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Despite trying to make payments, most of what they contributed went towards interest rather than the principal. This cycle continued for over three decades, ultimately trapping him into student loan debt from 1992 until 2023. The speaker estimates he paid nearly $100,000 during this time, sharing that waiting too long to address the debt was one of his gravest mistakes.

Mistake #2: Insufficient Retirement Contributions

The second mistake concerns his retirement savings. The speaker worked as a teacher for seven years before joining the Federal Government in 2002, where he was introduced to the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). Initially, he only contributed the minimum required to get matched contributions, failing to maximize his contributions for 12 to 15 years.