I’m back with another student debt progress report. As I mentioned in a previous article, back in December, I had reached the midpoint in my student debt balance. In other words, I’d paid half of what I owe in student loans by December, bringing my student debt down to $16,743. That’s after only five months of being employed and making regular monthly payments. And note that what I owed in student loans prior to that was around $35,000. I’d say I’ve made some great progress towards my goal of paying it off in a year. But why am I paying it off aggressively? Well the reasons have already been laid out in the previous article, so please check that out for more details. However, the short version is that I think having any type of debt hinders your life. So, to me, it’s a great idea to put the majority of your extra money (money not used for monthly expenses on bills, food, and transportation) towards paying off your debt.
In fact, this month (January), Kubo Queen received a windfall of $4,800 from a scholarship she won last year. So we decided to put $4,000 of it towards my debt, while keeping the rest (the $800) to serve as a buffer for unforeseen expenses. Along with a payment of $1,500 in the first week of January, this brought my debt down to $11,278.85! The best part is that I still have another paycheck coming in this month, which means I will be making another payment of $1,500. It will bring my debt down to around $10,000. These payments put me in a position to completely pay off my student debt in only about three more months. In other words, I have the potential to pay off my $35,000 student debt after only 9 months of working — less than a year!
Once my debt is paid off we will definitely be celebrating. We will not be blowing thousands of dollars on crazy things, but we will be treating ourselves to some delicious food we love and some tools we’ve been wanting to have. And shortly after the celebration, we will begin to divert the money I’ve been using (towards my debt) to savings and investments. Anyway, paying off my debt so quickly will be one of the most responsible things I do for Kubo Queen and myself. It will put both of us on track to having a healthy financial life as a married couple, which is what we’ll need in order to achieve financial independence in the future. I simply cannot wait.
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