Kristina Ellis is the founder of College Ninja. After winning $500K in scholarships and graduating from her dream schools with bachelor’s and master’s degrees, Kristina Ellis set out to help students create their own plan to earn a debt-free education. A speaker and the best-selling author of Confessions of a Scholarship Winner and How to Graduate Debt-Free, she is also a featured expert in Dave Ramsey’s award-winning 2021 documentary Borrowed Future: How Student Loans Are Killing the American Dream.

Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets such as Fox & Friends, The Katie Couric Show, CBN, USA Today, Reuters, Seventeen, and Money. During her tenure as a Ramsey Personality, Kristina was a frequent co-host of The Ramsey Show, which consistently ranked as one of America’s top five most-listened-to radio shows/podcasts, averaging more than 18 million combined weekly listeners. Through articles, live events, online courses, and her work with Ramsey Education, she was able to give young people and their families the tools they need to understand and win with money.

After my own paying-for-college journey, I’m so grateful I was able to start my adult life with that freedom. It has allowed me to write 2 books, start a business, and travel to 25 countries because I didn’t have to chase money to pay student loans. More importantly, that freedom has allowed me to follow my passion and purpose to fight a toxic system that preys on teenagers and young adults and to join you in your own journey today.

In our current culture, normal is broke. Normal is paying back student loan debt for 10 or even 20 years. You don’t want to be “normal” when it comes to your money. I want you to be a “weird” wealthy person who doesn’t have to stress about money. Who owns a paid-off house you love. Who drives a paid-off car and has piles of money in investments and can afford to get married and have kids someday. That’s the future I see for you. The freedom I want for you. For you to have that is my heart and passion behind writing this book.

Right now, not only do we live in a culture that normalizes “broke,” but we’re in the midst of an uphill battle where tuition rates have skyrocketed and the sticker price at many colleges is astronomical. Unfortunately, in the current environment, it’s not necessarily easy to graduate debt-free. Trust me, though: you can do it.

I know it’s possible both from personal experience and from 10 years of walking with families as they’ve traversed the complicated landscape of paying for college, I also know the overwhelming feeling of staring at a mountain of costs and being unsure of how to conquer it. But this isn’t all on you. I can help show you the way. And I’m confident that, together, we can chart the path to your very own debt-free college degree.

To me, this quest is like an entrepreneur who’s seeking to launch a new business. While some entrepreneurs succeed quickly, many more have to remain relentlessly determined, trying multiple approaches to get their company to the next level. Either way, the benefits of that pursuit can be massive!

Don’t be intimidated if you’re at the bottom of your own mountain without any idea of how you’ll scale it. I’m not going to leave you alone in this. We will take it one step at a time, exploring numerous tips, strategies, and techniques to help you develop a personalized plan for overcoming obstacles and reaching the top. My hope for you is that you not only get the degree and the career you dream of, but you accomplish it in a way that sets you up for financial freedom and success throughout your lifetime.