I did it. I just paid my final payment to my student loans in three years. THREE YEARS. I am free.
How did I do it? I made it a priority. I sat down one day and looked at the amount of $70,000 in front of me and was just floored at the amount that I had accumulated from a Masters program that took me two years. Debt stresses me out and I did not want to be paying this the rest of my life. I refused to have dollar after dollar being added to my final bill of interest, so I made it a priority.
The Numbers:
Original Loan Amount: $70,686.18
Interest Paid: $14,822.91
Total Amount Paid: $85,509.11
Money and Time Saved: If I had paid $500 each month, I would not have paid off my student loans until 2044 (that’s 25 YEARS). I also would have accumulated at least $75,000 in interest that would have accumulated over the years.
I work in education. I was making less than $40,000 a year after getting my masters degree and while I was in my dream field (still am, but different job- yay!), I knew that it would take forever to pay off my loans if I just paid the minimum. I did the math one day and if I only paid off the minimum amount on my loans each month, I would end up paying about $200,000 total. When I saw that calculation (excuse my language), I said to myself FUCK THAT. So, I got to work and made my life focused on my student loans and made it a priority.
If you make it a priority, just like any other goal in your life, you will succeed.
So how did I do it?
- First, I made the decision to make paying off my student loans a priority in my life. (most important!!!)
- I never paid the minimum amount due. Ever. Not even once…even if that meant just $5 extra that month.
- In the first year of repayment, I made a payment of half of my paycheck every week. I had a temp job at Brown University then and I was paid weekly.
- I paid the loans with the highest interest off first. I learned this method when originally researching on how to pay off student loans.
- After returning from traveling, I rode my bike for a year instead of buying a car. (this helped my pockets and my buns- haha)
- In my second and third year of repayment I knew that with living in D.C. I wouldn’t be able to pay as much as I wanted with the income and housing being so expensive, so I got myself a side hustle of walking and house sitting dogs and every single dollar from it was put towards paying off my student loans. My record is walking ten dogs from ten separate houses in one day- that was a ridiculous long day.
- Any taxes and bonuses that I received at the end of the year went straight to my student loan payments (that’s three years of never getting to splurge on anything fun with that extra tax/bonus money that everyone gets).
- I sacrificed my lunch hour at work for two years to walk a dog everyday. There were some days that I walked up to four different dogs in one lunch hour.
- I lived out of my car for about eight months while I put my D.C. studio apartment on Airbnb and had consecutive dog sitting gigs throughout the city. This allowed me to put SO much money towards my loans. (the only way this was successful is because I was ORGANIZED and having the mindset that this was temporary).
- Budget. I budgeted the crap out of every single penny I earned from my main check and priority went to my loans and bills (and no matter how much my total amount due went down each month, I still paid the originally budgeted amount that I set from day one).
- At the end of each month, I would look at what I did not spend from my budget of groceries, fun money, savings, etc and would put that towards my loans.
- I worked on websites like Swagbucks and MTurk for extra money and each and every dollar ALSO went to student loans. (These both combined would give me about $2,000 extra per year).
- I said no to a lot of invites, activities, and living outside of my “financial means”.
- I avoid buying “extra” things in my life.
- I had the Iphone 4 for about four years (It’s 2019 guys and I just got a new phone this year).
- I didn’t buy new clothes, unless it was a SUPER sale and/or my pants were ripped yet again.
- I didn’t join any “fad” things like monthly boxes or special services (even though the things people get look so cute).
- I cooked a lot at home (and in the process became a pretty good cook if I do say so myself).
- I shopped with paper coupons and discounts from apps. I frequented the “damaged/for sale” section in the grocery store and bought all of the dented cans for 39 cents.
- I came up with different/creative/budget friendly activities to do with friends (bring your own food/drink to “insert any free activity” is one of my favorite options haha).
I write this post to absolutely brag, because as a millennial paying off your student loans is one of those life milestones that you have to brag about to everyone you know, but also to show you that you can do it too. I made under $40,000 a year working in education, had a lot of complicated things thrown at me in life, and because I made it a priority in my life I was able to do it.
It took a lot of work, a lot of sacrifice, and a lot of time and effort. This time in my life focused on paying off my student loans was very hard indeed, but I knew that once I was finished I would be happier and be able to focus on other goals in my life. I have to be honest and say that a lot of things were put on hold during this time like my health (I haven’t really worked out/went to the gym in years due to time), my book that I have been wanting to write for years is still on my computer waiting to be finished, traveling again, my general look (beauty, clothes, hair, etc.) were put on hold. A lot of things were put on hold, but in the end- this moment right here to scream at the top of my lungs to the world that I am free and owe nothing more has been SO worth it.
Now that I no longer have my student loans payment to worry about, I am focusing on my next goal. I plan to put that original minimum amount due each month that I set for myself into savings for a house. I still plan to do some of my side hustle, but not nearly as much or as intense in time as I was doing before. This next year I am going to take the time to work on myself and go back to things that made me happy and enjoy life (like working out, writing my book, and of course traveling).
If I can do it, so can you. You just have to decide if you want to make it a priority in your life.
Now that we are done with the money talk…. I’m about to dust off my passport in 2020 everyone, where should I go???