Woman forced to take on four jobs to pay off $250,000 student debt
‘I’m always working!’: Woman is forced to take on four jobs to pay off $250,000 student debt and THIRTEEN overdrafts – as she begs horrified YouTube star for help
- Teryca Brooks-Long revealed she was working four jobs to pay off her family and consumer sciences degree
- Young graduate said she spent ’50 percent’ of the hours in the week working
- Brooks-Long retold the story to YouTube personal finance star Caleb Hammer who said the story ‘stuck with me’
A YouTube star who specializes in personal finance advice has revealed he is still haunted by the story of a woman forced to work four jobs to pay off her $250,000 student debt.
When Caleb Hammer spoke to Teryca Brooks-Long for his YouTube series Financial Audit he was horrified by her mountain of debt, which was snowballing due to high interest fees.
In the video, Brooks-Long explains that her main focus is modelling and acting but she also worked as an enrolment advisor for an online university, a virtual assistant for a realtor and had a role at an advertising agency.
The San Antonio resident made around $3,500 a month and estimated she spent half the week on-shift, adding: ‘I’m always working.’
But the income fell far shy from managing her student loan, which was $176,000 but had blown up to $250,000 in interest.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=xt8BoRggfJo%3Frel%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26hl%3Den-US
Teryca Brooks-Long spoke to YouTube Caleb Hammer about her $250,000 student debt
At the time, she was losing $1,694 in monthly payments, across three loans.
In the clip, Hammer says to her: ‘So, where you’re heading, just with the statements that you’ve provided me, is bankruptcy.’
‘But you can’t clear this out with bankruptcy. You can’t clear out student loans.’
He added: ‘This is going to absolutely balloon, isn’t it? This is going to be half a million before you know it, and then a million.’
Brooks-Long – who undertook a degree in family and consumer sciences from Baylor University – calmly replies: ‘Probably, within the next two years.’
She explained a situation relating to a contested inheritance meant she wasn’t able to access federal loans and could only take out an expensive private loan.
On top of that she had also paid 13 overdraft fees in one month.
Hammer then informs her she must double her income through higher paying jobs, stop eating out and trade her 2018 Nissan Sentra for a cheaper vehicle.
The graduate had taken out a $13,500 loan on the car which was costing her $300 a month and had sunk her credit rating from 720 to 549.
Nevertheless she refused to give up the car.
The clip first aired on June 15 but has since started circulating again after Hammer revealed the episode stuck out to him out of the 90 he has filmed.
‘It’s going to be a million dollars before she knows it,’ he told Insider in an interview this week.
‘She’s not making progress on it. She got into credit-card debt and car debt as well. So I mean, that is just dire.’
‘That’s where it gets to the point where it feels like it’s impossible to get out of.’
Brooks-Long’s situation is likely to be much worse now if she has variable interest rates.
Teryce Brooks-Long featured on the Financial Audit episode in June last year but the episode has received prominence again
Brooks-Long – who undertook a degree in family and consumer sciences from Baylor University – estimated she could be in $1 million debt ‘in two years’
If so she faces paying even more interest after repeated rate hikes by the Fed.
At the time of the recording the interest rates on her three loans was 11.75 percent on two and 9 percent on the smallest.
Hammer said: ‘That really sticks with me. That was a scary one.’
Her story comes after a video of a 29-year-old who had racked up $1 million debt with her husband went viral earlier this month.
The Washington resident had called Christian personal finance guru Dave Ramsey’s radio show to detail her financial troubles.
The exchange occurred in 2018 but the video clip resurfaced this week when Ramsey posted it to his TikTok channel and it was re-shared on Twitter where it was viewed over nine million times.
In the clip, Ramsey lambasts the couple – who both work in government – ordering them not to spend any money.
‘You’re not going to see the inside of a restaurant unless it’s your extra job,’ he tells the caller.
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