Melanie: It was even harder to find a job here. It was even harder to get an interview. I at least had interviews in New York but hardly had any interviews here. It took a lot of different … sort of setting expectations for myself and rolling through the punches and just saying, like, “Okay, this is what I thought would or should happen with my life. Didn't. How can I readjust, and how can I continue to do what I want to do and figure out a path to pay off debt and figure out what needs to be done so that I'm not just wallowing in depression and debt?” That's when I really started to side hustle and really started to focus on different ways of earning money because that was my only choice, you know?
Hahna: We're definitely going to dive into that, the side hustle and earning more money. The one thing I liked that you just mentioned was that rather than wallowing in the situation and like, “Woe is me, everyone have pity on my situation,” you were taking action to change your situation. My question is you said that you didn't regret going to your dream college, but in finding yourself in $81,000 in student loan debt, what would you say was the return on investment for your college education, and was it really worth it?
Melanie: You know, a few years ago, I would have said it probably wasn't worth it, but because in a very weird, bizarre way, this specific time in my life, this being in debt led me to my blog, which led to my freelance writing career, which led to my coaching career. You know, all of these other things have sort of been intertwined because of this one event. I've been able to really turn some of my pain points into my passion to help others get of this situation.
That has definitely been a huge return on my investment in that I've spent all of this money to get this degree. It didn't really work out the way I had thought or the way I wanted it to, but I've turned it into something else. I've leveraged it into something else, to teach others how to deal with student loan debt, how to get out student loan debt, and then also my degree was very much based in theoretical writing and essays, and so I was just writing all the time, all the time, all the time.
I'm definitely a much better writer now because of that degree. Now I work as a freelance writer, so that was something that I was not expecting at all. I definitely attribute that to my Master's degree.
Hahna: Writing for a blog, it is definitely very helpful to have a background and experience with writing. You found a way to take a skillset that you were familiar with, that you were more decent at, and then you just leveraged it and turned it into a profitable opportunity.
Melanie: Yes.
Hahna: Excellent. Tell me about the moment you decided to quit your job in the non-profit sector, and how did that affect paying off your debt?
Melanie: Yeah, that was the huge moment. I started my blog in January 2013, and within a year and a half, I had leveraged that into a freelance career. You know, I had built up a lot of these connections in the personal finance community, which led to my first couple of clients. For about 6 months, I was working the equivalent of 2 full-time jobs, my non-profit job as well as my freelance writing, editing, and social media.
You know, waking up at 6am and going to bed at midnight and constantly having 6 hours of sleep-
Hahna: I know the feeling. I know exactly what you mean. I'm there right now.
Melanie: Driving back and forth between gigs. It's exhausting and taxing. I quit my job in July 2014. A few months before that, I had realized that I was making what I was making in my side hustle the same amount as my job.
Hahna: Oh, wow.
Melanie: I was like, “Hmm,” which the non-profit job was $30,000, so not a ton, but I knew that-
Hahna: Better than nothing, yeah.
Melanie: Yeah. I was like, “I'm making the same amount with my side hustle as I am at my day job.” Because I had worked my whole life in the non-profit sector, I knew that my pay cap was not going to increase that much, and if I wanted to make more than $40,000 per year, I'd probably have to switch fields.
I really enjoyed freelancing. I really enjoy the freedom that I gave me. I had this crazy idea that quitting my non-profit job would actually help me pay off debt because I'd be able to make more money.
Hahna: That's huge. That's like an epiphany to have that realization.
Melanie: Yeah, it was crazy. I think a lot of people thought I was crazy. I was like, “No, this is the only way that I will be able to make more money to pay off my debt.” It was a huge thing at the time because I'd only been blogging for a year and a half. I wasn't an expert by any means. I didn't have any huge clients at that time. They were just sort of gigs I had gotten along the way or people had referred me to. It was sort of a big risk.
Within 6 months of quitting my job, I started getting really good clients, better-paying clients. I started asking for what I was worth. I started charging more. Now, I've been my own boss for a year and a half now, and I've more than doubled my income. The income level I'm at now, I would have never imagined that I'd ever be able to make because I thought my whole life was going to be in that $30,000-$40,000 range. Now that I'm more in the like the $60,000-$70,000, I mean, that was huge for me to pay off debt. Previously, I was always putting 50% of my income towards debt.
Last year, a loan, I was able to put $30,000 to debt because I had doubled my income.
Hahna: That is amazing.