Her message is part financial advice, part affirmation of life after loss.

Sourced from: qz.com

What can we learn from a woman who managed to pay off $222,817.26 in undergrad and graduate school debt (including $75,000 of which was interest alone) without any help?   As she says in her video homage to making her final loan payment, “I did it all by my single freaking self, as in, no family passing me $$$ at any point.”

Caitlin Boston’s “Student Loan Debt Celebration” YouTube video, now making the rounds on social media, has an intentionally silly vibe but a serious message.  You can learn how she got into debt and climbed out of it on her own.

Back when she was studying Boston had no sense of how much money she was borrowing to keep herself in school, or what would be required of her to pay it back.  Unfortunately, this is pretty common for most students.

When she finished school and organized her loans, Boston discovered her monthly obligations totaled nearly $1,500 per month. This came as a shock. At the time, she was making close to minimum wage and was lacking the guidance to help her deal with her loans.

She wisely pinched pennies, cycling to work and living with five roommates to split the costs of rent, utilities, and meals, for most of the past decade.  Then she came to realize that living frugally would not, on its own, allow her to pay down her six-figure debt.

Eventually, she chose to focus on the other side of the equation: her earning potential.  Arguably, this is the more difficult issue for most people to parse, since talking about your salary, or asking other people about theirs, is still considered taboo in many workplaces.

One year she and a few colleagues were chatting about salaries when they decided to share what they earned. Boston learned that she was earning the same amount as another female colleague who was hardworking but younger and less experienced.

Shocked, she then asked a male peer with the same title and a similar amount of experience the same questions.  Within two questions, she knew his salary range, and the lowest end was still $20,000 or 20% more than her salary.  That was eye-opening.

Across the US, more than 44 million people have student loan bills to pay.   Debt is not something I think everyone can overcome easily.   As she says, “For 10 years of my life, I woke up every morning—and this is not hyperbole—I felt like ‘I’m going to be crushed alive by this [debt].”

The key takeaway from Boston’s story is, for those with or without debt: It pays to find out what your labor is worth.  Then push yourself to earn fair value based on your experience and education, even if it means changing jobs or career paths.  Living frugally will only go so far and is only half of the equation to paying down your debt.