Maybe It's Time for a Debt Jubilee - youramericanmoney
Author: Michelle
Description: Amanda-Amanda and I am a writer, entrepreneur and something of an adventurer and I write at about money and life at Millionaire By Next Year Michelle-I want to hear about the adventures Amanda-After college I won a scholarship and lived in the Middle East for a year. Then I worked several jobs when I started […]
Date: 2022-08-16T09:00:00+00:00

- Skip to main content
- Skip to primary sidebar

## Additional menu

# Maybe It’s Time for a Debt Jubilee

posted on 16 August, 2022

Pin
Share
Tweet
0 Shares

Amanda-Amanda and I am a writer, entrepreneur and something of an adventurer and I write at about money and life at Millionaire By Next Year

Michelle-I want to hear about the adventures

Amanda-After college I won a scholarship and lived in the Middle East for a year. Then I worked several jobs when I started my career in D.C. and then I drove around the country and I’m about to live in my Suburu Outback full-time in Texas

Michelle-How are you going to manage the heat in Texas?! And I hope you go to Marfa

Amanda-I went there and I saw the Prada store.

In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog. Please read my disclosure here.*

## Listen to the Show

If you’re looking for some guidance on what to do with your student loans and you need an outside perspective on what your options are, Student Loan Planner may be the resource for you. Schedule a paid consultation with one of Student Loan Planner’s, student loan consultants who will walk you through what your options are. Student Loan Planner has a 99% satisfaction rate and a whole person focused approach when helping clients.

If you’re worried about saving for retirement, going on vacation and the impact of your student loan repayment on those goals, Student Loan Planner consultants understand and respect those concerns and keep that in mind while working with you. Please note “If you’re listening to this episode in 2022 you have until October 31, 2022 to submit your Public Service Loan Forgiveness waiver” I’m proud to partner with Student Loan Planner and if you’re interested in scheduling your student loan paid consultation go to the following link:

https://michelleismoneyhungry.com/studentloanplan today

Finally, I would like to thank the Plutus Foundation for its support of the Michelle is Money Hungry Podcast. “The Plutus Foundation supports financial content creators with grants, networking, learning events, and podcasts. Twice a year, we provide grants for financial literacy projects of all types. The foundation highlights excellence through the Plutus Awards, and you can see how you can make a bigger impact with your audience at Plutus Voices and the Plutus Impact Summit. Go to plutusfoundation.org for more information.”

Please note: Michelle is Money Hungry is for entertainment purposes only. Content should not be considered financial advice and listeners are encouraged to do their due diligence.

Welcome to Michelle is Money Hungry, a podcast that has real and empathetic conversations that often focus on the intersection of policy and the financial conversations we are afraid to have. I’m your host, Michelle Jackson and this summer I’m having conversations all about the potential for student loan forgiveness and what will happen if we move forward with the policy and what happens if we don’t.

## Show Notes

Michelle-I do want to touch on something connected to your opening comments related to you living overseas. I worked with a lot of students who came from Gulf Nations and one of the things that stood out to me was how their countries invested in their education. Their countries paid for their students to come overseas and I’m bringing this up, I’m wondering what were some of things that you may have noticed around the conversation connected to education.

Amanda-I actually lived in Jordan, I lived in the north near the Syrian border outside of the Expat bubble. What was interesting for me to observe was that other countries invested in their students to study abroad. What was interesting for me to observe was the sheer number of Syrian refugees who had transferred to Jordan and the ease that they were able to do that (from my vantage point) The cost of education was significantly cheaper. The sheer number of students who were able to transfer was something I noticed. Learning is a tool people use to move their family forward and here it feels like we use education as a means to an end.

Michelle-Why did you start Millionaire By Next Year?

Amanda-I started it in 2019 and I was still working as a Defense contractor with the Department of Defense and also was running an oat milk business. The logic behind it was that I really enjoyed writing and other people had kept me from doing it and it was a way to write. I also wanted to learn how to run a digital business and learn new skills for this economy. I was struggling with my finances and learning about FI and FIRE and had gone down the Dave Ramsey route. You’re not finance in school, so the blog was a way to learn more and leverage my writing skills and build something on the internet that I owned.

Michelle-Where are you?! When someone brings up SLF as a policy what are some of your concerns, etc. Share your thoughts about impact good or bad

Amanda-The biggest thing that no one is talking about that underpins this conversation is the morality of debt. So much conversation around cherry picking who gets what. We’re in such a politically charged world right now and the moral underpinning is connected to that from the far-left or far-right. Some people want to start and let’s just start from a clean slate. Other people who opted not to go to college or had paid off their loans and people are wondering what about me? We need to figure out what is best for the economy, moving forward and starting fresh.

Michelle-No one has brought up the idea of debt morality before. I think of all other things that I pay for as a US citizen that I’m not excited for. Why is it that people silo their anger around this policy. They’re mad that there may be SLF but they don’t seem to be mad about other things. For example, paying for the Ukraine war effort. Then, I ask myself why don’t we also help our own citizens.

Amanda-It’s not just what we’re paying for but how we’re showing up. We didn’t design all of this. We’re not voting on how much tax we’re being charged. We have never been given any vote or say about how we participate in our economy. I’m thinking about how I’m moving back into my car and housing isn’t affordable. I don’t want to own a home, but I can’t justify renting either. One of the things that has liberated me is realizing that I’m not always at fault for the financial decisions that I’ve made. For example, I kept moving when I was in D.C. looking for more affordable housing. I was working in an economy where wages have stagnated. Meanwhile the cost of education and housing have gone up. We have to bridge the gap between these expenses and so more often than not we use credit. A lot of people have told me that I’ve made bad choice or maybe I didn’t and the market is making me make the choice between paying 50% of take home pay on housing. We’re not thinking of the macroeconomic world we’re living in and how things are interrelated.

Michelle-My guests are pretty consistently frustrated with the costs of education in the US. What would you do if you were the head of the Department of Education, what would you do related to managing the cost of education

Amanda-The question isn’t a matter of adjusting the cost, the question is, is college sufficient anymore? It’s totally divorced from the workforce. Look at tech. Kids aren’t going to college and learning code. The kids that are coming out of college are getting jobs due to the pedigree of the school that they attended. Based on proximity to Silicon Valley and branding students graduating from schools close to Silicon Valley will have students do better. Google is now providing certification that students can take direct from Google. Creating their own in-house credentially program. Stop making college this moral thing and see what we can do without college to start training students for work.

Michelle-What would you do to design a SLF program? If you were in charge of issuing these loans what would you do to keep students from being financially burdened.

Amanda-Making student loans a collateral based lending product. If you wanted to buy a car or a house the financial scrutiny is tougher than getting student loans. I was 17 when I went to college. There’s nothing underpinning these loans. Tomorrow we could go to a bank and request an unsecured student loan and we would have to qualify for these loans. The 3 things I would require 1. A national service requirement for SLF 2. A blanket forgiveness vs. all of these qualifiers and there is a historical precedence for this back to Biblical times. Debt Jubiliees-Hemerabi wiped away debt. More recently, Iceland eliminated a substantial amount of mortgage debt. 3. Maybe participation in local communities.

Michelle-What should we be thinking about in regards to folks who are in school now? How can we protect them?

Amanda-That’s on us to really be transparent as we can to be transparent with these students. Such as pay transparency. They don’t know what they will be compensated. The younger generation can’t make informed decisions without this information.I had no idea what Deloitt was. If you had told me to interview with a big 4 firm, I wouldn’t have known what that meant. When I was starting out, interns were still unpaid.

Michelle-I’m GenX and we’re definitely the first generation to get slammed with the expense. I didn’t get career advice. I was told go to college, get an education and you’ll get a job. I never had a ROI conversation.

Amanda-I was taught also to perform well. I took AP courses and took the exam. I started college as sophomore and I kept adding majors. I graduated with 3 majors. But, that means nothing in the real world. We’re taught that there’s a meritocracy and that you work hard and you’ll succeed and that’s just not true. For me, I didn’t know how to network. There’s this entire hidden network of jobs. The compounding affects of this crisis on your personal life: I’m 30 I don’t own a home, I’m not in a relationship and I don’t have children and that’s a problem.

Michelle-I’m older and I get it. As much as I would like to be married and have a little, cost is a huge deterrent and it doesn’t make sense. I wonder what would have happened during COVID if the Administration hadn’t paused the loans? I think there’s a lot of angst because people are struggling even though the loans are paused.

Amanda-That’s the elephant in the room.

## Follow Amanda

- Millionaire By Next Year

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/millionairebynextyear/

- Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/millionairebynextyear/_created/

- Twitter: https://twitter.com/millionbynextyr

The following two tabs change content below.

- Bio
- Latest Posts

#### Michelle

I am an obsessive foodie, but not self-righteous with it, love travel, meeting new people, helping you look good, and am freaked out by people who don't enjoying reading...something! Grab a Perrier, read my blog, feel free to drop me a line! Hope to hear from you soon.

#### Latest posts by Michelle (see all)

- Financial Boycotts When Black - 23 June, 2026
- Your American Money in 2026 - 17 June, 2026
- How to Design a Boycott Strategy That Works for YOU - 6 February, 2025

### Share this:

- Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
- Share on X (Opens in new window) X

Pin
Share
Tweet
0 Shares
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

#### Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.