Portland, Maine – In an unusually audacious move, Luke Livingston, of Portland, Maine is asking everyone with access to the Internet to help him retire his student loans. Livingston, 23, is a 2007 graduate of Clark University, in Worcester, Mass., and like most of his contemporaries, finished school encumbered by a mountain of debt.
“It’s really discouraging,”
So Livingston decided to let other people make his payments for him. He created a website – www.sponsormyloans.com – and is inviting anyone with $200 to spare to cover a month’s worth of debt service.
“Ways to minimize the impact of paying back my ever-mounting student loans have been kicking around in my head since, well, I first got my loans; so I put my entrepreneurial spirit into overdrive. But it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I finally came up with what I thought was a quirky, fun and creative way to tackle my loans: Have someone else pay them back for me!”
In a bold stroke of chutzpah, Livingston is asking for help. But there could be some meaningful return on donors’ investments, too, he explains: “… for a mere $200, you can sponsor a month of my student loan payments. In return you'll receive: all of the ad space on sponsormyloans.com all to yourself, to say whatever you'd like, for a full month; the growing media attention associated with sponsorship;
Wren Schultz, founder of Troothpicks.com, Sponsor My Loans first corporate sponsor said, "In addition to sponsormyloans.com being a great way for me to gain exposure for my business, it feels good knowing that my money is going to help someone with a problem that is more and more common these days: college debt."
Luke’s assessment is simple: “I’m a nice guy,” he says, “but unfortunately I’m not unique – most of my peers have similar financial pressures. All I did was think of a creative and positive way to raise the money I need. Hey, it’s worth a shot, right?
