New York woman ‘killed’ $102K of student loans in 6 years, celebrates with cemetery photo-shoot

By Elle Kehres | October 19, 2019 at 2:16 PM EDT - Updated October 20 at 12:28 AM

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - Mandy Velez had her fair share of student debt after graduating from college back in 2013 - $75,000 worth of it to be exact.

Over the course of 6 years she managed to pay off all her loans plus the accumulated interested - a whopping $102,000.

How did she do it? Well, Velez had one goal: become debt-free by 30.

To do that, Velez said that she lived off less than a third of her salary, worked hard at her job and picked up various side-hustles. She said “nothing was beneath me.”

She walked dogs, babysat, became a TV extra, watched cats and cut her food budget down to the bare-essentials: salad, eggs, chicken and rice.

Velez paid everything off as fast as as she could in an attempt to avoid as much interest as possible.

In August, she officially “killed” off her loans two years early at the age of 28.

Finally, it was time to celebrate - and what better way to celebrate the death of her loans than a commemorative photo-shoot in a cemetery.

“I have my life back. I changed my life. I changed my future family’s life,” Velez said. “I ended the cycle of literally ‘paying’ simply for wanting a better future. For being a “have not.” Well not anymore. It’s all mine now. I’m free.”

See more about Velez’s journey to becoming debt-free below.

DING DONG MY LOANS ARE DEAD. 💀 It is with immense pleasure that I announce the death of my student loans. On August 2,...
Posted by Mandy Velez on Wednesday, October 9, 2019