Blog with Rob: Paying off your student loans may be as simple as moving.

The amount of students carrying crippling loan debt these days is incredible—at the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2014, Experian announced 40 million Americans now have at least one outstanding student loan. That’s was up from 29 million consumers in 2008.  And we all know of course that the job market hasn’t exactly been friendly to many college-educated individuals in the wake of the economic downturn 6 years ago.  Feeling desperate yet, graduate?

A few counties and cities have a solution that could work for you.  Niagara Falls has offered recent graduates $7,000.00 towards their student loans IF they live in the city for two years specifically in what is considered a struggling area.  So far there are five young participants in the program.  But will the program get the population up? The town had 50,103 residents as of the 2010 US census, down from 55,593 in 2000—needless to say, job opportunities are scarce.  The likelihood of these young newcomers staying past two years when they need to leave the city to find work seems slim.

But fear not, there are also 77 (yes!) counties in Kansas with similar programs.  So even if the pickings in Niagara Falls are slim, maybe the Midwest could be your land of opportunity. More than 70 counties in the state offer people $15,000 in student loan repayment over five years if they move into rural so-called “opportunity zones.”

There may be no place like home, but Kansas will pay your debt.