Starting with a group of ten friends with just under $100,000 of combined undergraduate student debt in 2018, as of winter 2024, we have paid off 70% of this original debt burden, and three of us who started the project with debt are now undergraduate college debt-free.
Today, Lodge 1 of the Debt Liberation Laboratory is down to three members with outstanding loans and a balance of $55,288.81. All of us pay ten dollars a month in dues, which are evenly distributed to our outstanding loans. Those of us who can also make additional contributions to further accelerate our collective debt repayment. Those with debt also make standard loan payments. Others who believe in what we are doing make gifts.
There is no magic trick to it. When our current balance is paid off, the project won’t stop. We will shift our focus to using the nonprofit model we are innovating to reduce the debt of others.
Our progress:
- At the founding, March 2018
- Number of founding members: 10
- Number of members with student loans: 5
- Total student loan debt: $99,961.15
- Home college: Bennington College, Bennington, VT
- As of April 2020
- Number of members: 7
- Members with student loans: 2
- Total student loan debt: $41,130.20
- As of March 2021
- Number of members: 7
- Members with student loans: 1
- Total student loan debt: $17,791.37
- As of March 2022
- Number of members: 8
- Members with student loans: 2
- Total student loan debt: $31,129.74
- As of March 2023
- Number of members: 9
- Members with student loans: 3
- Total student loan debt: $60,688.30
- As of March 2024
- Number of members: 9
- Members with student loans: 3
- Total student loan debt: $55,288.81