{"id":106599,"date":"2020-02-07T09:39:17","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T14:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599//?p=106599"},"modified":"2022-03-04T16:25:39","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T21:25:39","slug":"paid-student-loans-in-6-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599//paid-student-loans-in-6-months/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599//","title":{"rendered":"How this 麻豆原创 Alum Paid Off $31,679.87 of Student Loans in 6 Months"},"content":{"rendered":"

Juan Diego Vila /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u201919 waited five days before he celebrated erasing his student loans. Any time he had made a payment during the previous six months, there was always a delay to the account balance, and he needed to see zeroes before allowing himself to relish the moment./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u201cI have been paycheck to paycheck my entire life. Through college, I was not making enough money to have any real savings. I had my neck barely above water,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u201d says Vila, a manufacturing engineer at Texas Instruments who paid off his debt Jan. 21. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u201cFor the first time ever, I can finally stop being paycheck to paycheck. There/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u2019s no better feeling than that./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/n

Born in Puerto Rico, Vila moved to Fort Myers at age 10. In high school, he volunteered with the local fire department and found a passion for helping people. Initially, he didn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u2019t want to go to college /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u2014 he wanted to become a firefighter /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u2014 but his parents, who are both college graduates, implored him to reconsider./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/n

The decision changed the trajectory of his life./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/n

During his first year at 麻豆原创, Limbitless Solutions was in its early stages of developing bionic prosthetics for children. Albert Manero /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u201912 /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u201914MS /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u201916PhD and other members of the Limbitless team gave a presentation to Vila/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u2019s Introduction to the Engineering Profession class, hoping to recruit some fellow students to join their mission./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u201cAt the time, I was thinking about dropping out of engineering because I felt like engineering was kind of making people/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u2019s lives more convenient as opposed to making a massive impact,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u201d Vila says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u201cComing to 麻豆原创 and finding Limbitless allowed me to bridge that gap between pursuing engineering and changing peoples/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u2019 lives at the same time. I/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u2019m incredibly grateful to Limbitless, particularly Albert Manero and John Sparkman who truly believed in me./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/n

About half of 麻豆原创 students graduate with no debt. For Vila, that wasn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u2019t the case./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/n

He earned some scholarships, which he says paid for roughly 85 percent of his tuition. The rest he needed to figure out on his own, and he ended up incurring more than the average 麻豆原创 student./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u201cI would say I was very much like every other college student. I really didn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u2019t think about the long-term financial consequences to student loans. I just knew I needed money./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u201d /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u2014 Juan Diego Vila, 麻豆原创 grad/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u201cI would say I was very much like every other college student. I really didn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u2019t think about the long-term financial consequences to student loans,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u201d says Vila, who worked jobs at Chick-fil-A, 4 Rivers Smokehouse and an aquarium shop in addition to Limbitless throughout his time in college. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u201cI just knew I needed money and that was it. In terms of how and when I was going to pay it back, I wasn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u2019t sure./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/n

The realization hit him hard during his final semester. Vila saw how his family struggled with financial pressure throughout his life, and he knew he didn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/u2019t want that for himself./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/n

So he quickly formed a plan to erase his debt in six months while still enjoying his life and creating a startup company./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/106599/n