How a Philly couple paid off $150K in student loans; Temple loses to Belmont in NCAA Tournament | Morning Newsletter

It’s the first day of spring! Nicer weather and flowers are headed our way but, most importantly, it’s time for free water ice and ice cream. It’s also a time of new beginnings, which makes our top story this morning thematic and inspiring: a Philly couple is sharing their finance tips after paying off $150,000 in student loans. Now that’s a fresh start many a millennial would enjoy. Sadly today is not one of starts but one of ends for Temple University: their NCAA Tournament dreams were dashed last night, marking the end of an era for the basketball team.

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— Aubrey Nagle (@aubsn, morningnewsletter@philly.com)

When Celeste Hernandez Revelli graduated from Loyola University she left with $90,000 in debt. When she met her husband, Tom Revelli, he had $60,000 in loans from the Art Institute of Philadelphia.

Now she’s helps others navigate their finances and he opened a brewery in Northern Liberties with a partner. Oh, and they’ve nearly paid off all those loans ahead of schedule.

So, how’d they do it? It’s no mystery: they’re sharing all the lessons they learned with you.

Temple’s short NCAA Tournament run is over. The Owls lost a play-in game to Belmont University 81-70 last night, thus ending the Temple career of legendary coach Fran Dunphy, who spent 13 seasons at the school.

But there’s still one more local team in the race: Villanova joins all the March Madness tomorrow night against St. Mary’s, and they’ll be relying on the leadership of seniors Phil Booth and Eric Paschall.

If you can’t wait that long to watch some Philly basketball, tune into the Sixers’ showdown with the Celtics tonight.

It was a challenging day for the Philadelphia Board of Elections. The deadline for filing legal challenges to primary election candidates’ nomination papers was 5 p.m. Tuesday and the office literally had to call for backup.

Council President Darrell Clarke is among the many candidates who face disputes over the papers they’ve submitted to get on the ballot. One candidate even filed to block 30 of the 33 other Democrats against whom he’s running.

At least one candidate for Common Pleas and Municipal Court judgeship dropped out Tuesday after a political consultant allegedly botched several petitions for candidates.

The word “iconic” comes to mind here, @kylehuff.

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“Far too many women in the prime of their life are deferring pregnancy because they can’t make the financial sacrifice. They need to know — in the make-or-break moment of their careers — that their job will still be there after they’ve spent time with their newborn. They also need to know that child care costs won’t bankrupt them once they do return to work.” — Conservative political talk show host Rose Tennent on why Pennsylvanians shouldn’t have to choose between having kids and being comfortable.

Want to learn about feminism and make some new friends? A book club in Cherry Hill is gathering women of all ages and backgrounds for quarterly chats.