Woman forced to take on four jobs to pay off $250,000 in student debt — while begging YouTuber for help

A YouTube star who specializes in personal financial advice has revealed he’s still haunted by the story of a woman who has to work four jobs to pay off her $250,000 student debt.

When Caleb Hammer spoke to Teryca Brooks-Long for his YouTube series Financial Audit, he was shocked by her mountain of debt, which was mounting as a result of high interest costs.

In the video, Brooks-Long explains that her main focus is on modeling and acting, but she also worked as an enrollment counselor for an online university, a virtual assistant for a real estate agent, and had a role at an advertising agency.

The San Antonio native made about $3,500 a month and estimated she spent half the week working shifts, adding, “I’m always working.”

But the income was far from shy of managing her student loan, which was $176,000 but had accrued $250,000 in interest.

At the time, she was losing $1,694 in monthly payments spread over three loans.

In the clip, Hammer tells her, “So where you’re going just with the statements you’ve provided me is bankruptcy.”

But you can’t solve that with bankruptcy. You can’t pay off student loans.’

He added, “This is definitely going to balloon, isn’t it? This will be half a million before you know it, and then a million.”

Brooks-Long – who has a degree in family and consumer sciences from Baylor University – calmly replies, “Probably within the next two years.”

She explained that a disputed inheritance situation meant she had no access to federal loans and could only take out an expensive private loan.

In addition, she had paid 13 more overdrafts in one month.

Hammer then informs her that she needs to double her income through better paying jobs, stop eating out, and trade in her 2018 Nissan Sentra for a less expensive vehicle.

The graduate had taken out a $13,500 loan for the car, which cost her $300 a month and had dropped her credit rating from 720 to 549.

Still, she refused to give up the car.

The clip first aired on June 15, but has since been circulated again after Hammer revealed that the episode had stayed with him out of 90 he filmed.

“Before she knows it, it will be a million dollars,” he said in an interview with Insider this week.

She’s not making any progress with it. She also ran into credit card debt and car debt. So I mean, that’s just bad.’

“That’s where it gets to the point where it feels like it’s impossible to get out.”

Brooks-Long’s situation is likely to be much worse now if she has floating interest rates.

Teryce Brooks-Long was featured in last June’s episode of Financial Audit, but the episode has regained prominence

Brooks-Long – who has a degree in family and consumer sciences from Baylor University – estimated she could be $1 million in debt “within two years”

If so, she will have to pay even more interest after repeated rate hikes by the Fed.

At the time of recording, the interest on her three loans was 11.75 percent on two and 9 percent on the smallest.

Hammer said, “That really sticks with me. That was scary.’

Her story comes after a video went viral earlier this month of a 29-year-old woman racking up $1 million in debt to her husband.

The Washington native had called Christian personal finance guru Dave Ramsey’s radio show to detail her financial struggles.

The exchange took place in 2018, but the music video resurfaced this week when Ramsey posted it to his TikTok channel and was shared again on Twitter, where it has been viewed more than nine million times.

In the clip, Ramsey berates the couple – who both work for the government – and orders them not to spend any money.

“You’re not going to see the inside of a restaurant unless it’s your side job,” he tells the caller.