Interview with Zina Kumok Creator of Student Loan Knockout

Zina Kumok is a personal finance freelance writer and blogger at Debt Free After Three. In 2014, she paid off $28,000 worth of student loans in three years. Now, she’s created Student Loan Knockout: A 20-Day Journey to Debt Freedom, a course on how you too can pay off your student loans quickly.

Tell us about your story and why you’ve developed this course.

When I paid off my student loans in three years, friends started asking me how I did it. I knew many of them had been reading my blog, but I realized that there was no concise guide on how millennials can pay off their student loans.

The amount of student debt only gets bigger every year, and I created this course to show millennials that it’s possible for them to become debt free. Millennials on average earn between $30,000 and $35,000 a year. Paying off loans on that salary can seem impossible if you don’t have someone showing you how to do it.

Why is it important for millennials to become debt free?

The sooner you learn how to save, pay off debt and invest, the better off you will be in the long run. Many millennials put off retirement because it seems so far away.

But as you get older, there will be other financial commitments. You might want to buy a house, have a child or move to a new city. Millennials put off becoming financially responsible because they assume an older version of them will be more equipped to handle that, but in reality, putting it off will only make it harder to get on track.

What can people learn from your course?

The course offers specific actions millennials can take to pay off their loans, as well as basic information on topics such as taxes, investing and budgeting. Not only will they learn the difference between a stock and a bond, but they will know how to apply that information to their own lives.

Every step in the course has a targeted action item that users can take, and each step will bring them closer to becoming debt-free.

What else will people get from your course?

They will learn that personal finance is not about being good at math or knowing what an ETF means. It’s about learning how your emotions impact how you spend money and how you can create sustainable habits that will allow you to be financially responsible.

Personal finance is just that – it’s personal. Each person spends money differently, and it’s important to understand how you think about money and how that affects how you spend it.

Readers of YoungFinances can get 15% off the course by using coupon code YOUNGFINANCES. There are three tiers you can purchase – 30-minute a coaching call with me, perfect for those who have more personal questions they want to ask, the basic course and a deluxe package for people who want the course as well as access to me.

Everyone who buys the course will also receive access to a private Facebook group where you can ask questions, share wins and encourage each other.