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The Edit Alaverdyan Podcast
Welcome to "The Edit Alaverdyan Podcast," the podcast where insightful conversations unfold, and the depth of the human mind is explored. In each episode, I sit down with a diverse range of individuals—thinkers, innovators, and captivating personalities—who share their unique insights and experiences. Together, we embark on a journey of discovery, unraveling the complexities of the human psyche and uncovering the untold truths that influence our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
The Edit Alaverdyan Podcast
Mary Kavukchyan | Student Loans, Debt Avoidance, Financial Aid | The Edit Alaverdyan Podcast #32
Are you ready to finally understand the often confusing world of student loans and avoid the common pitfalls that have burdened so many? Join us for a compelling conversation with Mary Kavukchyan, a seasoned student loan consultant with nearly a decade of experience. Mary shares her invaluable insights into the systemic issues of the student debt crisis, the importance of grants like ACG and Pell, and how to navigate financial aid effectively. This episode promises to equip you with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions about your educational financing and avoid lifelong debt.
Discover how student loan debt can impact significant life choices such as homeownership and financial freedom. Mary delves into the benefits of nonprofit work for loan forgiveness, and the challenges of high-interest rates. With personal anecdotes and professional expertise, she provides practical advice on understanding different loan types and leveraging available resources. We also explore the troubling trend of educational institutions prioritizing profit over quality education, emphasizing the need for transparency and proper guidance.
In our conversation, we uncover critical issues within the U.S. education system and compare it to more affordable education models in other countries. Mary highlights the importance of understanding loan consolidation and forgiveness programs, shares success stories of clients who have reduced their loan burdens, and offers a hopeful outlook on overcoming financial barriers. Whether you're a student, parent, or educator, this episode empowers you to make smart educational investments and achieve your goals without being crippled by debt.
People think it's me. It's not me, I'm just the face and I always say yes, I create the game plan, but if my team does not put the heart and the work in there, we will not be able to even execute one file.
Speaker 2:You walk into businesses and you see that there is a higher turnover rate and there's failures and there's people fighting all the time. You always want to look at the environment and say, like, what's going on? Like what's the model, what's the owner's philosophy?
Speaker 1:I always tell my clients the best source of these guides ask your school what grants can you get me? Is there any ACG grants that are available for me? Is there any Pell grants that are available for me? Google, I mean. We live in a world where this is always in our hands. Google it.
Speaker 2:What's up with this country then in student loans? If Canada has free educational system for their kids and other European countries, why are we doing this to ours?
Speaker 1:My parents came from Armenia. They didn't speak English. It was go be a doctor, go be a lawyer, go be a pharmacist and we'll take care of you. My parents had no idea. So whatever the financial advisor at my school said, it was like God. They said it, the school said it. That means it's true. It doesn't work that way.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone, thank you for joining me today. Today's conversation was all student loan related. You guys, my guest was Mary Kavukjan, and she's a loan consultant, a student loan consultant, and she has been in this business for nine years and I genuinely was so excited to see her and talk to her about our rigged system and what's going on with all these private loans, these federal loans, these interest rates. I mean, these are the reasons why kids don't even want to go and pursue education anymore. The system is rigged. There's so much fraud behind it, there's misleading information from universities and from counselors, so she kind of talks about that and guides us on how to take proper steps so that there's no anxiety and worry about student loans and education. Essentially, we all want every single teenager, every single kid, to get education and since we have people like Mary in the world, it makes it so much easier. So we talked about the data, we talk about statistics. Something she revealed was phenomenal to me Over something trillion people are in debt of student loans everybody. That's absurd and this is unpaid loans and what it does to a person is just so sad. So hearing her talk about all of this was really wonderful, because we need people like this who speak up about what's really happening in the system, but she also talks about guiding us so that we never have to deal with these nasty student loans.
Speaker 2:So make sure you tune in, make sure you press the ring, make sure you subscribe, because it's immense support to me, and enjoy this episode with Mary Kavukian from MK Loan Consulting Services. Thank you, mary. It's such an honor to have you on my show today. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you so much for having me. Of course, actually, I have such respect for your work because, first of all, it's not easy and, second of all, I feel like you help so many people genuinely get out of situations and address situations that are really helpful and meaningful for them. So I'm very happy you do what you do, by the way, I love it, yeah, do you really I do.
Speaker 1:I love my job.
Speaker 2:Tell me what you love about your job, because it's not easy.
Speaker 1:No, but it's not. But once you figure it out, it's so easy. The fact that you have so many students with so much student loan debt and then they come to you. They can't purchase a house, they're basically stuck in life. And then here I am like, okay, well, I could discharge your loans or I could drop your monthly payment or I could play with your interest rate, and now I'm able to help them assist on purchasing a home. Like living again, yeah, like they're able to free. Every other conversation I have in my office is like Mary, you lifted so much weight off of my shoulders.
Speaker 2:Shoulders. Yeah, we're still nervous. It's okay Because it's an intense convo.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's nice the fact that you're able to have them breed again. They're not stuck, they could purchase properties. It's nice, it's a good feeling.
Speaker 2:It is a good feeling, and I know that it's challenging for sure, but how did you get into this? Tell us a little bit before we dive into the governmental questions. I had student loan debt, that's literally how I got into it, was it a lot.
Speaker 1:Not as much as what I've been seeing now. Nowadays. It's insane on these poor kids. They have like two, three hundred thousand in student loan debt. It's ridiculous because schools are raising up tuition, Interest rates are going up. It's not the same as when we went to college.
Speaker 2:So you had student loans. How did you recover?
Speaker 1:from them. I mean, my family is always involved with nonprofits, so I had the luckier way out, but now I'm guiding students to get that benefit as well, too.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's interesting. You said something interesting. The nonprofit benefit. What is that about? Can you tell us a little bit about that? The nonprofit, so if you do humanitarian work.
Speaker 1:You work for a 501c3 exam company, a registered nonprofit. Yeah, anyone that's a 501c3 will qualify you Best one, especially in the Armenian community, is IHSS. Everyone has a grandparent, everyone has someone that requires IHSS, so that actually will qualify you to go through the nonprofit route.
Speaker 2:Are you serious?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and a lot of people have.
Speaker 2:And get paid doing it too right, Exactly.
Speaker 1:So you take care of your grandparents, you discharge your loans faster. It's like a win of people have and get paid doing it too right? Exactly so you take care of your grandparents, you discharge your loans faster.
Speaker 2:It's like a win-win situation. How did you find out all of this? Because, look, I've known you for a while now and you're literally like a queen. You know the ins and outs of these student loans. Like, how did you learn so much?
Speaker 1:Time. Honestly, was it time I've been doing it for so long where I didn't? If you came to me, maybe 10 years ago, I would have stuttered. I would have been like let me check, let me get back to you, but I have three young children, so I have plenty of time at night to do research. And then it's about who you know. I have a lot of people from Congress, for example.
Speaker 1:You do I do? I have a lot of people where they go hey Mary, you're servicing my loans, something's about to be proposed, can you check into it? Can you see if I qualify? That client might not qualify, but I have 300,000 active clients that might qualify. So they kind of feed me information too. It's the time, it's the knowledge, it's the research, it's all of it. So I do all of it for you guys, and then I discharge the loans. That's phenomenal.
Speaker 2:Tell us what are you seeing, because I'll tell you from the other end of what I felt as a person whose hand has had these crazy loans, and from you know, leaning to someone like you to help. What are you noticing? Because I feel like it's corrupt to the max.
Speaker 1:It is Honestly, look, I do student loan forgiveness. If you don't know how to utilize the education system towards your benefit, you're done Like you will sink in debt, no pun intended. I've seen people that were misguided by their schools, for example.
Speaker 2:By counselors.
Speaker 1:Yes, like, for example, you're under the age of 24.
Speaker 1:I'm going to use a student as an example, because everybody knows is one of my biggest school. Under 24 years of age, there's three options. You could pull out a Parent PLUS loan, which is still a governmental loan. You could pay directly to the school, or you could pull out a private loan. Okay, what are these counselors telling these students? They're saying well, you know what you have until October. Hurry up, hurry up, sign up, sign up, sign up. So people are panicking. They're not understanding what kind of loans they're taking out, and they're taking out private loans. Private loans are unsecured debt. They do not get forgiven. The interest rates are like I just helped a kid out 18% On a $70,000 loan, 18% in a 20-year mark, $250,000 with interest and principal.
Speaker 2:It could have been avoided. How is he going to pay that?
Speaker 1:off. They have to refine it and constantly refine it and reset the years and they're never going to pay it off. Honestly, bankruptcy or any of those will eventually be where it's at. But if they're under the age of 18, you pull a Parent PLUS loan out. Parent PLUS loans are forgivable, especially if your mom is a caretaker for your grandparents. Right Now you have a Parent PLUS loan that has a low income, is a caretaker for an IHSS recipient. Their loan basically, will get the charge in 10 years without them even investing a single dollar on their child's education, and this is 25 under 24 under 24 under.
Speaker 1:And for undergrad loans. So bachelors and lower Nothing in graduated school. Unfortunately, you can't utilize a Parent PLUS loan in that aspect.
Speaker 2:Because you're probably going to be like over 25 by the time you get to like— yes, I know.
Speaker 1:I have people that have attended graduate—like I had an attorney yeah, at 23, she's starting law school and she's pulling out the correct loans. We're guiding her from A to Z. And school and she's pulling out the correct loans. We're guiding her from A to Z and once she graduates, she's not even going to pay half of what she took out.
Speaker 2:So what is your number? Let's just say we have a newly graduated kid, because this is what I'm noticing and this is the beautiful conversation that's about to take place. You have a newly graduated kid that wants to go to college, but the parents cannot afford for them. Let's just you know he's capable to go to college but can't afford it. That ends up going to college. Let's just say because it happens. But then what happens is that let's just say counselors end up making this kid take classes, finishes the class but doesn't need the class. Then he has to take another. Because I've seen this, this was done to me. So by the time you know what? Three years has passed by and you're not done with your prerequisites, you're stuck. So how do you guide new students that are willing to take this educational path? What advice do you give them?
Speaker 1:How do you guide them, okay. So I actually started doing that about four years ago, because before it was like why didn't I know about you from the beginning, of course. So as soon as they graduate high school, most of my students come to me. We figure out a game plan what's your end result? What do you want to be? What are the steps to get to your end result? For example, you want to be a nurse practitioner. Do you want to go to a community school and get your prereqs? Or your tuition is lower at West Coast or Mount St Mary or whatever you choose to go. Do you want to go straight into the private school where, yes, federally you'll be only covered $30,000, but again, you have that option to pull out a Parent PLUS loan, so the finance of your parents will no longer be an issue. Because that's even better. Your low-income federal student loans will be provided to you in a bigger amount versus to somebody that their parent has money where they won't get Pell Grants, they won't get ACG Grants.
Speaker 1:There's so much out there. So we structure it and we basically guide them. Okay, we're going to go to West Coast, you're going to finish your nursing, then you're going to go into your MP, are you going to work while you go through your MP and we figure it all out, they get into the proper job replacement. So we tell them I tell them okay, if you're going to work in the hospital, this is what you're going to look at in the long run on what you're going to pay in your loans. If you're going to go into aesthetics or you're going to go to home health or hospices, anticipate this is what you're going to pay.
Speaker 1:So from the beginning, they already know what they're going to get themselves into. It's not like, hey, you know, I'm just going to wing it, I'm going to pull out random classes, allocate a lot of loans under my name and then just be stuck not know what I'm doing. So we create a game plan. I hold their hand up until graduation. As soon as they graduate, let them study further and class. I'm here, I'm already working on the discharge of their loans. Oh my God. Yeah, it's so fun.
Speaker 1:Especially those kids. I get to see them from like high school and then they grow up and then they're doctors, like your children, of course. I have so many of them I love it.
Speaker 2:I know it's amazing, and the connection that you built with families is phenomenal too. So what are you noticing in this system? Because, look, every school is different and we kind of had a conversation yesterday and we talked about it but every school is different. What are you noticing in these schools? Are they doing the right thing as far as guiding these kids? No, what are you noticing?
Speaker 1:Like, let's just be real, honestly, they're guiding them incorrectly. They're guiding them based on what would benefit the school versus to what would benefit the student and what does benefit the school Like private loans.
Speaker 2:Why does that benefit? They get more money. So private loans, they get more money, which is what the interest piece?
Speaker 1:Yeah Well the interest rates are ridiculous Even on federal loans. Right now, An undergrad loan is at 6.5% Undergrad loan.
Speaker 2:That's not even going to get you a decent job no 6.5%.
Speaker 1:It's ridiculous, those are, and it started July of this year. Does the degree matter? No, so bachelor's is 6.5. At any subject, In any subject. If it's graduated loans 8%. If it's parent plus loans and you want to pull out direct plus loans, so additional funding for your graduated loan 9%, 9%. So you pull out $100,000, it's going to cost you $600,000 in a 30-year span.
Speaker 2:So your whole education costs you $100,000, but by the time you pay it off, with all the interest and accumulations, it's $600,000. That's like no way. So then, when the school graduates right.
Speaker 1:They don't even understand these forgiveness programs. They tell the students consolidate all your loans and put yourself in an income-driven.
Speaker 2:But that's what the school tells you.
Speaker 1:They'll call you from the school and tell you that and I'm like no, not everyone qualifies for consolidation, because there's stuff called weighted average consolidation, where you can pull out your from your oldest loan, so your undergrad degree all the way to your graduated degree, and if you consolidate it correctly, you gain history. Now, on your newer loans, oh my Versus to you consolidating it in one piece and resetting your term and starting it all over from the date you graduated. There's so many legal loopholes where the education system could work for you, but these students are not taught correctly, unfortunately.
Speaker 2:Do you think that they're not taught correctly because it's done on purpose, or because the people that are providing you these services don't even know themselves what's going on?
Speaker 1:It could be both, honestly, because I didn't know what was going on until I got into this field. I had no idea about student loans. I was no, I didn't know. I was like, okay, well, they're going to give me $300,000. I'm going to get my doctorate, I'm going to make so much money, I'll pay it off. That's everybody's mentality.
Speaker 2:It is it doesn't work that way.
Speaker 1:That's what fed to us, though, exactly they make it into this like beautiful rainbow.
Speaker 2:American dream.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's not from the beginning, correctly. I promise you that $300,000 student loan that you took out. You won't even pay $120,000 towards it, and that's what interest and principal versus two millions and putting yourself deeper and deeper into that.
Speaker 2:That is so interesting. Are you noticing this in any other countries, or is it just America.
Speaker 1:It's America because Canada. I've had a few clients where they fell in love and they married and they went to Canada, or they went to Australia or they went to Armenia, and it's completely different.
Speaker 2:The education system.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's free, like if you default in Canada.
Speaker 2:What do you mean? It's free, like educational system. Yeah, I mean they give you some loans but say you default.
Speaker 1:They don't come after you, they don't garnish wages and they don't take your social security. They don't do any of that over there, what do you mean?
Speaker 2:they take away. So over here they take of course they do can you tell us more? About what so? It's a punishment.
Speaker 1:It is because you take an entrance counseling. They basically say this is the, this is the terms that we're going to give you the loans. Now, if you do not pay us back, these are federally secured loans. The guarantee is the Department of Education right, the Treasury. So if you don't pay it back anything that's federally, bank accounts, your paychecks they have the full liability to garnish your wages.
Speaker 2:And there is a decrease in children wanting to be educated, because there's just this absurd amount of fear behind these loans. Yeah, and it's so unfortunate because it's not supposed to be that way. We want children to thrive, we want them to get education. We need good practitioners, we need good doctors and lawyers, and it's really unfortunate that this is happening. How can we encourage these kids? What is your perspective?
Speaker 1:I mean, if you don't use someone like me? The Department of Education's website has the information in there studentaidgov. Go in there, understand it. Understand what you're pulling out. Understand your end story. Understand how much loans are going to be required. Understand your interest rate. Don't just jump into something I've. I always tell my clients like I've had clients where they didn't qualify for federal loans and they're like Mary, we're desperate, pull us a private loan. And I said absolutely not. If I pull you a $70,000 private loan, it's going to cost you over $300,000. I will not do it. You could not pay me enough to put you in debt Like I personally will not do it.
Speaker 2:Does every student qualify for these private loans?
Speaker 1:No and yes, I mean, if you have a good cosigner, you're an American citizen, yeah, you should be fine. But every young kid will not qualify for a private loan without a cosigner. So now you're not just affecting your credit, you're affecting your parents, your uncles, your grandparents, whoever it is that chooses to be your cosigner.
Speaker 2:Where do these private loans come from? Are they coming from like banks, mainly, or there's like organizations?
Speaker 1:They're like private lenders like Sallie Mae, ernest SoFi there's so many out there, but it's like the banking system.
Speaker 2:So the people, the students are not aware, they're not really told that this is a private loan and this is going to stick with you. It's not forgivable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've had that happen.
Speaker 2:You've had that happen.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, I've had that happen so much, where clients came in and I clearly they're young and I'm like why did you pull out a private loan? Well, they said, if I didn't take care of the loan situation I wouldn't be accepted. They would push my enrollment date three months far out. Nobody told me I could pull out a parent plus loan. Or here's the fun part Say, your parent is on disability. Okay, there's a lot of people that are under the age of 24 where, unfortunately, their parent is on disability. I can't pull out loans under my dad because he's on disability. No, you, of course, can pull out loans under your dad, it doesn't matter, he's on disability. Guess what? Once you graduate, because your dad is on disability, the loans get discharged. No term, no, nothing. And it sucks that these counselors don't sit down and tell the clients what does your mom do, what does your dad do? What's the income? So that's what we do in our consultation, so we could pull it out.
Speaker 2:I'm so passionate about that because I oh my gosh my personal experience with education is not fun and it was just so misleading in so many different ways and it's unfortunate. Like sometimes you do feel like it's done purposely, but then you don't want to be that evil and think of that way of people. But yeah, like you go back and you're like how can a school counselor not know these things? Like innocent children being pushed into these loans and like so you're saying it's unforgivable, meaning that they're stuck with those. There's nothing you can do about it.
Speaker 1:No, so what do you tell them? I say, unfortunately I can't help you. Oh my gosh, or you have to refine it. Or if you're home, like right now, home loans are dropping slowly. Right, Pull a HELOC on. But unfortunately, if you pull out private loans, they are not forgivable.
Speaker 2:The only thing you can play with is down the line, is the interest rate, what schools have you encountered that are just gnarly and you're like this has got to be a joke. There's a lot. Can you name a few?
Speaker 1:No, there's a lot. I won't put anyone under the bus.
Speaker 2:That's the fun part, just so they're aware. Okay, fine, tell me later, yeah.
Speaker 1:But I wish we can, so that A lot of these unaccredited schools put it this way If you're going into a school, look at their accreditations.
Speaker 2:What do you mean by non-credited? Why would you go to a school that's not though?
Speaker 1:How is that degree valid? Because a lot of people it is, Even those private law schools and things like that. Yeah, yeah, Like let's use as an experience.
Speaker 2:Back in the days a lot of attorneys would utilize. I mean, it's non-existent right. Correct, because they lost it Exactly so a lot of these schools, kind of like there's yes.
Speaker 1:There's so many where they're like come sign up with me. We will promise you the moon and the stars.
Speaker 2:They're done but those kids are still paying their… their student loans, private loans.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the federal. There's something we could go about it. You know you could do a borrower of defense claim, open an ombudsman case. There's so many different routes federally.
Speaker 2:But unfortunately if you pulled out of private loans in these unaccredited schools, that got shut down.
Speaker 1:Guess what? You're still stuck with the loan. So tell us what the data is behind student loan debt among Americans. Okay, are you ready? Yes, so as of this quarter, the data has calculated $1.75 trillion in student loan debt In America. In America, $1.75. And that's both federal and private loans.
Speaker 2:That's insanity.
Speaker 1:Yeah, $1.75 trillion. Do you imagine that with all the current interest rates, it's going to exceed over $2 trillion by the time this year is over?
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah is over. Wow, that is anxiety to another level, because I look at the system and I see how rigged it is from that.
Speaker 1:That's not a normal number.
Speaker 2:No these are people who owe with interest, obviously, and that started in the beginning of 2024.
Speaker 1:So towards the end of this year they'll do another. You know the data statistics, so I'm sure it will probably hit $2 trillion by then, and it's growing every year and it's growing because of the interest rate and then living costs. So as much as people make money, the debt amount is so high they're not able to pay off anything. Their credit card debt, their student loan debt. Hence why so many people are filing for bankruptcy. They're defaulting, and et cetera.
Speaker 2:That's insane.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's sad.
Speaker 2:For a long time I noticed influencers constantly say education doesn't matter. Education who cares? You can start your business, you can do well. And that irks me such like it gives me goosebumps to hear things like that, because I think education does matter. It is the most important thing, not only to make money. Education is not to make money, but for your well-being, to be a better person, to be a competent individual, better parent. And when things like this happen and I see kids get discouraged like oh, who wants to go and pay a $300,000 loan, it kills me inside. It's so sad to see things like this happen. That's why I want to know what schools exactly, so that we know, like you know, what kids are working with. Are you noticing anything in like specific fields, maybe Nursing?
Speaker 1:Nursing is the biggest one right now.
Speaker 2:Nursing- and law. So what are you noticing in nursing? Let's start in nursing, because I know it's pretty competitive right now. Many, many, many kids want to get into nursing.
Speaker 1:See, that's another thing that they're doing. They're bringing in so many students in one specific field where these people, when they graduate, they're not educated well enough to pass their NCLEX. For example, I have multiple students that take multiple tries to pass their NCLEX. For example, I have multiple students that take multiple tries to pass their NCLEX and they don't care about the students. It's so unfortunate. What do you?
Speaker 2:mean, tell me a little bit about that piece. What are you noticing as a professional? What do you mean by they don't care about the students Because they're?
Speaker 1:just bringing people in. As a business, you want the flow to come in right Constantly. You don't ever want it to stop. So once that student graduates from your company you don't remember that student, do you? Well, there's no relationship formed, of course. Exactly so. Their goal is to get as many students in as possible. Pull out the loans, get paid, graduate them. Now, what happens to their loans? What happens to their loans? What happens to their you know degree? What happens to their? Are they even going to work in that field? Nobody cares. So what they do is they go okay, sign up with me, hurry up, let's do it. Let's get in, get your loans, get your this, get your that. And you know how many kids come in panicking in my office.
Speaker 2:What are they panicking?
Speaker 1:They're like Mary, we got to get in, please give me an appointment ASAP. We need to pull out new loans, or else won't get me in in October, won't get me, or they'll push me into January. So they get desperate and they pull out these 18% interest loans. So they're in there and I'm like what are you guys doing? Like slow down, who cares? If you don't get in in October, what's the rush? Get in in January, but get in with a proper 6% loan, not 18% loan.
Speaker 1:You want these counselors to educate these students better. Like, hey, let's get in at a 6%, let's not rush it, let's fix everything. Let's get all your prereqs in and get you in with a lower amount of tuition. Because here's the thing the more loans you have, the more money I make. But that's not my goal in my company. My goal is to educate you, because I once was a student and no one educated me. My parents came from Armenia. They didn't speak English. It was go be a doctor, go be a lawyer, go be a pharmacist and we'll take care of you. My parents had no idea. So whatever the financial advisor at my school said, it was like God. They said it, the school said it. That means it's true. It doesn't work that way. Educate yourself if no one's educating you, and don't be scared of like 200, 300. I have people they don't want to go to medical school because they're afraid of the loan. I'm like don't be afraid, I'm here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's my next question. So again there is this big fear Many, many kids that want to be doctors, lawyers, but they can't afford all that.
Speaker 1:I mean, how do you soothe their anxiety? But they could If we structure it from the beginning, pulling out the correct loans, setting up a game plan. Let me give you like. Let me just cut off my trace of thought. I had a client that started four years ago. He came to me he was going to go into dental. Dental loans are the worst federal loans you could ever pull out. They're bigger than medical loans. They're bigger than dentists. Yes, really.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Now I understand why dentists charge so much. Dental loans are the worst. They start at a minimum of half a million and if you're going in for a specialty you could end with a million dollars in loans by the time you finish paying that off. It's two to three million dollars with interest, my goodness. But he was freaking out and I was like, don't worry, we got this. So he followed my guideline. He took out about $572,000. We applied for grants after he graduated. He's doing his thing. Guess what? Five years into it his loans are fully discharged. Why? Because we went through the proper channels. He didn't pay half a million dollars. He probably paid like $125,000 and he was done and it doesn't mean that.
Speaker 1:Compare that to $2 million To $2 million of course, and I've seen a lot of that, and so what is your trick like?
Speaker 2:what are the tricks?
Speaker 1:no, programs, no tricks. And I tell my clients you don't even need to pay me if you educate yourself. You could do it on your own. There's no tricks, it's just the time and the experience. Like again, 10 years ago, I didn't have the experience, I didn't have the. I mean, I had the knowledge, but it wasn't to this extent. So I tell my clients, like you're not paying me for some magic, I've had people that had named me Miracle Mary or Magic Mary or like the names that came out with like the referrals.
Speaker 1:I was dying and I was like I'm none of that, I'm just like you Because I am like them.
Speaker 2:I am like you guys, but you're just so well-seasoned and so well-informed.
Speaker 1:It's the time, it's the experience, it's constantly doing it and the fact that just this year alone we're in August my staff has already discharged no exaggeration over $25 million in student loan debt no exaggeration. When I came back from my vacation, my desk was like covered in dis loan debt no exaggeration. When I came back from my vacation, my desk was like covered in discharges and I calculated it just to see how much they did when I was gone. They did about $4 million in discharge. That's insane. Imagine getting that phone call like, hey, by the way, your loans are gone.
Speaker 2:So tell me this. Does your staff also guide on what classes to take and what schools to go to Things?
Speaker 1:of that sort. No, we don't do that, because if I did that, I wouldn't have time to do you know? Yeah, I basically just help with the type of loans to pull out and then, once you graduate, I help assist with the discharge of the loans.
Speaker 2:So then I want to understand this piece. Then, how do the school, I mean it's education? Yes, I know they have to go to school to be a school counselor, but then how do they know these guidelines if they're not taught Like? Is it like a training that they take from the schools, schools?
Speaker 1:usually I remember when I was in high school. It's a long time ago. Yeah, like the school counselors they would tell us like this is the prereqs that you need, because there's no class for that.
Speaker 2:Back in our days there was ROP, Do you remember? There was Regional Occupational Program.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so they would send us to like GCC and stuff.
Speaker 2:And while we were in high school. Where did you volunteer?
Speaker 1:in your ROP program.
Speaker 2:JCPenney Ross.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it. I was a Ross, I was JCPenney Back then. It was, I see Betty.
Speaker 2:I would call my mom. Mom, there's this shirt, it's so cute. Can I put it on hold so you can get it for me?
Speaker 1:Oh my God, that cost me more money than actually making money.
Speaker 2:I mean, it was free, but those programs were phenomenal. Man.
Speaker 1:They're so motivating and encouraging Because they teach you.
Speaker 2:DARE DARE was another one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there were so many programs in our days, but like that anymore. Yeah, I mean, my kids are not old enough that they're in high school for me to be like okay. Well, you know I'm seeing this happen with counselors, so I can't comment on that, but I could see from the children that have come to me for me to guide them, most of them are very uneducated, they're very lost and they're like we don't have a game plan.
Speaker 2:We just want to be a nurse and then so what's the game plan, though, for any field, any subject Like, let's just say, law?
Speaker 1:Well, you've got to do your undergrad right, of course, and then you have to— Apply for law school. Yeah, but it's—those stuff. I don't even want to get into it because I feel like my head would officially blow up if I get more in. I don't know the prereqs. I usually tell my students there are people that do help out with, you know, taking the test or the SATs or applying for grants and Pell Grants. I have people that I do refer out to, but I just again, I like to help with the loans. Loans are my thing, they're my baby.
Speaker 1:I rather guide them correctly in that division. My baby, I'd rather guide them correctly in that division. Let the counselors and the financial advisors hopefully guide them correctly in that aspect.
Speaker 2:So do these scholarships and Pell Grants and grants, I mean, they still exist today.
Speaker 1:Oh my. God, yes, I had a kid the other day got 60K for Pepperdine.
Speaker 2:So tell me how does that work? What qualifications are they looking for? You could be.
Speaker 1:Caucasian and you might get a $5,000 Pell Grant. You could draw a bunny you might get a $2,000 Pell Grant. I always tell my clients the best source of these guides ask your school. What grants can you get me? Is there any ACG grants that are available for me? Is there any Pell Grants that are available for me? Or Google I mean, we live in a world where this is always in our hands Google- it.
Speaker 2:Can you educate us in the different grants and what they stand for? So there's the Pell Grant. What does that stand for? Exactly? Because there's a lot of listeners that are like what is that?
Speaker 1:It's just schools that give you a certain limitations of Pell Grants. It's a big variety. Honestly, I myself don't even know the full like qualification of it because I don't do it. I can help you with like the student loan aspect of it, on what is an unsubsidized loan, what is a subsidized loans. But for the grants I don't touch them. The school usually is the one that offers it. So my best guidelines to those students is ask your school counselor.
Speaker 2:Ask your school, so it's good to always ask Always. Even colleges you feel like.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I'm telling you, colleges too. I had a young gentleman that came in. He had no citizenship so he didn't qualify for federal loans. But we have the DREAM program in California which for immigrants. They could go to college here and they will get some type of loans. So I told him and I said you know, I don't think it's a good idea for you to go to Pepperdine. I said unless you could find grants to cover the tuition, because paying $70,000, $80,000 per year out of pocket you're not going to qualify for any financial planning. You know, federal loans I personally feel like you should go to a community college instead of wasting $70,000, $80,000 a year on prereqs. And then I said or ask your counselor See if you could get grants. He actually came back to me two days ago $65,000 in grants. He's like—.
Speaker 2:To Pepperdine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's only going to cost him $6,000. And I was like yes, do it Like $6,000? For the whole year? Correct, because he got grants and everything for it.
Speaker 2:So he's good. So he'll cover his next and then the next Yep and he'll be set. Yeah, do you recommend for students to start with community college for their prereqs first?
Speaker 1:Yes and no. So if you're going to do nursing, no, just go to those private schools. They're faster, they're more accelerated, so you go in there. It's a two, three-year term. You're out, you do your NCLEX and you start working. You don't waste time in a community college Chemistry, bio, like you, don't do any of that. If you're going to go in for MT, if you're going to go in for dentist, you're going to go in for lawyer, yeah, go to community. Why would you add more loans onto your loan amount when you know in the long run those loans are going to start minimum two to 300,000. So save as much as money as possible.
Speaker 2:What's interesting to me is the dentist loans that you were saying like 500,000. That's absurd. What's I mean? What does that even cover?
Speaker 1:Well, that's not even like USC. If I have a USC dental student, that's more like a Loma Linda student. For dentistry You're kidding me. New York ridiculous. The pricing, usc ridiculous. They're at like $90,000 to $105,000 a year. And dentistry how much? $90,000 to $105,000 per year. Four years. It adds up Plus while they're in school. Because of the type of loans they pulled out, it's compounding interest. So a lot of people are like no, I'm not getting any interest on my loans and I go. Who lied to you? The only time you don't get interest on your loans is a subsidized loan and it's for your bachelor's, your undergrad degree. You have that six-month grace period where you're not compounding any interest. Any other type of loan, the moment you accept it you're already compounding interest.
Speaker 2:Tell us about the subsidized loan and the non-subsidized loans.
Speaker 1:Okay, so subsidized loans are undergrad loans.
Speaker 2:Bachelor's degree loans you guys.
Speaker 1:Bachelor's, associates, vocational colleges, trades colleges, all of those schools. They don't compound any interest. They give you that six-month grace period. So you graduate, they give you a six-month grace period for you to pass your test, for you to look for a job and all of that fun stuff. With that, you have to take an unsubsidized loans, because the subsidized loans they give you like $2,000 to $3,000 per semester. So the unsubsidized loans are about $5,000 to $6,000. For undergrad loans. It could be more, it could be less, and they compound interest. So even though you're not compounding interest on your subsidized loans for your undergrad, though you're not compounding interest on your subsidized loans for your undergrad, you're still compounding interest on your unsubsidized loans.
Speaker 1:Now, once you start going into graduated school, the subsidized loans go away. They don't even bother offering that because those are the 6.5% loans. Now they're offering you an 8% unsubsidized loan. And if you want additional funding because, like you said, most people can't afford to send their kids to these expensive colleges, so they're forced to take out living costs, book costs, laptop costs, car miles, gas and etc. Right, so they have to pull out a direct plus loan. So when they're pulling out a direct plus loan, you have an eight percent unsubsidized loan compounding interest on this end for four years, right, because you're in graduated school. And then you have a 9% direct plus loan compounding interest. So in four years, hypothetically speaking, you're just in college, right, you're just studying, you're not working, none of that.
Speaker 1:You took out a $300,000 loan. By the time you graduate, your $300,000 loan is going to be $380,000, $400,000, depending on the interest rate. That's you doing nothing, that's just you attending school. Now the real interest kicks in and a lot of people go. But I've been paying. I know, I see it. Why isn't it dropping from my interest rate? Why isn't it dropping from my principal? I'm like student loans don't work like home loans. Like you make an extra payment, you don't drop a year, you don't drop off a principal, it just keeps accumulating. It's structured that way 30-year term versus 15 years.
Speaker 2:You're just throwing money in there, next 15 years is where you're dropping it off of the principal and interest. Mary, tell us what is the worst case scenario that you have experienced and you have seen.
Speaker 1:Honestly, there was a husband and wife case that came in. If my grandparents were alive, they would probably be my grandparents' age. Okay, I want to say he was about 70, give or take, and he started getting his Social Security garnished His whole life. He's always made money right. So he was always like, oh, they're never going to get me. He's defaulted on his student loans maybe like 30 years now, okay, and they never got him because he always had to pay back. He always made money. Irs never had anything to give to him because he would always owe right.
Speaker 1:So he finally decided to retire, stopped working, went on social security. Guess what they did? They garnished his wages, they garnished his social security and they put a lien on his house. The Department of Justice got involved. The Department of Education wasn't involved at this point too, and it was such a grim situation because here I am looking at someone that's like my grandpa's age. He has no financial capability right now. He's 70 years old, he's done working, they're not giving him a dollar of his social security and they put a lien on his house that he worked so hard on obtaining.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, this is all from student not paying his student loan.
Speaker 1:And I have a lot of Armenians that have that mentality Like huh, I'm never going to pay for it. I'm like, don't do that. Private loans cool. Like bankrupt it, you could do whatever you want, but with federal loans. You do not want to mess with them at all.
Speaker 2:This is horrible, yeah, so then his whole life. I mean he has to work now.
Speaker 1:No, I mean he has me, but so what did you?
Speaker 1:do? We got it resolved. We dealt with the Department of Justice. I've had multiple situations like that. We were able to stop the garnishments. Actually, on the funny part is because of our current president, there was a waiver that we were able to utilize where we fresh started his loans, kicked them out of default and then actually got some of the social security that was garnished returned back to our client. But had he not heard about us, imagine, like a 70-year-old man, where was he going to work?
Speaker 2:That's amazing, like you literally saved him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was one of my favorite clients of last year.
Speaker 2:How does it feel, Mary? Tell us a little bit about your experience.
Speaker 1:I love it. I'm telling you, I get like this I love these crazy cases where they come in and it's so grim and it's so bad and they're defaulted and there's like no hope. And I'm like, no, we got this, like we're going to do this, this, this, this, this, and then they go. But we got this, like we're going to do this, this, this, this, this, and they go. But it sounds so good to be true. And then when we do it and we actually accomplish what we talk about, and they're like so what else do you do?
Speaker 2:Can you do this, can you do that?
Speaker 1:And I was like no.
Speaker 2:I stood in loans.
Speaker 1:I don't want to learn anything else. I like to focus on one thing and just master it. That's just the way I see it.
Speaker 2:So tell us about your team. What kind of team members do you need to master this? I mean, other than your phenomenal brain, which obviously takes a lot of learning and experience. Like, what do you need? What is your team about?
Speaker 1:It's not me, I'm just the face and I always say, yes, I create the game plan, but if my team does not put the heart and the work in there, I create the game plan, but if my team does not put the heart and the work in there, we will not be able to even execute one file. The team, the experience, the knowledge is not as much needed, like, you don't need a bachelor's degree, you don't need education and student loans. We will teach that to my team members.
Speaker 2:Most of my team members have been with me like the older members, have been with me from the start of MK. Actually like my office. How long has MK been?
Speaker 1:alive. Let's see nine years. Actually, we just hit nine years in July are you gonna do something for your 10? Hopefully. Maybe we have more locations opening up this year, so tell us about that currently I have 15 locations all throughout the United States. 15?, yeah, so, but we are opening up three more, hopefully, god willingly, by the end of this year. We just launched Texas last year. We hit one year again in July in.
Speaker 2:Texas, so you travel, then you have to go, yeah.
Speaker 1:Which is fun because I get to work and play at the same time.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, absolutely. That's amazing. This other question I wanted to ask you was about leadership, because I think that you are such a super woman, so I want to ask you, what are your leadership skills, because you're managing a lot of people. I mean, at the end of the day, you are the CEO, you are the queen and you've got people that are following you. So what are some of the skills that you apply to your system, because your employees are pretty happy. They're very nice, happy girls.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and boys.
Speaker 2:And boys. Yeah, I haven't met a boy. Actually, the girls I've met, but not the boys. So tell me, what are some of your skills as a leader.
Speaker 1:Honestly, one thing I've learned because I've been an employee I never liked somebody coming in and bossing me around. So that was one thing. When I said I would have my own business, I would not do. I don't like leading my team, because that would be BS. I feel like we're a team. So to the clientele, there are titles You're the CEO, you're the office manager, you're the processing director, you're the CEO, you're the office manager, you're the processing director, you're the grant approver, you know, and et cetera. Inside MK no one's better than another, including me. We all put in work. We work as one team, because in my office it's an assembly line. One person you know does not do their work. It falls apart. So if I notice you're struggling we all know how to do each other's job Then I come in and I help you, and that's what I tell my staff. I go in here, I'm not your boss, we're teammates.
Speaker 2:Does that help?
Speaker 1:Yes, and also, I get them lunch every day, so that also helps. They get free lunch every day.
Speaker 2:You are so amazing. That is like the nicest thing I've heard from a boss.
Speaker 1:I've had a boss that done that to me, and hence why I will never forget him. I don't know if he'll listen but his name was Armin.
Speaker 2:He owns a pharmacy.
Speaker 1:Call him out, I am. He owns Market Pharmacy. His name is Armin. He was the best boss I've ever had. He would buy us lunch every day if we worked hard Like if we would do this. He would get us massage cards. He was so respectful and so nice to his staff and I was like you know what I admire him. He motivated you.
Speaker 1:And hence why I became the boss that I am. Because my staff tells me like stop Stop buying us lunch, like we got this or I'll see them bring food from home. So I don't spend money. So we always eat as a family, like nobody will eat lunch until we sit down and eat it together. I can't explain it, but at MK we're literally family.
Speaker 1:Like we're one big family because we see each other more than our own family, you do. Eight hours a day, yeah, more, no, more, right, sometimes. Hours a day, yeah, more, more. But I mean during deadlines. My poor kids, my teammates, were with me until midnight. Imagine, some of these people had newborns, they had husbands, they had grandchildren at home, but they did not leave MK until every last file, even if they weren't doing nothing, they were just standing around so we could get everything like situated.
Speaker 2:You know, I've read a book called the Habit the Power of the Habit and one of the most important chapters of my life because, you know, we're both consultants, right, different consultants, but we work with people, we consult individuals, and one of the things that I learned from the consulting experience is that environment matters, yeah, right, and so if the environment is hostile and the people, then the people have to be hostile to survive in that environment. Right, and I firmly believe that. So that's why, when you walk into businesses and you see that there is a higher turnover rate and there's failures and there's people fighting all the time, you always want to look at the environment and say what's going on, what's the model, what's the owner's philosophy? And from what I'm hearing you talk and say, is that your philosophy is very family-oriented business Just be kind, very respectful and be very family-oriented to even your employees, and that's what makes you very successful and have all these locations.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's my team. People always tell me you do it and I was like, no, like I could take one case on and maybe fulfill it on from A to Z. My team cares more, like when they get a discharge. It was so funny I was on vacation and we got a $786,000 student loan discharge. We have a group message MK office and it's hilarious, and they sent it to me. They're like Mar, we know you're in Italy, but check this out, we're not calling the client until you come back. I was like call them and they're like no, no, no, you have to call. We have a joke at MK when we discharge your loans, you owe us tequila.
Speaker 2:No way.
Speaker 1:I love it, do you?
Speaker 2:guys, drink with the client, at least Take a shot with the guy or the girl.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you're going to laugh. So when we get a discharge and it's towards the end of the day, usually we'll have the team shot. And then we're Armenian, so we'll do the shalako and the tequila shot.
Speaker 2:We get more excited than the actual clients sometimes with the discharge. That is such a big deal for someone.
Speaker 1:It's such a big relief yeah.
Speaker 2:To pay off $780,000 and then boom gone.
Speaker 1:He didn't even pay 20K towards it. Stop yeah, that one was just, it was just God's doing Like it was a blessing on blessing, on blessing.
Speaker 2:What loan was it that ended up being $780,000? Dentist, stop yeah. Do you know that dentists have the highest suicidal rates.
Speaker 1:I mean, I could see why they have to get loans for equipments that they can't even utilize while they're in school. By the way, that's why their loans are so high. So they get equipment loans, and these equipments are from like the 80s okay, so they can't even utilize it in the current practice and it sucks it does.
Speaker 2:Imagine no, so it's interesting to me then what is what's up with this country then in student loans? If Canada has free educational system for their kids and other other European countries, why are we doing this to ours? What is your perspective? Money feel other than money.
Speaker 1:It's money. It's money, honestly, it's the finance. It's the biggest money-making business for the United States. You know there's over $1.7 trillion trillion dollars of student loan debt right now. Currently open. Currently open. Currently open Unpaid Unpaid. We got lucky with this administration, the Biden and Harris administration. I've seen the most discharges under this current administration. Yeah, I'm not a Democrat, I'm not a Republican, I don't care who the president is. I care for me individually.
Speaker 1:And your client of course, but I always say it. I'm like MK loves for another Democrat because he'll discharge all of the current clients I have. Mary is a Republican, so it's like, yeah, I get you, I can't.
Speaker 2:So I'm stuck. I completely understand that world.
Speaker 1:But again, as much as I hate the current administration, they are amazing for my students. I've seen the most discharge and he's been proposing newer stuff, newer grants, newer programs that are going to go through the higher education, which means I am going to be swamped until election year is over.
Speaker 2:Thankfully.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're almost fully booked. I have maybe I want to say a couple of days here and there throughout the whole year available.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1:But I also have 15 other counselors. This is me specifically. Yeah, it's crazy, but if you want student loans discharged, take advantage of the Biden and Harris administration, because you're not going to have leniency.
Speaker 2:But that's not going to last very long either, is it?
Speaker 1:I mean it's election year, Because you're not going to have leniency, but that's not going to last very long either, is it? I mean it's election year. So election year, like last election year again, there was more. Every election year, presidents get sloppy and they get desperate. They want votes. So they open up a lot of easy programs, if you understand them. So to me, I love election year. It's my busiest year. But you have to act fast and you got to be smart about it and you got to get into these programs and you got to secure it, you got to grandfather it. There's a lot of other components that go with it.
Speaker 2:Mary, I'm curious to know when you experience a client that wants to go to a certain school and you know that there's some icky things I tell them Are you honest with?
Speaker 1:them. Oh things I tell them. Are you honest with them? Oh yeah, I go. Just FYI, this school might lose the accreditation. So if you are pursuing higher education, keep in mind if the school loses the accreditation, you cannot transfer the units from this current school onto an accredited school. So you can, let's use DeVry. So if you went to DeVry, you did your AA and you want to go to USC, you cannot transfer your units. You got to start all over again, which means you got to pull out more loans.
Speaker 2:How do you know that that school is not going to survive?
Speaker 1:Well, you know how you see the rate. And then there's a lot of, like, default rates. What rates are you looking for? Default rates mainly. So the Department of Education will ding a school if their students are constantly defaulting on their loans, if they're not passing certain exams. For example, that school, a lot of the students didn't pass their boards.
Speaker 2:Well, because they were probably.
Speaker 1:Their bars, sorry, not boards.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, they weren't, Because they weren't being educated. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because most yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:They weren't prepared, taught more Because they weren't being educated Guided.
Speaker 1:When I went to college, I had a teacher where she didn't care and she literally gave us the answer to every test. Yeah, it was cool because I was 21 years old, I was passing all my tests. I would hang out with my friends in class, but as a 21-year-old, you don't think that long run, because you're going to eventually take your boards or your bar or your NCLEX or whatever field you're going into, right, you're going to have to take a test to get your licensing Wherever you want to, but if you're not properly educated, how are you going to do it?
Speaker 2:So then this leads me to this question. You know how they say the school is not important, it's not where you go, it's who you know. Essentially, do you feel like school matters? No, the name of the school matters.
Speaker 1:Not for me. No, it's literally about who you know. It really is Like I always thought school matters Like, oh my gosh, she went to Berkeley, she went to Harvard, doesn't matter now why? Because it doesn't matter. People will not get you into the door based off on what's on your resume. I've noticed that in the job.
Speaker 2:They don't look for that anymore.
Speaker 1:No, they don't. They look at who referred you. How many recommendations do you have? Do you have what it takes to bring more profit to my company?
Speaker 2:Have you ever talked a student out of a prestige school? Yes, you have.
Speaker 1:I have. And I was like I don't think it's a right idea and I've sent somebody actually. I had a kid that wanted to go in for engineering architect to USC and I'm a I love phenomenal. I love USC. Okay, it's one of my favorite schools. Yeah, as I love children's. But I was like, don't, I'm not gonna have you spend 70k on your prereq, like, oh, you're going to community school. You came here for me to guide you the right way.
Speaker 2:You listen to me, sir, you're listening to me.
Speaker 1:Well, his mom and I were like the same age so I was like pretend I'm your mom, Like I will not send you to USC. I'm like go to Woodbury for architect. That's half the price for the full, like tuition.
Speaker 2:Woodbury is pretty expensive.
Speaker 1:No, Not Not compared to USC. Compared to USC and Cal Poly yeah, $70,000 per year at USC, where you're going to get away at $40,000 per year at Woodbury. That's $30,000.
Speaker 2:What are you noticing? I mean, are you involved in the acceptance rates as well? No, okay, I was going to talk about that, like what's going on with it, Because it's so difficult.
Speaker 1:But I'm noticing a lot. So when I first started doing student loan forgiveness, most of my clients were pharmacy technicians. They were LVNs, they didn't have the drive. Now I'm seeing my younger generation like 18, 19 year olds and I'm so proud of them. They're going in for neurosurgeon, they're going in for mental health facilities like doctors. They're going for dentistry, they're going into occupational therapy, like they're more driven than our generation, the newer generation.
Speaker 2:You would think it would be the opposite.
Speaker 1:But no, they're so driven. I'm like what did your mom do? Because I have kids too, I want to know how they guided them. Like, I have a family that two of the kids are dentists and three of the kids are pharmacists. That's phenomenal. Lucky mom and dad, right, and the loans are almost done too. So, even lucky mom and dad.
Speaker 2:So we talked a little bit about this. We kind of were writing to each other and I'm reading what we were writing. You said something interesting. You're like, let's talk about, in the long run, what's happening in these kids that are pulling out more loans than they need and they're eventually defaulting. So yes, kids do pull out more loans because it just sounds so good to have extra money.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, I was going to get that extra Chanel bag.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, you know. And kids are like spending on this and that, like I'll travel, I'm in school, like do you recommend that, since you're saying you got me, it's going to be, you know?
Speaker 1:Yes and no? Tell me about that. So if I know, for example, you are going to go through the PSLF route, max out your student loans, Because you know in 10 years your loans are going to get discharged. At least the first two years, with the right income driven, you're not going to make payments. So realistically, you're only going to pay eight years out of a 10 year term. Yeah, max out your loans. But if you're going to go through aesthetics and you're going to max out your loans, you're going to go into a 20-year term. So keep in mind, if you're pulling out $80,000 in loans in a 20-year mark, your income shouldn't exceed more than $90,000. So if you're going into aesthetics, you're obviously going to make more than ninety thousand a year.
Speaker 1:So, I do not recommend you pulling out more loans because then your income is going to surpass your debt amounts and you're going to end up not qualifying for forgiveness. That's smart, yeah. So you got every case is different and you just study that with them and I tell them and I'm like if this is something you could guarantee, like hey, my grandma, I'm their IHSS provider, I've been it forever. They have 120 hours, for example. Go wild on your loans, get that extra money, why not? Why not? But if you know your income is always going to surpass your loan amount and you have no public service, you have no grants available, you know the field you're getting into is very attorneys is very limited in the forgiveness. No, don't max out your loans.
Speaker 2:I love you. You're just so honest. Well, yeah, and it's so cool If you can legally max it out and utilize it.
Speaker 1:Why not?
Speaker 2:I just appreciate that genuine honest. Are you hated by the government?
Speaker 1:Probably they probably hate me I'm going to get a knock on the door like why are you guiding these students to pull out more loans?
Speaker 2:What are you doing to us it's like legal, so who cares?
Speaker 1:I always tell my clients legally, keyword Everything legally, legally, if there is a way around it, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I'll find it Hundred percent and I think that you're doing a wonderful job and I appreciate you. I mean, you've helped me, so thank you. Thank you, mary. Thank you so much for joining me. This was fun, yeah, and I think we got. I mean, is there anything else that we left out?
Speaker 1:You feel like honestly, if you guys have loans, get IHSS. I know a lot of my clientele is our main community.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's something special for you. I know we talked about that, it's important.
Speaker 1:IHSS is amazing.
Speaker 2:Especially if you have grandmas.
Speaker 1:Yeah just get it. You get health insurance and, I hope, you get your student loans. It's a win-win. Or, if you guys have questions, call me yeah, get in contact with me. But look into grants, look into your interest rate, be smart about it. Create a game plan. That's my biggest advice I could give to my students don't utilize me, don't go to a third party. Be smart about how you manage your money. They should teach this in like high school, like finances, instead of like all these other stupid subjects that they're now teaching. Exactly they should teach kids how to handle finance. I didn't know how to write a check until I got married.
Speaker 2:I think that's one of the most important things. It's these life skills, like, for instance, like graduating high school. I think a class should be just on how to handle student loans, how to handle college, like the ins and outs of these students, like that's so important because not a lot of people do have resources, like I'm being honest, like not a lot of people have a Mary in their town and they don't have these resources to kind of utilize. So it's important for the schools to educate these kids on these matters.
Speaker 1:I always tell my clients like I go to a lot of schools and I do orientation there Especially. Yeah, lately a lot of Armenian private high schools have gotten me in where.
Speaker 1:I sit down and I tell them, like hey, you guys are about to graduate high school, this is what we need to do, this is what you guys need to do. This is the school that you guys are going in. These are the set of questions you want to ask your financial advisor, and then we guide them, and I've noticed a lot of these Armenian schools, though I can't really go into public unless they invite me Not like American.
Speaker 2:I haven't had any Americans.
Speaker 1:Like I've had universities, Like I've spoken in Pepperdine, I've talked at USC, UCLA.
Speaker 2:I've done Glendale.
Speaker 1:PD City of Glendale was amazing. They got me in a few times. Artie, actually, when he was the mayor, got me in a few times. He was very passionate about it. But I'm here, I'm to anyone's disposal If they need me to come to their school and speak to them, or if they have individual cases, we're here. I mean, we're here to help. Even though there's only one of me, I have a lot of I have a lot of.
Speaker 1:I have over 20 counselors that basically are trained and they're as smart as me, if not they're smarter than me.
Speaker 2:They're amazing. I'm very happy that you are around and you're able to educate. Even, even doesn't matter. Go into these schools.
Speaker 1:Even if it's one or two or three kids that retain information. Yeah, yeah, and don't let student loans hold you back. Like, if you want to be a doctor, go be a doctor.
Speaker 2:Don't let your student loans, we'll figure it out yeah, exactly, I had a in my phd program, dr uh craig childress. I'll never forget him. He said it if you want to be a doctor, be a doctor. If you you want to be any kind of clinician, go. Just don't waste. Don't get student loans on stupid subjects, correct, don't. It's a waste, like you know. Be smart about your education and don't be afraid of the loans piling up. There's always a way, always. And what your advice is just be smart, research and there's always a way.
Speaker 1:You have to be smart. We live in America. There's always a way for something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we're so lucky that we can utilize these services. I get heartbroken when I see kids not getting educated. I'm like, no, there's there's, we came here for this. Yes, I have to utilize it. Well, thank you so much, mary. I appreciate it. It was a really good combo. Thank you for having me. Oh, my God, you don't even have to thank me. Thank you.