Get Out of Debt: How Busy Professionals Can Achieve Financial Freedom

Six months after graduating from law school, Jillian Scheidegger received her first student loan bill from the government. This was hard to comprehend, and panic set in once she realized how much she owed on a monthly basis moving forward. She talked to other lawyers, and it seemed like paying student loan debt well into your 50s was the norm, but Jillian didn’t want that. She wanted to find a way to pay off this debt while still being able to enjoy life. She and her husband both work very hard and are compensated well. Essentially they dreamed of a ‘work hard play hard’ lifestyle where they were not making a “second mortgage payment” to the government every month to pay down their student loans debt.

Luckily, Jillian found Marcia Banike, Vice President Private Banking at Johnson Financial Group. She handed over all of her loan information, and Marcia got to work assessing Jillian’s personal situation, and ultimately recommended a loan consolidation program. She also provided recommendations on how Jillian and her husband should specifically be managing their cash flow. We’re happy to report that just five short years after consolidating, Jillian is debt-free approaching her mid-30s, and feels “light as a feather”--slightly better than still paying off the student loan debt in her 50s.