BRAINTREE, MASS. (WHDH) - A Braintree couple has come up with a creative way to pay off their student loan debt.
After graduating college in 2019, John Stout and Carly Zdanek had about $130,000 worth of loans. So, Stout set out to look for a solution.
He found a video of a woman on the west coast who was trading items to pay off her mortgage.
“I shot Carly the video of her it was kind of this instantaneous agreement of like, student loans let’s get this going today,” he said
Stout found the perfect item to start.
“I dug up this free thumb drive I got my first day of college,” he said. “I was like USB to debt free. Let’s get going.”
The couple traded that USB for a chair– and soon after the project took off.
“The more people that click on your post the more it gets shown to other people and that really helping us out,” said.
They say they have made 17 trades so far.
“We’ve kind of had a bit of everything. We’ve had snowboards, thermostats, lawn mowers, homepods, we had an ATV at one point, a massage chair…”
They currently are in possession of a camera worth $4,500.
Both say this project is a unique experience.
“We’ve met the most incredible people and they’ve helped us keep going,” said. “We really love emphasizing this community that’s developing around this project is more of a motivator than the actual end goal at this point.”
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