In 2021, Leila Kartforosh was doing important Covid-19 research as a microbiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — but she wasn't happy with her career.
The 28-year-old's work was crucial for tracking the spread of the disease, but she didn't find it as interesting as the research she was doing before the pandemic.
And while she had a master's degree in microbiology, she was>A reckoning with student debt
Kartforosh's path into microbiology was partly born out of circumstance: As an undergrad, she wanted to be a dentist, which led to majoring in biology at Georgia State University.
However, three years into college, Kartforosh realized that dentistry wasn't really for her. She didn't want to switch majors so late in the game, so she finished her degree in biology.
In 2015, the year she graduated from Georgia State, she went back to school to earn a master's in environmental microbiology. Her tuition was covered through a research program at the university, but she still needed to take out student loans to cover living expenses.
Leila Kartforosh (L) at her graduation.Courtesy of Leila Kartforosh.
After graduating with her master's degree in 2016, she had a stretch working various jobs before landing her position as a microbiologist at the CDC in 2018.
By then, Kartforosh had accrued $82,200 in debt, including $48,400 in student loans. The rest of the debt was from a mix of credit cards, car payments and money that she owed her sister.
Nearly a quarter of her total debt was for car payments she couldn't afford. She had co-signed an auto loan with her then-boyfriend, who eventually stopped making payments. Kartforosh says the loan was the "worst financial mistake" she's ever made.
"I did end up taking this person to court. I was garnishing their wages at>A turning point with her debt
Kartforosh grew up in Georgia in what she describes as a middle-class family, but didn't learn much about money as a kid. "We definitely had everything that we needed, but it was very normal for my family to have debt," she says. "That is something that I carried into adulthood."
Leila Kartforosh (lower right) as a child with her family.Courtesy of Leila Kartforosh.
By 2018, Kartforosh says she had "so much debt that I couldn't afford to live" and that she was overdrafting her checking account, "going into further debt every single month and stressing constantly about finances."
That's when she started to educate herself about personal finance by watching YouTube videos, listening to podcasts and reading blog posts. She decided to get serious about paying off her debt and started tracking every dollar she spent or earned in meticulous spreadsheets that she constantly updated.
In 2020, Kartforosh did a "no spend year." She spent money>How she spends her money
Here's a look at how Kartforosh spent her money in January 2022:
Elham Ataeiazar | CNBC Make It
- Rent and utilities: $1,640
- Discretionary: $1,008 includes entertainment, travel, clothing, charitable donations and pet expenses
- Student loans: $1,000
- Insurance: $707 for renters, life, auto and health
- Savings: $700 for both an emergency and a new car fund
- Investments: $610 toward a brokerage account, Roth IRA and cryptocurrencies
- Food: $400>Looking ahead
Kartforosh's immediate goal is to be debt-free by the end of 2022. After that, she wants to save up and purchase property, either to live in, rent out or flip.
She also wants to be financially independent by 45. "For me, that means having $1 to $2 million invested so that I know I could retire early," she says.
Leila Kartforosh outside her apartment in Decatur, Georgia.CNBC Make It
Kartforosh isn't actually interested in retiring early though — rather, she wants to have enough money to have a more flexible work situation where she can work when she wants and stop when she wants.
In the meantime, she's focused on her new career: "I felt really excited about being able to shift careers without having to go back to college or having to spend a lot of money and invest in a very expensive program. It's like having a fresh start in my career journey."
