plan ~ Elizabeth Warren

Rating & Review:

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