Student Loans: Win The Game Together!
Donation protected
What does our world look like when help each other out of student loan debt instead of silently struggling alone? Let's find out together!
For every $1 in donations we receive towards our student loan debt, we pledge to pay at least $5 forward to help others out on GoFundMe using the money we would have paid on our loans! Together, we easily win the game together and feel great helping others along the way!
Asking for help and honestly sharing our struggle is the critical first step for all us to better help each other! We begin with our story and conclude with answers to questions!
$193,493 in student loan debt? How did we (Jerry the Dad with a Masters Degree from USF, Laura the Mom with a JD from Law School at Stetson, Madeleine the oldest daughter, and Jack the youngest son) get here? Our story begins in 2002 where Jerry had no debt and began borrowing money first for a bachelor's degree from the University of South Carolina which he finished in 2006 followed by a master's degree completed in 2012 at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Laura began the same journey in 2003 with her bachelor's degree from Boston University followed by finishing law school in 2012 at Stetson in Saint Petersburg. Jerry and Laura took every scholarship and worked multiple jobs to minimize the amount we needed to borrow.
17 years later we have made $100,000+ in payments on a balance originally over $250,000 in 2012. We have made every single payment on time and $30,000+ more in principle payments with no end in sight. Our balance as of Jan 27, 2019 is $193,493 including $171,510.88 from Laura's loans and $14,139.82 plus $7,842.45 from Jerry's loans. Laura's loans are so large that so far we have not been able to consolidate them to lower the interest rate without facing a payment of $4,000+ a month while Jerry was able to get his graduate school loans refinanced. Our minimum payment is $2039.40 a month with the United States government receiving the majority of that as interest. At this rate, Madeleine and Jack will be finished with college before our family has paid off our own loans.
How many others are in the same situation as us or worse?
Can we give everyone else hope by successfully funding this? So far on GoFundMe, not one campaign appears to have been successful in paying off a large amount of student loan debt. With one example, we give everyone else hope and more ...
What if a way out for all of us is as easy as building momentum in helping each other?
Imagine our family having $2000 a month to help others pay off their debt instead of paying it on our loans. Imagine those we help paying it forward to help others. In 10 years, we imagine giving $250,000 to help others pay off their student loans and feel immense joy when we compare this future to making the same payments on our own loans.
For every donation we receive, we intend to pay that forward a minimum of 5x over the course of our lives to help others!
With your donation, our collective effort to free even one family from student loan debt has a massive impact on all of our finances as that family pays it forward gratefully to more families in the same situation. We have a dream that starting today we WIN THE GAME OF MONEY TOGETHER instead of competing! We trust your help today to be the Divine Intervention in our student loan debt so that we may pay that forward to others and free as many of us as possible from a lifetime burden of student loan debt!
Will you help us be debt free in 2019 by making a donation to eliminate our student loan debt because we consistently feel wonderful and financially free when we give to others? Your donations will all go towards paying down our student loans and we will provide consistent updates every month showing the payments on all of our social media channels!
https://www.facebook.com/jbanfield/
https://www.youtube.com/jerrybanfield
https://twitter.com/JerryBanfield
Thank you for joining us here today! We trust you will help us spread the word about our campaign on social media and enjoy living in the world you help create free from student loan debt!
Love,
Jerry, Laura, Madeleine, and Jack Banfield
PS: Questions and comments? Let's go!
Question: Why should I pay off your debt? Why not just pay it off yourself?
Answer: Let us use an analogy of sex here to answer this. Is sex better with someone else or by yourself? Which offers more possibilities and the joy of helping others? Where is it easier to develop bad habits and shame? We already have been paying down our debts having never missed a payment and paid $30,000+ in extra principle payments. What we see is the opportunity to make this fun instead of a chore by working together and helping others. We give you the chance to feel good by helping us today and we pay that forward in helping others. Which of these sounds like more fun? In considering the loans are paid off either way in the future, which has a better story? We imagine an amazing story of paying off our loans with the help of your donation today and then paying off loans for so many others going forward. This is happening already and the only question today that is relevant is how do you want to feel? Do you want to feel great helping something amazing happen here?
Question: How do we know our donations will be paid forward?
Answer: Let us remember together a time when you received a lot of help from someone that was totally unearned and undeserved. We will share our story to help you remember yours. In 2014, Jerry was on his way to drinking himself to death and Laura felt powerless to help. Jerry had tried to quit drinking for years before this so many times that he had proved to himself he could not stop even if he wanted to. Laura stayed through years of attempts to get sober and long nights of Jerry up screaming at TV, smashing furniture, and more of the chaos described in his book Speaker Meeting 2017. Jerry awoke on April 22, 2014 and realized his certain fate of drinking himself to death in the near future regardless of whether he wanted to do better or not. Jerry prayed desperately to God for help offering to do anything in return for that help. After the prayer, a thought came that "Going to those AA meetings MIGHT be a part of ANYTHING you just offered ..." Jerry went and at first life seemed to be worse. He was restless, irritable, and discontent with none of the relief that came from those days of remorseful hangovers and reasonable days of sobriety between binges of 12 to 18 hours of drinking a half gallon on vodka. After about 90 days of doing little more than reading some of the Alcoholics Anonymous book, Jerry raised his had one day in the meeting and pledged for help. He said he wanted to drink and barely made it to his meeting sober. The love poured in along with suggestions like get a sponsor, visit a massage therapist, find a counselor, complete the steps, pray for help, and go to more meetings. These complete strangers poured out love for Jerry and he felt it in his heart. He began trying all of their suggestions and soon discovered not only was his obsession to drink gone but he had entered into a whole new way of seeing life. Laura remembers the night the obsession broke and she felt like she got her husband back. Jerry is so grateful for this unearned and undeserved grace from God delivered through the loving kindness of complete strangers that Jerry goes to AA meetings still almost five years later daily and tries relentlessly in his business online to carry the message to anyone that still suffers. The huge outpouring of love Jerry received when he desperately needed it in AA created a debt in Jerry's soul that requires a lifetime of repayment. Our student loan project here is the exact same situation financially. One that receives this kind of help brings on a debt to repay others for a LIFETIME for this kind of generosity. As this project is fully funded, our family intends to pay off at least $1,000,000 of debt accumulated by others with a commitment to pay it forward as we have. You know in your heart from reading this and remembering your own similar experiences that this is a leap of faith worth taking with us.
Comment: You should not have borrowed this much to start with!
Response: You are absolutely right! Laura and Jerry borrowed a quarter of a million dollars to go to school with not one person or institution ever presenting one convincing argument as to why this would be a bad idea. Every family member, every friend, every member of the educational institutions, and every person we ever encountered in society emphasized the importance of a college education at any cost and assured us that our better jobs in the future from our degrees would allow us to pay off our debt. Even Jerry's frugal father who was completely against borrowing money never stopped to counsel Jerry strongly against borrowing money for school outside of minimizing the amount of loans taken which Jerry did. Laura's family heavily emphasized the value of a law degree and avoided talking about the means to pay for that with loans. We imagine this project, the conversation around it, and the fundraising efforts we inspire will be helpful to encourage many of us to avoid borrowing money to start with after seeing how challenging it really is to pay off student loan debt even in the best case scenario with good jobs and consistent employment which many borrowing money for college are not able to enjoy.
Question: Why will anyone help that does not have debt?
Answer: If you are free from debt, how grateful are you for that? How much financial security do you feel each day without any debt? Do you feel you have enough money today? The way out of financial insecurity, loneliness, and lack is through giving and gratitude. According to studies looking at happiness, the biggest opportunity most of us have to increase our happiness is available through giving to others. We feel great when we give to someone else because it proves we have enough to do so. We are able to show our gratitude by reaching out and helping another that from our view might look less fortunate. While not having any debt can be credited to purely smart decisions, saving, and hard work, it also can be credited to good fortune, wise counseling, Divine Love, and abundant opportunities. How easy is it for any of our financial security to be ruined? Most of us are one emergency or stroke of bad luck away from total disaster regardless of how much we have in the bank. No wallet is so large that law suits, medical bills, and the unexpected cannot totally wipe it out as evidenced by so many bankruptcies among every class of individual, company, and government which often previously enjoyed massive wealth and success. We can only truly enjoy what we have today when we trust that if our own financial situation becomes desperate, we will have access to the help we need to make it through.
Question: Why will those already in debt want to help?
Answer: While our debt does not stop us from giving to others, it does limit what we are able to give given we have our minimum payments to make. The biggest difference in the world is giving anything versus nothing. Every donation attracts more donations which means small donations help bring in large donations. Even better for the debt holder is the confirmation that this really does work. When you make a donation to help us, how much certainty do you have afterwards that the same is possible for you? A donation to us might just trigger inspiration to begin your own campaign which may lead to all of your debt being paid off in time when you are as willing to pay it forward as we are. What we give, we receive. Thus, those with debt might have the most to gain by helping us and therefore having that be returned 10x from the good karma!
Question: How to help if a donation is not possible?
Answer: For some of us here, our country is not supported while others of us do not have any payment method we can use making a donation today not possible. In this case, sharing the project and any of the related videos on social media is a huge help to spread awareness about student loan debt and the generosity inherent in all human beings. Even thinking and talking about the project with anyone else helps it grow and gain media attention to inspire more help and hope for others in the same situation!
Comment: I already donate enough to other charities and causes.
Response: How often do you get to see the results of what you gave? Where does the money actually go that you donate? What percentage is lost between your donation and the end user? The vision for our project is showing how to win the game of money together by making charity very personal. So many of us already give to charities and causes we believe in that often the charities we donate to struggle to manage the amount of money coming in. For example, in 2010 an earthquake devastated Haiti and nearly $500 million dollars was donated to the Red Cross to support disaster relief. According to the Red Cross records, hundreds of millions of those dollars failed to reach the intended audience because of administrative fees while many projects took years to get started according to NPR at https://www.npr.org/2015/06/03/411524156/in-search-of-the-red-cross-500-million-in-haiti-relief. For those of us that already are in the habit of giving to charity, we may find that making our donations on a very personal basis is incredibly rewarding and effective in helping us feel the joy of our gift!
For every $1 in donations we receive towards our student loan debt, we pledge to pay at least $5 forward to help others out on GoFundMe using the money we would have paid on our loans! Together, we easily win the game together and feel great helping others along the way!
Asking for help and honestly sharing our struggle is the critical first step for all us to better help each other! We begin with our story and conclude with answers to questions!
$193,493 in student loan debt? How did we (Jerry the Dad with a Masters Degree from USF, Laura the Mom with a JD from Law School at Stetson, Madeleine the oldest daughter, and Jack the youngest son) get here? Our story begins in 2002 where Jerry had no debt and began borrowing money first for a bachelor's degree from the University of South Carolina which he finished in 2006 followed by a master's degree completed in 2012 at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Laura began the same journey in 2003 with her bachelor's degree from Boston University followed by finishing law school in 2012 at Stetson in Saint Petersburg. Jerry and Laura took every scholarship and worked multiple jobs to minimize the amount we needed to borrow.
17 years later we have made $100,000+ in payments on a balance originally over $250,000 in 2012. We have made every single payment on time and $30,000+ more in principle payments with no end in sight. Our balance as of Jan 27, 2019 is $193,493 including $171,510.88 from Laura's loans and $14,139.82 plus $7,842.45 from Jerry's loans. Laura's loans are so large that so far we have not been able to consolidate them to lower the interest rate without facing a payment of $4,000+ a month while Jerry was able to get his graduate school loans refinanced. Our minimum payment is $2039.40 a month with the United States government receiving the majority of that as interest. At this rate, Madeleine and Jack will be finished with college before our family has paid off our own loans.
How many others are in the same situation as us or worse?
Can we give everyone else hope by successfully funding this? So far on GoFundMe, not one campaign appears to have been successful in paying off a large amount of student loan debt. With one example, we give everyone else hope and more ...
What if a way out for all of us is as easy as building momentum in helping each other?
Imagine our family having $2000 a month to help others pay off their debt instead of paying it on our loans. Imagine those we help paying it forward to help others. In 10 years, we imagine giving $250,000 to help others pay off their student loans and feel immense joy when we compare this future to making the same payments on our own loans.
For every donation we receive, we intend to pay that forward a minimum of 5x over the course of our lives to help others!
With your donation, our collective effort to free even one family from student loan debt has a massive impact on all of our finances as that family pays it forward gratefully to more families in the same situation. We have a dream that starting today we WIN THE GAME OF MONEY TOGETHER instead of competing! We trust your help today to be the Divine Intervention in our student loan debt so that we may pay that forward to others and free as many of us as possible from a lifetime burden of student loan debt!
Will you help us be debt free in 2019 by making a donation to eliminate our student loan debt because we consistently feel wonderful and financially free when we give to others? Your donations will all go towards paying down our student loans and we will provide consistent updates every month showing the payments on all of our social media channels!
https://www.facebook.com/jbanfield/
https://www.youtube.com/jerrybanfield
https://twitter.com/JerryBanfield
Thank you for joining us here today! We trust you will help us spread the word about our campaign on social media and enjoy living in the world you help create free from student loan debt!
Love,
Jerry, Laura, Madeleine, and Jack Banfield
PS: Questions and comments? Let's go!
Question: Why should I pay off your debt? Why not just pay it off yourself?
Answer: Let us use an analogy of sex here to answer this. Is sex better with someone else or by yourself? Which offers more possibilities and the joy of helping others? Where is it easier to develop bad habits and shame? We already have been paying down our debts having never missed a payment and paid $30,000+ in extra principle payments. What we see is the opportunity to make this fun instead of a chore by working together and helping others. We give you the chance to feel good by helping us today and we pay that forward in helping others. Which of these sounds like more fun? In considering the loans are paid off either way in the future, which has a better story? We imagine an amazing story of paying off our loans with the help of your donation today and then paying off loans for so many others going forward. This is happening already and the only question today that is relevant is how do you want to feel? Do you want to feel great helping something amazing happen here?
Question: How do we know our donations will be paid forward?
Answer: Let us remember together a time when you received a lot of help from someone that was totally unearned and undeserved. We will share our story to help you remember yours. In 2014, Jerry was on his way to drinking himself to death and Laura felt powerless to help. Jerry had tried to quit drinking for years before this so many times that he had proved to himself he could not stop even if he wanted to. Laura stayed through years of attempts to get sober and long nights of Jerry up screaming at TV, smashing furniture, and more of the chaos described in his book Speaker Meeting 2017. Jerry awoke on April 22, 2014 and realized his certain fate of drinking himself to death in the near future regardless of whether he wanted to do better or not. Jerry prayed desperately to God for help offering to do anything in return for that help. After the prayer, a thought came that "Going to those AA meetings MIGHT be a part of ANYTHING you just offered ..." Jerry went and at first life seemed to be worse. He was restless, irritable, and discontent with none of the relief that came from those days of remorseful hangovers and reasonable days of sobriety between binges of 12 to 18 hours of drinking a half gallon on vodka. After about 90 days of doing little more than reading some of the Alcoholics Anonymous book, Jerry raised his had one day in the meeting and pledged for help. He said he wanted to drink and barely made it to his meeting sober. The love poured in along with suggestions like get a sponsor, visit a massage therapist, find a counselor, complete the steps, pray for help, and go to more meetings. These complete strangers poured out love for Jerry and he felt it in his heart. He began trying all of their suggestions and soon discovered not only was his obsession to drink gone but he had entered into a whole new way of seeing life. Laura remembers the night the obsession broke and she felt like she got her husband back. Jerry is so grateful for this unearned and undeserved grace from God delivered through the loving kindness of complete strangers that Jerry goes to AA meetings still almost five years later daily and tries relentlessly in his business online to carry the message to anyone that still suffers. The huge outpouring of love Jerry received when he desperately needed it in AA created a debt in Jerry's soul that requires a lifetime of repayment. Our student loan project here is the exact same situation financially. One that receives this kind of help brings on a debt to repay others for a LIFETIME for this kind of generosity. As this project is fully funded, our family intends to pay off at least $1,000,000 of debt accumulated by others with a commitment to pay it forward as we have. You know in your heart from reading this and remembering your own similar experiences that this is a leap of faith worth taking with us.
Comment: You should not have borrowed this much to start with!
Response: You are absolutely right! Laura and Jerry borrowed a quarter of a million dollars to go to school with not one person or institution ever presenting one convincing argument as to why this would be a bad idea. Every family member, every friend, every member of the educational institutions, and every person we ever encountered in society emphasized the importance of a college education at any cost and assured us that our better jobs in the future from our degrees would allow us to pay off our debt. Even Jerry's frugal father who was completely against borrowing money never stopped to counsel Jerry strongly against borrowing money for school outside of minimizing the amount of loans taken which Jerry did. Laura's family heavily emphasized the value of a law degree and avoided talking about the means to pay for that with loans. We imagine this project, the conversation around it, and the fundraising efforts we inspire will be helpful to encourage many of us to avoid borrowing money to start with after seeing how challenging it really is to pay off student loan debt even in the best case scenario with good jobs and consistent employment which many borrowing money for college are not able to enjoy.
Question: Why will anyone help that does not have debt?
Answer: If you are free from debt, how grateful are you for that? How much financial security do you feel each day without any debt? Do you feel you have enough money today? The way out of financial insecurity, loneliness, and lack is through giving and gratitude. According to studies looking at happiness, the biggest opportunity most of us have to increase our happiness is available through giving to others. We feel great when we give to someone else because it proves we have enough to do so. We are able to show our gratitude by reaching out and helping another that from our view might look less fortunate. While not having any debt can be credited to purely smart decisions, saving, and hard work, it also can be credited to good fortune, wise counseling, Divine Love, and abundant opportunities. How easy is it for any of our financial security to be ruined? Most of us are one emergency or stroke of bad luck away from total disaster regardless of how much we have in the bank. No wallet is so large that law suits, medical bills, and the unexpected cannot totally wipe it out as evidenced by so many bankruptcies among every class of individual, company, and government which often previously enjoyed massive wealth and success. We can only truly enjoy what we have today when we trust that if our own financial situation becomes desperate, we will have access to the help we need to make it through.
Question: Why will those already in debt want to help?
Answer: While our debt does not stop us from giving to others, it does limit what we are able to give given we have our minimum payments to make. The biggest difference in the world is giving anything versus nothing. Every donation attracts more donations which means small donations help bring in large donations. Even better for the debt holder is the confirmation that this really does work. When you make a donation to help us, how much certainty do you have afterwards that the same is possible for you? A donation to us might just trigger inspiration to begin your own campaign which may lead to all of your debt being paid off in time when you are as willing to pay it forward as we are. What we give, we receive. Thus, those with debt might have the most to gain by helping us and therefore having that be returned 10x from the good karma!
Question: How to help if a donation is not possible?
Answer: For some of us here, our country is not supported while others of us do not have any payment method we can use making a donation today not possible. In this case, sharing the project and any of the related videos on social media is a huge help to spread awareness about student loan debt and the generosity inherent in all human beings. Even thinking and talking about the project with anyone else helps it grow and gain media attention to inspire more help and hope for others in the same situation!
Comment: I already donate enough to other charities and causes.
Response: How often do you get to see the results of what you gave? Where does the money actually go that you donate? What percentage is lost between your donation and the end user? The vision for our project is showing how to win the game of money together by making charity very personal. So many of us already give to charities and causes we believe in that often the charities we donate to struggle to manage the amount of money coming in. For example, in 2010 an earthquake devastated Haiti and nearly $500 million dollars was donated to the Red Cross to support disaster relief. According to the Red Cross records, hundreds of millions of those dollars failed to reach the intended audience because of administrative fees while many projects took years to get started according to NPR at https://www.npr.org/2015/06/03/411524156/in-search-of-the-red-cross-500-million-in-haiti-relief. For those of us that already are in the habit of giving to charity, we may find that making our donations on a very personal basis is incredibly rewarding and effective in helping us feel the joy of our gift!
Organizer
Jerry Banfield
Organizer
St. Petersburg, FL
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