[Ep. 11] Life After Debt with Jordann Brown

I am so excited to share my episode with Jordann Brown from My Alternate Life. I’ve been following her blog since it started (close to the time I started mine over 3 years ago), so it was so fun to chat with her about her journey.

I actually first met Jordann at the Canadian Personal Finance Conference in 2013 and she was just as sweet and friendly in person as she is on her blog.

We also hung out at FinCon 2014 in New Orleans last September, partially because we Canadian bloggers stuck together for a lot of that conference, and partially because Jordann and I are both major introverts who aren’t good at networking in big crowds.

What I think is so cool about Jordann’s story is that it’s the same story as a number of millennials out there. She went to university, graduated with a whack of debt, then expected her post-grad life to be relatively smooth sailing.

I thought the same way after graduating, expecting a full-time job and an awesome apartment right out the gate. Well, that just isn’t how life goes, especially when you graduate during an economic recession.
But instead of just putting her hands up and wallowing in self-pity about her situation, Jordann worked hard at turning everything around. She’s now completely debt-free and living the life she wants. Listen to the episode to find out all the details.

Jordann mentioned a few links during our conversation, so here they are below. I also wanted to include links about student debt repayment and forgiveness that may be helpful to any of you who are currently chipping away at your student loans.

Note these are resources just for Canadian student loans as I don’t have much experience with student loans in the U.S. or overseas. Maybe that would make for a good future episode though. Any experts out there want to hit me up?

Blog Posts Jordann Mentioned

• Jordann’s Net Worth Updates
• How to Pick the Perfect Dog
• Can I Afford a Dog?
• My Travel Fund is Full!
• Jordann’s Helpful Resources Page

Helpful Debt Repayment Resources

British Columbia (B.C.)

• B.C. Completion Grant
• B.C. Completion Grant for Graduates
• B.C. Loan Forgiveness Program

Alberta

• Alberta Repayment Assistance (RAP)

Saskatchewan

• Saskatchewan Student Loan Repayment

Manitoba

• Manitoba Student Loan Repayment and Assistance

Ontario

• Paying Back OSAP
• OSAP Grants and Loans

Quebec

• Quebec Student Loan Repayment

Nova Scotia

• Nova Scotia Student Loan Forgiveness Program

New Brunswick

• New Brunswick Timely Completion Benefit
• New Brunswick Tuition Rebate 

Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.)

• PEI Student Loan Repayment Assistance

Shout Outs

Thank you so much to everyone who has given me a review on iTunes and Stitcher so far. In this episode, I give some shout-outs to some of my awesome reviewers. Thanks so much to Anthony Lohan, Tom Drake, Eadange, and DerekM1111, you rock!

Are you struggling with student loans, or have you in the past? What is/was your game plan to crush it?

For more show notes and podcast episodes, check out the podcast page.