Dustin Hedrick graduated from Fresno State in 2025 and recently began repaying his student loans.
"It's about $40,000 dollars. With interest, it's going to keep getting bigger. If you would've asked me a year and a half ago, I would've said that's terrifying. I'll find something. I'll make it work," Hedrick said.
In addition to student loan obligations, Hedrick was also balancing personal debt. Looking for guidance, he sought financial therapy through The Academy of Financial Education.
"Finances weren't something we talked about a lot in my household, so I was kinda going into it blind and it was very much I know I need to do something different, but I have no clue what I need to do," Hedrick said.
Hedrick said the service helped him become more aware of his spending habits and identify areas where he could reduce unnecessary expenses.
"Some of those microtransactions on games, it's impressive how quickly those added up," he said.
He said that realization changed the way he approached spending.
"That really helped me springboard into, wait, I'm not spending with my values. Do I really need to spend on this and that allowed me to cut some of my excess spending off and work on paying debt," Hedrick said.
According to Hedrick, the changes have also allowed him to set money aside for future loan payments.
"I've been able to build up a savings account just specifically for my student loans that I can help use to pay some of that off," he said.
Samuel Molina, founder and CEO of The Academy of Financial Education, said financial therapy focuses on helping clients better understand their relationship with money.
"Helping him understand his core values his money belies, helping him be more reflective of his own experience," Molina said.
Molina said the process includes evaluating a client's financial situation, identifying behaviors and creating a plan to address debt.
"It's always assessing the situation: earned income, going through a budget process, helping them identify their behaviors and if there's a way for them to start paying off that bill or if there are programs available to them we're going to help seek that out," Molina said.
For news updates, follow Vanessa Vasconcelos on Facebook, X and Instagram.