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I was like, wait a minute. How was I, the top student, all from kindergarten through 12th grade,

I went to a really great university

on a full ride, got my master's degree, accomplished all these things, right?

But I have never once understood these basic concepts around banking, budgeting, interest

rates, comparing loans.

It was like I was deprived from learning this and I got like angry.

Welcome to how to. I'm Carvel Wallace. Right now in the U.S., more than 42 million people have federal student loan debt. And that's not even surprising, right? Because unless you're

ultra wealthy or you have somehow gotten a full ride to college, higher education

isn't really affordable. And yet, kids are still taught that it's basically mandatory. So if it's

not affordable, but it's mandatory, that's why you have student loans, right? So that's 42 million

people, most of them still in their teens who are making these huge, ginormous financial decisions.

And it's fair to say that most of us at that age are not aware of the full ramifications of this.

We leave our future selves holding the bag, struggling to pay the proverbial piper, wishing we could somehow be debt-free.

And that's exactly where we find this week's listener.

My name is Valerie, and I am wanting to pay back my student loans in a very effective way.

I'm going to be 40 in three years, and I'm just like, I do not want to be

in debt. Valerie is now working at a museum in New York, but if we wound back the clock,

...