How Roy Cranston paid off his student loans early with Highway.

Roy Cranston, a designer in NYC, had been paying his $23K student debt burden back for two years, when his company, WØRKS, decided to adopt a tax-free employer student loan repayment benefit. Now, a little over 2 years later, Roy has paid off all his student loans with the help of WØRKS’ contributions! He is extremely grateful to WØRKS and Highway for giving him peace of mind when it came to paying off his student loans and is excited to be able to focus entirely on building up his financial health. 

A bit of background: Roy’s student debt in context

Roy borrowed roughly $23K at a 3-5% interest rate to pay for his 4-year college education and he was far from the only student that did so. According to the Institute for College Access & Success, the year that Roy graduated (2019), 62% of college seniors graduated with an average of $28,950 student debt. 

Roy’s story: from debt at graduation to starting his wealth accumulation 

In 2019, Roy graduated from university and began to repay his student loans with the goal of getting out of debt as fast as he could. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Roy was able to turn lemons into lemonade and pay off a significant portion of his loans while federal student loan payments were on pause. By the time WØRKS began to offer a tax-free student loan repayment benefit in late 2021, Roy had diligently chipped away at more than half of his original balance!

WØRKS’ contributions helped Roy pay off the rest of his loans over the next two and half years. In early 2024, WØRKS’ contributions paid off the last bit of Roy’s student loans, helping Roy completely get rid of his student debt in just under 5 years–half the time it would have taken him on a standard repayment plan! 

Now that his loans are paid off, Roy is psyched to be able to invest more and work towards major financial milestones. 

More than money: the value of a student loan repayment benefit powered by Highway

To Roy, the addition of a student loan repayments benefit to the employee benefit package felt special and hyper-personal. As employees with student debt were a very small minority within the firm, WØRKS’ benefit felt like a meaningful gesture that underscored just how much the firm valued Roy and cared about his emotional and financial well-being.

The benefit contributions gave Roy peace of mind when it came to making his loan payments. “[The benefit] was worth so much more than what I would have spent repaying,” said Roy, “It certainly eased my mind in a welcome way.” 

Without his student loan to worry about, Roy felt he was able to focus on establishing a successful career at WØRKS.  Now, he’s excited for younger employees to be able to take advantage of this impactful benefit in the same way. 

On his experience with Highway, Roy appreciated how seamlessly everything ran. The team was proactive about checking in when needed, responsive when reached out to, and helped him feel reassured that his benefit would never fall through the cracks. He reflected, “It was a nice autopilot."

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