Fast, effective and funny ways to reduce personal debt

Depending on your viewpoint, you’ll either chuckle or frown when you read about this risky debt-reducing strategy.

Harvard graduate and Dell employee Joe Mihalic paid off $90,000 in student-loan debt in under a year.

First things first, the 29-year-0ld Dell employee started carrying a flask of booze with him out at bars.

(Good thing no bartenders or bouncers caught him pulling this stunt or he may have gone out the door on his rear end.)

Mihalic also sold his car. He took a second job as a part-time landscaper. He took in rent-paying roommates and skipped eating out altogether.

He also made two risky financial moves:

• he cashed out an individual retirement account, and
• stopped putting any money into his 401(k) retirement account.

The payoff: He eliminated about $40,000 worth of interest he would’ve paid on his college loans over the next 15 years.

Lucky for him, Mihalic makes pretty good money. It’s a heck of a lot easier to pay off debt, college loans in particular, when you have a full-time job.

But you can’t argue with the results: $90K in loans, plus $40K worth of interest, eliminated in about nine months.

Many young people hope (or think) they can follow in the shoes of Harvard alums like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. There’s a lot to be learned about a bright but more down to earth guy like Mihalic too.

Sounds like he had a pretty entertaining time doing it too.

Check out Mihalic’s blog, NoMoreHarvardDebt here.