Millennial Pays Off $117,000 Student Debt in 3 Years: 'Process Is Simple'

At the height of paying off his student loans in 33 months, Matthew Burr worked 80 hours a week. He didn't eat out, and his life was "work, work, work," he said.

But now the upstate New York resident, who originally had $117,000 in student loans from his higher education, which included an MBA from Syracuse University, is debt-free, and the burden of monthly payments and high interest rates no longer weighs on him.

"Need versus want was the approach that I utilized and made micropayments every week," Burr, 41, told Newsweek. "I paid the highest interest rate loans first and worked my way down the list. I stayed consistent with the process, snowflake and snowball method. Discipline and consistency."

Burr, who paid off his loans from 2018 to 2021, said he doesn't believe in having debt for anything, and his goal has always been financial freedom.

To achieve this, he worked about twice the number of hours in a typical American workweek, and he started a human resources consulting business, Burr Consulting. He also worked full time as an assistant professor of management.

While friends and family never questioned Burr's dedication to paying off his debts, he did encounter some disbelief. "People doubted it was possible," Burr said.

And today, Burr thinks the only criticism over the way he paid off his debt would come from current student loan borrowers, "who want the taxpayer to pay their student loan debt," he said.

"No debt is freedom," Burr said. "Loaded with student loan debt would have made it nearly impossible to found a company and take the risk of entrepreneurship."

He advises others looking to pay off their loans to focus on living a financially disciplined life with consistency. He said you must analyze each purchase you make based on need versus want.

For Burr, that meant spending $900 monthly to rent a house and eating only simple meals, generally avoiding restaurants and spending time with friends and family without splurging.

"The short-term sacrifice will lead to long-term mental peace and debt freedom," he said. "You make cuts where cuts need to happen to achieve the goal. The process is simple."

Katie Kasmir, a 34-year-old living in Dallas who works for the student loan borrower platform Savi, paid off her $38,000 debt in a few years by diligently working 90-hour weeks.

When she first graduated, her debt was $15,400, but she was unable to pay and went into deferment several times until she ran out of options.

"At that point, my loan servicer told me there was nothing else they could do to help, so I stopped paying," Kasmir told Newsweek. Five years later, her debt had risen to $38,000.

Kasmir was in a different place then, about to get married and adamant that she wouldn't bring her student loan debt into her marriage. She was working as a jeweler and managed to get one of her pieces featured in a BuzzFeed story. That was a jumping-off point, and Kasmir worked to get the rest of the debt cleared.

"Over a period of three months, I made over $70,000 in gross sales, which not only allowed me to pay off my student loans but also pay medical debt and fully pay for our wedding," she said. "I worked 10-hour days and didn't take a day off for three months, but ultimately it was worth it to finally be debt-free for the first time in my adult life."

While some may think she went overboard, Kasmir remains grateful that she put in the work to make her loans disappear.

"This was a very extreme way to pay off my loans, but the relief of not ducking from debt collector calls made it worth it," she said. "The stress of the student loan debt was a never-ending weight on my shoulders, so I would gladly work nonstop for three months straight again to be free."

While the Biden administration has granted billions in student loan forgiveness to some borrowers, depending on their circumstances, Kasmir said she doesn't judge those who haven't been able to pay off their loans as quickly as she did.

"I have no judgment for those who feel too stressed to pay off their loans and hide from the loans," Kasmir said. "My best recommendation is to find help to begin tackling the debt. There are so many more options now for borrowers, but it can still feel overwhelming. Finding a service or a group on Facebook or Reddit can help borrowers finally feel like they have some agency over their situation."

Today, Kasmir has purchased her first house with her husband and was able to pursue in vitro fertilization, which she says would not be possible without a life free of debt. "Life without loans is completely different," she said.

Currently, many borrowers are still waiting to see if the federal Education Department will offer them student debt forgiveness. That was an early campaign promise from President Joe Biden, who has worked to erase debt amounts for various groups, based on their financial circumstances.

Most recently, Biden said that 74,000 more borrowers would see $5 billion in relief. This includes 44,000 borrowers working in public service as well as those who have made at least 20 years of payments on income-driven repayment plans. The Education Department is also hoping to expand forgiveness to those facing certain kinds of financial hardship, but the specifics haven't been approved yet.

Still, until any more relief is approved, financial experts suggest borrowers stay the course and work on getting their debts down to zero.

"The government has made numerous announcements on this promise, and people are just hoping," Fred Amrein, the CEO and founder of PayForED, told Newsweek. "The post-high-school education is all self-determined. It may be the largest financial decision that we make on our own."