I love Pokémon Go… I’m not ashamed of it, I seriously love it.
Pokémon games, TV shows, movies, and cards were a huge part of my childhood. I played Pokémon Yellow on my Gameboy Color and Pokémon Snap on my N64. I collected and traded so many Pokémon cards, the foil cards were legit. I can remember seeing the Pokémon movie and being enraptured by Mewtwo.
My nostalgia runs deep making Pokémon Go a serious addiction for me.
So one night as cars were dodging me and I was wandering through strangers’ backyards playing Pokémon Go (just kidding I don’t walk out into traffic and I’m not a trespasser) I indulged in a thought exercise (also kidding I can’t think about anything other than catching ’em all while playing).
So anyway sometime after playing I started to wonder what it would be like if student loan repayment was structured like Pokémon Go… Here’s what that lead to… enjoy 🙂
Student Loan Payments That Level Up
Your student loan payments would start out as wimpy little things. Payments that don’t break your Pokéballs er I mean wallet.
In the same way that catching Weedles and Caterpies sharpens your aim and helps you gain 
experience, starting small gives you a feel for making payments while letting you build some momentum. That way the transition from student to adult isn’t so startling and it builds a little financial confidence.
Helpful Tools To Accelerate Your Progress
Much like better pokéballs aid you by providing a higher catch rate, think of a master ball-like tool that would help you secure variable interest rates at low percentages or even capture elusive grant or forgiveness opportunities.
What if you could make your student loans easier to repay with a razz berry? You could use the razz berry and for the next payment a larger percent would be applied to principle.
Perhaps you could incubate some good fortune much like an egg. Just like you have to walk all over to hatch an egg maybe you have to make many repeated payments to hatch a lower interest rate, or like incubating eggs maybe you end up with the same thing you already have, it’s a surprise!
Medals for Milestones
Much like in Pokémon Go these medals wouldn’t actually do anything for you. They would just be a pat on the back and something you can feel good about. Or they might annoy you because you have a lucky egg out and they’re wasting your time…
Lucky Eggs
Because dang it I want my payment to count for double for a 30 minute time period. I will save up as much money as possible and then apply it all to my loans at once. Watch my XP soar and my loan amount fall! Oh man, that lucky egg would be filled with so much happiness!
Unfortunately student loan repayment will never be as exhilarating as Pokémon Go. It will never be so addicting that you buy an external battery pack and run your phone down to 2% because you just can’t control yourself.
But repaying your student loans can be rewarding. You can make progress and level up in your financial life as your debt ticks down. For the best tips and tricks to repay ’em all be sure to check out my upcoming book Repayable, launching in Fall of 2016.
Let me know what Pokémon Go characteristic you wish existed for student loan repayment in the Millennial Maxims Facebook Group or in the comments below!
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