Georgia Man Trades His Way Out of $220K Student Debt: "I Have to Do Something"

He won't let the taxpayers pay off his debt

Jake Croft from South Georgia is on a mission few would attempt — he's trying to trade his way out of more than $220,000 in student loan debt.

Croft, a chiropractor by education, opened a practice with his wife in early 2020 — just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. "We didn't take out a small business loan. We had saved up through college, and all our savings just plummeted in like six, eight months," Croft recalled.

Even though Georgia didn’t mandate business closures, fear kept patients away. "I was going weeks where I had two appointments a week because people were just in the houses," he said. To support his family, Croft pivoted into teaching human anatomy and physiology at local colleges, but knew it wouldn’t be enough to erase the crushing debt.

Click here to follow Jake on TikTok to see his mission

"I've had debilitating anxiety about this debt for the past five years," Croft said. "Unless you have that amount of debt on your head, you just don't know what it feels like."

Inspired by the story of Kyle MacDonald, who once traded a paperclip up to a house, Croft decided to trade his way to financial freedom. Starting with a used massage gun worth about $150, he posted videos on TikTok documenting his journey. After about a month, someone traded him an iPad. From there, it escalated: a Versace watch, then a $6,500 wedding venue package in Michigan, which he later traded for an $8,000 motorcycle.

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"I want to pay these loans off. I'm not waiting for the government to cancel them," Croft emphasized. "I'm never going to ask for a handout for this."

The response online has been overwhelmingly positive. "People want to be a part of something," he said. Still, Croft has faced critics telling him to "just get a job." His answer: "For the past five years, I've had anywhere from three to six jobs. This is just an insurmountable amount of debt."

Looking back, Croft doesn’t regret the personal growth he experienced in chiropractic school, but he does warn others: "Don't decide what you're going to do with your life at 13. Allow yourself to grow and explore different options."

His TikTok, @trading_for_freedom, now has over 28,000 followers. "I'm committed till it's done," Croft said. "Whether it's next month or two years from now — I have no choice. I have to do something."