Dr. Paolo Varquez (00:00): They gave me financial aid in the beginning. Okay. But then after I accepted, already registered for classes, they updated my financial aid. My parents' income was over by $60 and I lost that financial aid. My

Daphné Vanessa (00:08): Gosh, they exaggerate.

Dr. Paolo Varquez (00:11): Yeah. And by $60 it went over to income ceiling and I lost financial aid that first year. So I lost financial aid already registered for classes. That's like, they already got you. I

The Student Loan Podcast Intro (00:22): Welcome to the student loan podcast

Shamil Rodriguez (00:24): Here. You'll find practical advice on tackling student loan debt, paying down your higher education expenses

Daphné Vanessa (00:31): And inspiring stories about paying off student loans, where your host, Daphne, Vanessa

Shamil Rodriguez (00:37): And Shamil Rodriguez,

Daphné Vanessa (00:41): Please rate, review and subscribe to the student loan podcast by visiting the student loan podcast on apple podcast or wherever you find your podcast. This is not professional advice. And we speak from our own personal views and opinions. The student loan podcast is brought to you by start new, where you can serve community and get rewarded with tuition and student loan payments to check out if start new is on your campus, visit start new.com. Thank you everyone for joining the student loan podcast today, we have an amazing guest, none other than Dr. B VA kiss. I hope I pronounced your name correctly. that's correct. Nice. Um, so we are very excited to have Dr. Vrquez from the student loan experience podcast, which is a new podcast that you guys should check out. It's really exciting has stories about people and how they've overcome student loan debt. And so we are really, really excited to have you on, but before we get into the student loan experience, why don't you share your story with our audience?

Dr. Paolo Varquez (01:53): Yeah. Well thank you for having me Daphne, of course. Yeah. So, uh, just, I guess really quickly from my background, I was born in Philippines and I lived in Singapore and my years I came here second grade. Nice. And having Asian parents, even though I don't, I don't look Asian. I still had that pressure of being a doctor, lawyer engineer yeah. So, so, so FA and, and I'm a nurse, so of course my second choice was nursing, right? Yes, yes, yes. Um, so fast forward, my, my high school years fast forward to, um, my college years, I went to U C S B for my, my undergrad. That's actually where I accumulated most of my, most of my, most of my loans. Yep. And because the message I heard in high school was, Hey, you know, just go to college and particularly go to UC versus a Cal state, um, over here in California and community college was just out of the question.

Dr. Paolo Varquez (02:41): Yep. And, and because, you know, that's, you know, that's what I heard all the time from parents, teachers, my friends, um, I went to that UC route to have that college experience. And it really was the college experience. Um, Santa Barbara is a huge, uh, party school. So I definitely got that experience. Nice. yeah. And it was cool because the, my dorm, the sun actually used to wake me up every single morning. Stop it. Yeah. I had, I had beach view in my dorm, in my dorm. Oh my God. I would start sweating. And that, and that's when I know to wake up, it was like the, it was amazing, but the cost was a different story. right, right. I, uh, yeah, so, and, and many of us, you know, we're signing these papers at the age of 17, 18 without really understanding what we're signing up for.

Dr. Paolo Varquez (03:28): And, um, so fast forward, you know, I actually got my, I went for my master's in counseling right afterwards. I got my bachelor's in psychology and sociology chain, my major, so many times, like many like many people. And I got my masters right away in, in school counseling. My original goal was to become a school counselor in the high school level. And my original goal was to teach the high schoolers, Hey, you know, there's other alternative pathways out there and they're teaching 'em about, about financial literacy. So that way they, they know how to do that before they even sign, sign up for these, these loans. Love it. Um, yeah, that was my original goal. And then I ended up working at community colleges, fell in love with community colleges. Yeah. And community colleges I find is like the purgatory between high school and, and the university system.

Dr. Paolo Varquez (04:15): And I find that also as one solution to actually reduced amount of student loans, we have have, it is in, in the U in the us. So after my, my, so when I was doing my work as a, I was actually a career advisor and a counselor at a community college, I got my doctorate in education. So I was able to, I was able to work at the same time, um, while at, while I was doing my, my school, which, which was really good. So all my loans actually just an undergrad, because I learned, I learned not to do that from my grad degrees. So they're my master's, you know, I got scholarships, I got, uh, fellowships, I got research fellowships and, and, um, such as yourself, you know, definitely shares your story in this podcast about hustling. I definitely learned that after afterwards.

Dr. Paolo Varquez (05:02): Um, and then similarly, when I got my, my doctorate as, as well, cause I was working full time. Um, I was, I, I saved up. Um, but also I still applied for scholarship as look, got financial aid. I knew how it worked. Yes. So I knew how to play that system. So, so listening, if you don't have any, if you are planning on go going for grad school or advance degrees down the line, do it when you're, when you, your income is low, because you're more likely to get French. So just think about it. and then I guess, uh, fast forward, um, I don't wanna take up too much of, of my, my journey, but, um, fast forward, I graduated. It's all about you today. It's all like , um, I actually graduated my, my doctorate during the pandemic. It was March when I congratulations. I, I graduated. I was, I was a pandemic graduate. I was, I was one of those pandemic PhD. Yeah. And when you're actually doing your doctorate, you're doing your dissertation where you, you, you present your research to, to these other PhDs and been practitioners

Dr. Paolo Varquez (05:57): And presidents of colleges. And, and I, I, I, I defended my dissertation pandemic style, meaning I had my suit on a top and shorts at the bottom. Yes, yes, yes. And, um, and, and that's exactly how I, I graduated and right when I finished, I knew my target was those student loans. Again, no student loans, my master's no student loans for my doctorate. Um, and I had about overall like 75,000 plus from an undergraduate. And that didn't really, to me, that doesn't make any sense, like why go in debt in the beginning, if you're planning to get like an advanced degree in the future. So for those that are listening, think about that, you know, if you wanna become a medical doctor or, or something, you go further, you might wanna consider planning backwards. So maybe you wanna get loans. It might be better for you to take out loans at your advanced degree, but not your undergrad when you could get that for free. Right. Right. So, and then just like a, you know, quick summary of how I paid everything. I paid everything off in probably like a year and eight months, which is, yeah. You

Daphné Vanessa (06:59): Paid off $80,000 in

Dr. Paolo Varquez (07:01): A year and a half 70. Yeah. So $75,000 in like a year in like eight months or something like that.

Daphné Vanessa (07:06): Oh man. Okay. We have to go into that. How did you do that? That's amazing.

Dr. Paolo Varquez (07:12): Yeah. So, uh, working just, I think at the end of the day, it's basic my, and um, the more hours you put in, uh, the more you can knock those out, you know, I think a lot of people, when they get into paying off debt, the first person they may, they maybe hear about is that Dave Ramsey approach where they just, yeah. You know, they line up, you know, they're . Um, but I literally, they in the pandemic because when they're one thing you think of about to is if, when there are strategies, there are opportunities. That's something to always think about. And, and during the pandemic, the gig economy was on fire. It was, it was on fire. So in addition to my full-time work, um, at my college, I also picked up like part-time jobs. I picked up a lot of, I did a lot of those gig work.

Dr. Paolo Varquez (07:59): So I did, I literally did Uber eats, DoorDash, Uber, Lyft, GrubHub, Instacart, I'm sure I'm missing. Oh. Shipped. And for those of you, I don't know, shipped is actually, um, they work with, with target and it was hot back then. So I literally have all these, I had all these apps on my phone and I would just like, and just deliver and deliver. And I was making during those times, like 40 to 50 an hour, and you just, you know, yeah. You're make, you're making pretty good money doing that. And literally it was just time. And after a year and seven months, I was officially that free, which is amazing. Oh my

Daphné Vanessa (08:38): Goodness. L ladies and gentlemen and days. And, and Zays, did you hear what, what doctor just said? This is huge. You're saying that you leveraged the gig economy during a time of when P a lot of people could have seen scarcity, but you saw opportunity talk to us about the mindset that it took for you to shift. Right. Because a lot of people were operating in deprivation mode during the pandemic, but it looks like you saw opportunity. Why is that?

Dr. Paolo Varquez (09:10): Yeah, so I think, you know, everyone looks at the world a, a little bit differently, depend on what they're dealing with. It's really hard, you know, I understand, you know, if you're going through a pandemic and you lost your job, I mean, that's gonna be, that's tough. Especially if you have kids, you have family, that's a tough pill to swallow for sure. Um, but at the end of the day, it is, it is my, it is mindset. And I think having a community, um, whether that means, you know, in person or even online, we have, there's so much forums online nowadays, where people are like, they built their community together and they even share goal settings. I think that's really important. Um, and, and I think the, the talk of money is taboo and it shouldn't be, I think, yeah, I think the more, you know, we talk about it to, especially parents, like, I think parents need to talk to kids about money.

Dr. Paolo Varquez (09:56): That's super important. Agreed. Um, but the, I think the more we talk about it with, you know, friends, family, and just people around us, the more open we are with those kind of situations, the more likely we get to do something about it, especially attacking, attacking these loans, because, um, you know, again, we're gonna, we're gonna talk about our podcasts later, but, um, there's, you know, you kind of have the individuals who attack it and you kind of have the individuals that avoid it and then everyone else kind of in between. Um, and, and I think one, one of my inspirations was definitely like the debt free community online. Yeah. Um, and if you haven't checked out, go to YouTube, just type in debt, free community, or just like minimalism and all these are all connected to each

Daphné Vanessa (10:38): Other. They do. Oh my gosh. Mm-hmm so I have so many follow up questions. Mm-hmm first of all, you mentioned minimalism, are you a minimalist, did you adopt that? Did that help you pay off debt by not having too much stuff?

Dr. Paolo Varquez (10:54): Yes, I actually, um, I picked this up probably during the, my, my college days and I just got, and, and again, everyone has their own definition of minimalism. I agreed. Mm-hmm . Yeah. So, um, yeah, definitely. Well, you know, live on less than you, less than what you make. And definitely, um, cuz I, cuz it's those little things, little things that people spend that add up over time, the subscriptions that they don't even like you use. So definitely, um, that, that comes to play. And for those of you that don't know um, lit my black shirt. I know you can't see this, but if you're hearing this, my all my black shirt is from Costco. I have like four, two week supply of like Costco shirts and that's all I use and that's it. All my socks are the same. So that means when I'm, when I'm doing my laundry, I don't have to think about match cuz everything matches. They all match.

Daphné Vanessa (11:40): I've done that recently by accident in that I bought a like a few years ago, just a pack of these under armor socks that I just wear with everything. I have to be honest and I it's so comfortable. And then I got the same Toms, so I just, and I accidentally just wear my black leggings for everything. So if I have a suit, I'll just put on a blazer, but I'm wearing my same leggings. And then when it's time to work out, I change shirts, but I'm wearing my same leg. like,

Dr. Paolo Varquez (12:12): Keeps it simple for sure. Keeps it easy.

Daphné Vanessa (12:14): And there's less decision making about like outfits and stuff like that. Don't get me wrong if I have a gala or something like that, then maybe it's different, but mm-hmm for every day I reduce decision making about like, like what I'm wearing for,

Dr. Paolo Varquez (12:28): For sure. Yeah. And then one thing I forgot to share as well. Yeah. Um, so I'm crazy thing I also did as I was like saving up. Um, cuz again, I started thinking about, you know, minimizing my costs even before I started paying it off. Yeah. I used to go to Costco and do like three to five rounds of samples for samples. Oh that was my lunch. I made a blog about it. So actually if you go to Instagram and type in like Costco adventures, I, I, I, I've got to 300, 316 different Costcos. Oh

Daphné Vanessa (12:57): My. We definitely have to. That's a strategy related gentlemen. That is a lunch strategy. mm-hmm you took the free pizza in college to another level.

Dr. Paolo Varquez (13:08): Mm-hmm yeah. I made friends with all the sample people and they would gimme, I, I called it VIP sampling. They gave like, let's say it was chicken wings. They gave like three at the time. So

Daphné Vanessa (13:18): I love it. I love it. So that's being creative, right. It's thinking about everyday things and, and there's something inside everybody's different. Right. But for me personally, I hate overspending on necessities. I don't know where it comes from, but I have a strong desire of if, so of things in need, I want to spend as little as possible or nothing I don't know why. Um, but I never thought about going to Costco for lunch. So I mean, I have a new tool in my tool kit too bad. Costco doesn't have a lot of vegan options. Mm-hmm but if they did, that would be my new spot.

Dr. Paolo Varquez (13:55): Yeah. Good strategy right there. it

Daphné Vanessa (13:57): Is. It is. So talk to us about what you use in terms of so two questions actually mm-hmm what you use as a payoff strategy. Did you do avalanche or did you do snowball or a combination or something else or, and actually, um, what was the makeup of your student loans were that you pay it off so fast that it actually doesn't materially matter. Yeah. But just so that the audience is aware, what was the makeup of your student loans?

Dr. Paolo Varquez (14:23): Um, okay. Okay. Actually, this is a very good question because my student loans was like, my personal student loans was about $32,000 and the rest was actually from, from parent plus loans. So wow. Yeah. So during my undergrad, I, and I, I skipped this piece, but they gave me financial aid in the beginning. Okay. But then after I accepted, already registered for classes, they updated my financial aid. My parents' income was over by $60 and I lost that financial aid. My

Daphné Vanessa (14:52): Gosh, they exaggerate.

Dr. Paolo Varquez (14:55): Yeah. And by $60 it went over to income seal and I lost, I lost, um, financial aid that first year. So not only cuz tuition alone is like, you know, 10, 12,000, whatever it is for at a UC plus I dormed my first year as that adds on another 12 right there. So I lost financial aid. I already registered for classes. It's like they already got you. Yeah. Um, so both my parents had to take out, um, parent plus loans and I ended up having to take it over because in my, in my perspective it's kind of like course it was, it was my education. I didn't want them to pay for it. Um, one thing also that I got to mention my dad's parent plus loan originally was 15,000 mm-hmm and that grew to, it was 20,000 and then the interest was like, it grew like another 15,000. So the, so at the end of it, it turned, it turned into 35,000

Daphné Vanessa (15:50): Insane.

Dr. Paolo Varquez (15:51): Yeah. So, and it was 7% interest for parent plus loans. So again, most people don't, again, it's one of those things where I didn't look at it. Yep. So, so having those conversations with parents is really, really, really important because that $15,000 could have been avoided. For sure.

Daphné Vanessa (16:04): Yeah. Crucial, crucial. This is absolutely the reason why we have these conversations, right. It, so that people know and they're aware and start thinking about para plus loan. Let me look at the interest rate. Let me make sure that this actually makes financial sense. Mm-hmm what are some other ways that we can pay for school? So that's really helpful. Thank you for sharing that. And then of your student loans, the 35 K where they all staffed or were they direct? Like what, what kind of student loans were they

Dr. Paolo Varquez (16:34): Federal? Um, it, yeah, it was all federal. It was all federal, there was no private there. Uh, and it was a mix of both subsidized and unsubsidized loans. Um, and I, I targeted and the way I attacked it was Hmm. Lemme try, trying to think of a way I attacked it. Um, it was mainly snowball method, which is like lining up from lowest to highest. Um, however, I did have a Google sheets, so basically in Excel and I literally map, okay, like how much am I paying? How much what's my minimum. I wanna put in these loans per month. And I always put that extra. Um, and I, I turned, I basically turned into a game. I turned into a game where, um, what's like the most I could pay for this month. Um, and then the thing is I shared that on my stories on my Instagram.

Dr. Paolo Varquez (17:24): So it inspired a lot of people inspired them to pay off their student loans or whatever debt they're dealing with. They're like, wow, like this is really powerful. You know, like I have, I've had my credit card loans for like five years and you're motivating me to pay it off. I love it. So, so I think sharing it, it has has a lot to do with it because now you're like, oh God, I don't next month I wanna go even higher now. Cause someone's gonna call me out on this. Yeah. So, so definitely one first step you wanna do is, is one good step that they could do is different ways to do it is literally putting it on, on an Excel or some kind of document because if everything's on your head, you either avoid it or you overestimate or underestimate. Yeah. It makes it more realistic to put it on a, on a document. Love it.

Daphné Vanessa (18:06): And did you leverage automation at all the payoff of your student loans?

Dr. Paolo Varquez (18:11): Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Um, I had, I think I, I put in the minimum was two 50 every month mm-hmm um, but of course it was a combination of both automation plus manually inputting because I always put extra, so all the money I was making extra from other a gig stuff. And cuz that that's, that that really varied. Um, I, I just threw it in there because at the end of the day it is, it is math, you know, the more we make, the more you put in there, the less is gonna go. And the faster you do that, the faster you're in depth you could do, you could do whatever you want with your money when you're done. Yeah. And it's, it's very freeing when you're done.

Daphné Vanessa (18:47): Oh, amazing. What was the first you did when you were debt free from student loans?

Dr. Paolo Varquez (18:54): Um, I wore my shirt that said, um, straight outta debt the whole day.

Daphné Vanessa (19:01): Love it.

Dr. Paolo Varquez (19:02): Love it. Yeah, that, that was the very first thing I did from what I remembered. And then probably the next thing I started doing was, um, I actually started thinking about doing that podcast that I, I started, um, I didn't start it then cuz I, I actually finished officially. I think it was October 18th of last year that I finished

Daphné Vanessa (19:27): So fast by the way. Yeah, it was. And you already paid off your student loans. That's intense. Can we get a round of applause? I wish I had a round of applause like on, on like a DJ board or something, but yeah, that's amazing. Yeah.

Dr. Paolo Varquez (19:45): So definitely, uh, leveraged the, the um, the pandemic for sure.

Daphné Vanessa (19:49): For sure. And so talk to us about the student loan experience. It seems like you obviously are well qualified to have a podcast about student loans. Talk to us about what's the student loan experience and how has it made an difference in people's lives?

Dr. Paolo Varquez (20:04): Yeah, so the student loan experience is a podcast I just started, uh, last December and really the purpose of that podcast for to share stories. So I think when people don't have student loans, it's hard for them to understand what people are going through with student loans. Right. And everyone is different. They just, you know, a lot of times if, especially sometimes they're older, they're like you got it out. You gotta pay back now, which makes logical sense. Right? Yeah. But when you're 18, 17 taking this money out and you're just listening to what everyone tells you, you don't think about that. And then years later you're like, oh crap. Like I have to pay this off. And there's no sense of what $32,000 mean you. Because in, in my me, for example, I thought, okay, I'm going, I'm gonna get outta college and make $50,000.

Dr. Paolo Varquez (20:49): If I take $50,000 in loans, I'm gonna pay that off in one year. I, I literally, that was my thought. Yeah. My in my high school years, without thinking about taxes, without thinking about all your expenses, every single every single month cause yeah, exactly. And no one talks about insurance. Yeah. Adulting basically. Yeah. Adulting 1 0 1, no one talks about those kind of information. I think that's way more valuable than the, a through G's that we learn in high school or some, or the general ed we learn in college as well. So, um, so yeah, so basically it's like a, a platform where others could hear other people's stories and everyone has the different takes on it. Some people are, they attack it such as myself and there's some people that have way more student loans. , there's some person in there. Um, he's a physical therapist and he has $350,000 in student loans.

Dr. Paolo Varquez (21:38): Yeah. Yep. That's and he, and he paid it off. Love it, love it. Yeah. Um, story. And then there's also other individuals where, uh, um, for example, like their original $20,000 loan ballooned up to like $120,000, um, because they didn't. Yeah. Because a lot of people, sometimes when they see those letters, they either ignore it or don't open it and different reasons. Right. And sometimes you're opening it, you, you really can't afford it. Um, and again, everyone is, is different. Everyone takes it a little bit differently. So my goal really is to invite people that have dealt with student loans from, from different angles. Yeah. That way. And eventually the goal is to influence, uh, people in power to make policies. So this could be stopped. Like the cycle just can't continue. It doesn't make any sense at all. Why we're punishing people that wanna be educated. It just does not make any sense. Mm-hmm and also inviting, um, people that also have a voice such as yourself, you know, start new is, you know, one of their, one of your mission is to, um, help reduce the student loans. I think if we, everyone's kind of doing something to reduce it, I think if we work together together. Yeah, exactly. I just think it's just gonna, it's already snowballing. And I think I, I, I think, you know, big things are going, going to happen for sure. Down the line.

Daphné Vanessa (23:01): I love it. I love it. I love the idea of working together. I'm going to make a pact that we will work with you specifically on influencing people to change policies so that we are a nation that encourages more inclusivity of education regardless of socioeconomic class mm-hmm . So I am super excited. Love the idea of partnering you're right. We're all doing something in the student loan space, but what would happen if we all came together? It would be awesome. So thank you for sharing that. Mm-hmm that's amazing. Well, I feel like we've gotten so much out of this story. Your story is super inspiring. The fact that you came from so far to achieve what you've done and already paid off your student loans, you've accomplished way more than a lot of people do in their entire lifetime. What's next for you in terms of success?

Dr. Paolo Varquez (23:59): I think right now, only because I felt like I not lost, but my, I felt like my twenties had a lot of valuable I'm I'm 30 now. So I felt like my, my twenties had a lot of valuable time, not necessarily loss, but in terms of like investing, I, I, you know, cause after you learn , after you learn about like student loans, a lot of people get into like finance, like finances, financial literacy, financial independence. Um, so because I, um, I felt like I needed to catch up on my twenties. Yeah. Um, my goal this year is to max out all my retirement accounts. Nice. Oh yeah. My, my, my employer offers a 4 0 3 B, which is kind of like the 401k four nonprofits. We also offer a Roth 4 0 3 B. Right. So I'm, I'm putting in I'm maxing out on, on. Yeah, for sure.

Dr. Paolo Varquez (24:50): Um, maxing out on my Roth IRA as well. And because I am doing, I'm still doing the gig work. Some people are like, Hey, are you gonna stop doing the gig work? And for me it's like, I don't, I don't think so. love it. First of all, I like doing the work. I like doing the work. Um, because working, I do work from home from because of my college. So doing, doing sometimes Uber and Lyft on the side kind of mix helps you get out. Yeah. And I, I like people and, and oh, it, it helps it kind of balanced me out actually.

Daphné Vanessa (25:18): Love it. Um, and how humble must you be to literally be a doctor mm-hmm and still do delivery, ladies, gentlemen, they, and Zays, I just want you guys to listen and understand how humble of a person you must be. Right. Mm-hmm I love that. I love that.

Dr. Paolo Varquez (25:36): Yeah. And I also think it's, it's a message for, um, maybe the older generation as well, who say, you know, millennials are lazy millennials, don't no do this and that. And I just wanna be a model and say, Hey, I'm a doctorate degree. I'm still doing this kind of work. Yeah. Love it. And, and it's not our fault and we're doing the best we can. And we have really smart people, such as yourself doing great work and, and, and we need to be, we need to be acknowledged about the stuff that we do.

Daphné Vanessa (26:05): Thank you. And I agree that, uh, millennials, I don't know how this happened because I don't really know the lazy millennials. I have to be honest, but, um, you're right. Like we are doing so much, um, and we do get a bad rap. So thank you for being another example of, despite your success, despite paying off your student loans, despite getting a PhD, you are still out there hustling Uber Lyft. And that is the example that is the American dream, right. That's it is, that is literally the American dream. And, and you're an example of that. So thank you for sharing that and inspiring so many people.

Dr. Paolo Varquez (26:45): Thank you.

Daphné Vanessa (26:46): Love it. Um, so with all that we've talked about, is there a message that you want to leave with our audience? Are there any words of encouraging advice that you have for listeners of the student loan podcast?

Dr. Paolo Varquez (26:59): Yeah. Um, I think my first message is that you're, you're not alone. Um, there's a lot of people with, with situations that you're dealing with. I think the first step is, is really, uh, facing it. try not to avoid the problem because it is gonna, it is going to creep up on you. And sometimes it's, it's gonna creep up on you in ways that, that you don't want it's you don't wanna be that last minute, uh, person, uh, just the, definitely there a lot of ways to get involved, if you do want to make a difference. Um, there's, there's a lot of ways where you could, uh, for example, there's a lot of ways where you can, um, get involved, like for example, um, when it comes to like pushing some kind of policies. Yeah. You know, calling your, go cover, like getting involved locally.

Dr. Paolo Varquez (27:41): I mean, if you literally Google student loans, then your county or your, your, um, your area, um, you'll find some nonprofits out there that is doing some kind of work that you, that you agree with. So I think that's the first step is like being aware and also getting involved. That's the first step. Um, and then another message I wanna share, especially for, for our younger generation is that it's, it's your life. It's not your parents' life. That's really important. And, and I have a message for parents as well, because I think there's a lot of pressure from a lot of parents to send their kid to their top university. And I, I finally figured out like why they, I mean, one reason why they want their kids to go to these prestigious schools like UCLA, NYU, like these prestigious universities is so during holiday parties, you could show them off to your like sisters and brothers, their uncles, and the rest of their family saying, Hey, my kid goes to NYU, studying medical, like to become a doctor, you know, to make it's.

Dr. Paolo Varquez (28:40): So basically like the way I think about it is like parents, egos are tied up to their kids university, like whatever choice their university goes to. And I think that needs to stop. Um, and that would, that would help. That would alleviate a lot of the stress that a lot of, um, high schools feel high schoolers feel because they're like, oh, I gotta do this because I have to impress, impress my parents or my teachers. But there's so many alternative ways out there. Um, community college, I work in a community college. I went to a, you know, I went to a public school. I went to California, I went to Cal state and the UC and I, I work at a community college and I can tell you now, you know, as a counselor, as an advisor, it's one of the best moves you could make. If you get financial aid, you go to university, go for it. But community college is one of the greatest routes you could go to. And don't oversee the, the trades as well. There's so many careers in the trades where you go to school for like a semester and you get a certificate and you can start making really good money without all the crazy amount of student loans.

Daphné Vanessa (29:37): Yep. Contractors are winning especially right now. And that's a trade.

Dr. Paolo Varquez (29:43): Yeah, exactly.

Daphné Vanessa (29:46): That is fantastic advice. I think that we've had a great conversation. Where can listeners find you? Where can they find out, you know, how to connect with you? You mentioned Insta, are there any other channel, you know, that people can, can hit you up?

Dr. Paolo Varquez (30:05): Yeah. I mean, first, um, if you wanna add me professionally, you could always go to LinkedIn and type in, uh, Paul Marquez. Uh, you'll find me there. If you wanna listen to, to the podcast, the, to the loan podcast, um, you go to Google podcasts, apple podcast, or Spotify, just type in, um, student loan experience. And you'll be able to find for, I mean, there, if you are interested in the, the Costco adventures and it it's just my, again, I, another thing I wanna say is balance is key. have your self care, have your outlet. And Costco is just one of those things for me. So if you wanna, if you, if you wanna follow me there, if you go to Instagram and type in Costco adventures, you'll be able to find my, my information there as well.

Daphné Vanessa (30:40): That is so fun. Well, guys, I know what I'm doing after I'm binging Costco adventures. Um, sounds like it'll be very entertaining and we are so excited to have had you on thank you so much, Dr. Barque for joining us, everyone. For more information about this episode, please visit the student loan podcast.com/episode 61. That's the student loan podcast.com/episode 61. Thanks so much.