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Amanda Lynn Tully: 5 things to know on US woman who left for Prague to escape $65,000 student debt
Amanda Lynn Tully, a 37-year-old American moved to Prague after graduation and has not made a single student loan payment in over seven years.
Amanda Lynn Tully who is 37 shocked many when she moved to Prague less than a year after graduating and leaving behind $65,000 in federal student loans and not making a single payment in over seven years.
She grew up as a ward of the state in Colorado and thought a college degree would give her a better life. Instead, she finished two degrees and still couldn’t find a job and faced a huge debt she didn’t know how to handle.
With 7.7 million Americans now defaulting on federal student loans, Tully’s case is not unique, but it has become one of the most talked-about examples of a growing student debt crisis after the New York Times reported on her.
Here are 5 things to know about Amanda Lynn Tully:
She grew up as a ward of the State
Amanda Lynn Tully had a tough start in life. She spent her teenage years as a ward of the state of Colorado and believed college was her best chance for a better future.
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She earned advanced degrees but struggled to find work
She earned a bachelor's in art history from the Metropolitan State University of Denver and a master's in historic preservation from the University of Oregon in 2017. But after graduation, she couldn’t find a job in her field and was left with $65,000 in federal student loans. "I was never financially stable because I was never taught to be financially stable," she told the New York Times.
She was only paying $60 a month but still walked away
Tully’s monthly repayment was just $60 under an income-based repayment plan, which could have forgiven her remaining debt after 20 years. Many would see $60 as manageable, but for Tully, it was not just about money. She called the payments "psychologically burdensome" and said, "The payments weren't even paying off the interest, so it was frustrating."
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She moved to Prague and stopped paying loans
Less than a year after graduating, Tully moved to Prague, where she had done an internship, and stopped paying her loans. She hasn’t made a payment in over seven years. Since 2019, she has worked in Prague as an e-learning content developer and describes herself as "open to work" on LinkedIn. According to the New York Post, she has no immediate plans to return to the US and has been living largely debt-free abroad.
Her story is part of a much bigger problem
Tully is not alone. Over 40 million Americans have federal student debt and a record 7.7 million have defaulted, according to the Education Department. Some borrowers move abroad to avoid debt collectors and to have a better life, even on lower salaries.
