The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Share Your Badassity => Topic started by: okparallax on January 03, 2016, 05:35:26 PM
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I felt the need to join just to share this.
My wife and I both graduated from Grad School in 2006. We had a combined $120,000 in student loan debt. We made the minimum payments and were on a 30 year repayment plan, as of January 2014 we had $100,000 left. In the 24 months of Mustacian living since as of December 2015 we are done, wouldn't have done it without MMM and reading this forum, so thanks everybody.
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Totally awesome job.you guys should be ecstatic, and should treat yourselves somehow.
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Holy smokes... you're ptting my 25k to shame! Congrats! !
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Congrats, feels good doesn't it!
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Badass!
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Awesome! Great job!
Would love to hear what lifestyle changes or sacrifices you made in the last two years to make this possible.
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Thank you for the kind words everybody, it feels great.
lampstache, I have been pondering your question for a bit as to what changes/sacrifices we made to make it happen. Mostly it has been cutting out lots of small things, a few big ones, and making more money. Mostly though it has been about evaluating every purchase, taking a step back and thinking through it before it's made. I don't feel as though we have suffered, we still went on vacations, we just did everything more frugally.
The big items since these are the more embarrassing to list:
1. 1984 Jeep CJ-7 - It was a consistent expense of parts and upgrades + 4wheeling trips which required lots of gas, and would break a lot of parts, and the trips in general were pricey with food, camping, beer, vacation time, etc. Sold the Jeep and put the cash on the loans
2. 2005 Chevy Silverado. I bought this used for cash, but it was a gas guzzler and way more car then we needed without the jeep. Sold the truck put most on the loans and bought a 02 Honda Civic with 110k miles on it. We already owned a older Honda Fit and loved it.
3. Bicycle commuted more, I am a pretty avid cyclist and have been for along time, but not for the financial reason, MMM made me see the light on this one and got the wife on board. It made a huge difference on reducing miles driven, which then made us plan our car trips much more diligently, also we got jobs closer to the house which helped as well.
4. Sold some bicycles. Sold some expensive bicycles and went with more utilitarian models that i was able to find used and built them up to suit my riding style. Paid loans with the difference.
5. Sold lots of stuff on Craigslist. Went through every room and found lots of stuff to sell, old xbox with games, old work boots, drafting table, dvds,literally almost any random thing I found.
6. Sold NBA tickets. We live in a small market BA city, and have season tickets, we sell enough now to buy the next years games plus make some money to invest etc form it.
7. Ate in a lot more, especially lunches where we were going out every day at times.
I could keep going but would probably start hitting diminishing returns and get boring for you guys.
I am mainly joining up now to stay motivated and keep the energy going to the investing side of things and keep at it.
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Woohoo! What a relief. Awesome job to you both :)
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Yay. CONGRATS!!!!! This is so awesome. As someone with really high student loan debt (220k combined) that isn't a doctor or lawyer I know how much of a burden and drain they can put on you. It feels like they suck your money forever. I hope to be in your position at the end of the year screaming from the rooftops to all the people who don't understand or care.
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Congratulations!!
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Way to go!!
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Yea, not a Doctor or Lawyer here either. That's awesome that you are almost done with your $220. Incredible stuff.
Yay. CONGRATS!!!!! This is so awesome. As someone with really high student loan debt (220k combined) that isn't a doctor or lawyer I know how much of a burden and drain they can put on you. It feels like they suck your money forever. I hope to be in your position at the end of the year screaming from the rooftops to all the people who don't understand or care.
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Congrats, that's pretty awesome! I'm paying off CC debt and then I'll go after the 105k student loan debt. Can't wait.
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Congratulations! Cant wait to be there.
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Oh, forgot the two biggest things actually.
1. Mint.com, I literally can't even imagine not being on MINT, without and being able to see our net worth I doubt I would have been able to stick with it over time.
2. Making more money. Having a clearer picture of my finances from Mint really made me push to get higher levels of compensation form our jobs.
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Weehoo!! Way to go! I always say it's a death of a thousand cuts, but like debt reduction of a thousand cuts. People want to hear one big thing most times (non mmm readers) and it's 1000 small things I have done that have added up.
Congratulations on a terrific accomplishment!
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Thanks for the extra info okparallax. Great job again!
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Great job.
And excellent work on getting rid of some of the items. :)
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Another belated CONGRATS!
I am on the declutter via craigslist/similar sites warpath in 2016 so I am so inspired by all the people here and their success stories doing so.
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Thats amazing ! Good Job !
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Congratulations. I have definitely increased my student loan payments since MMM, but not as much as you.
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That is incredible, congratulations!!
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WTG you guys!
As a guy who likes getting into fine detail, I certainly wouldn't be bored if you decide to share the nitty-gritty things since it seems like there wasn't one big thing that helped you achieve this goal. Was there anything that you did or cut that would've made it much harder to accomplish? Was there anything that seemed bad that actually made you feel great after doing it, better yet, actually enjoy? (e.g. commuting by bike) I feel like a huge part of my journey is the mental adaptation leading to permanent change.
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Hey Dave, I have pondered it a bit more and honestly I feel like the only thing I left out was having a spouse who was on board and motivated to do it as well. In talking to friends and family I can't tell you how many times I hear people say things like "I'd love to cut spending like you did but theres no way my spouse would ever go for that". my wife was on baord and just as motivated to make it happen which took away a lot of the stress that would have been there otherwise.
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Congrats! Seeing the student loan hit a zero balance is a great feeling.
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(https://media.giphy.com/media/l41lZFKwSkWEjYBeU/giphy.gif)
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Boom!
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Awesome work! I can imagine the weight of the debt being gone is so much better than the adjustment of making lifestyle changes.
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(https://media.giphy.com/media/l41lZFKwSkWEjYBeU/giphy.gif)
This made me giggle. Is it from a Japanese sentai show or something?
Also, great job, OP!
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awesome job!
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(https://media.giphy.com/media/l41lZFKwSkWEjYBeU/giphy.gif)
This made me giggle. Is it from a Japanese sentai show or something?
Also, great job, OP!
According to Google Fu the picture's from a show called "Kamen Rider Fourze," which is part of a franchise that's been running for a hell of a long time in Japan. The quote, however, is from "How I Met Your Mother." I used to post a GIF with the HIMYM character, but our mod arebelspy pointed me to this one. I think it's hilarious too.
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(https://media.giphy.com/media/l41lZFKwSkWEjYBeU/giphy.gif)
This made me giggle. Is it from a Japanese sentai show or something?
Also, great job, OP!
According to Google Fu the picture's from a show called "Kamen Rider Fourze," which is part of a franchise that's been running for a hell of a long time in Japan. The quote, however, is from "How I Met Your Mother." I used to post a GIF with the HIMYM character, but our mod arebelspy pointed me to this one. I think it's hilarious too.
Kamen Rider!! I remember that show from my early, early childhood. Must have been one of the older series, though. Good memories.
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So, random update, to follow up on the original post we just crossed the $1,000,000 net worth threshold.
We went from paying off our student loans in January 2016 with a net worth at that time of maybe +/- $150,000(I would need to check the numbers to be sure) to 1 Million in under 5 years.
This 100% would not have happened without MMM.
I am editing this to add that as cool as this new milestone is, I think I derived greater joy from paying off the student loans. When we started that seemed in and of itself an almost impossible goal, whereas everything after that has just almost been expected by staying disciplined and sticking to it.
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Dude, eight posts in almost five years? You should hang around and post more, because your story is a real inspiration! Congratulations!!!
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It took us a heck of a lot more than 5 years to get to $1,000,000, but I will also agree that the student loan payoff seemed like a much larger accomplishment and sense of relief for both DH and I. Congratulations!!!
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Thank you for coming back with an update!
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It took us a heck of a lot more than 5 years to get to $1,000,000, but I will also agree that the student loan payoff seemed like a much larger accomplishment and sense of relief for both DH and I. Congratulations!!!
Since you said you had the same response I gave some thought to why I had more relief with the student loan payoff than the latest milestone.
With debt it feels so personal, in order to pay it off you have to put your cash into it, every dollar you pay off is coming directly out of your pocket, or even from something that you sold. So it always felt like a real sacrifice to pay it off. With investing and growing assets though at this point most of our gains come from our previously invested dollars and the market doing its thing, so it feels more abstract and certainly doesn't involve the same sacrifice.
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Holy smokes... you're ptting my 25k to shame! Congrats! !
It appears I have not fared as well as you OP! I've got about half your NW since I posted this around the same time ha ha. Congrats on crushing it!
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I think the student loans are also a mental burden. A debt that cannot be forgiven in bankruptcy. They seem to me like the old 7 year indentured servitude clause some of the people signed in order to get training/set up in life. You spend 4 years in college getting into this debt, learning your "trade", and then have to live like a pauper the first 3 years paying it back. After that....freedom.
We used the proceeds from our first home sale to pay DH's loans off. Looking back, it was risky on my part to take on his pre-marriage debt, but that's marriage! For richer or poorer....:-)
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Dude, eight posts in almost five years? You should hang around and post more, because your story is a real inspiration! Congratulations!!!
Haha, thanks for the kind words. I never know what to share or what people will find intersting.
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Wow. Congratulations!!!! That's amazing! Enjoy the freedom in thinking it gives you and the opportunities that may open it up. You totally deserve it.
Also, looking back at your original post it's uncanny how close your timing matches mine. Graduated in 2006. Saved enough to payoff our 200k of loans in mid-2016 (~200k NW at the time). And we just passed 1 million last week. I didn't actually pay off my loans though, still left them hanging but have the money (and a lot more) set aside in a brokerage. It feels great! But also our NW went up so fast I still feel like it could disappear just as fast (remember March).
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March was a perfect example to me of why I don't try to time the market. I would have sold at the low and probably would still be out of the market now. Our total investment amount is more than double from the low in March/April.
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March was a perfect example to me of why I don't try to time the market. I would have sold at the low and probably would still be out of the market now. Our total investment amount is more than double from the low in March/April.
If you don't mind me asking. What is your combine income ??
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So our combined income now is a little over 200k annually. However, when we had finished paying off our student loans at the end of 2015 it was approximately $150k. When we really started paying off our loans in 2013 it was probably around 110k.
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Dude, eight posts in almost five years? You should hang around and post more, because your story is a real inspiration! Congratulations!!!
Haha, thanks for the kind words. I never know what to share or what people will find intersting.
You're a good example. Talk about how you went from 150 to 1000
Did you buy shares or property? Did you avoid consumer debt? Did you optimise your expenses? Taxable or retirement accounts? And that's only talking about the financial stuff!
There is a lot people who could learn a lot from this.
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OK, I will probably post up a unique post to go through it all as it is a lot to type.
Unfortunately Mint messed up tracking some brokerage accounts due to counting them twice as they are in both mine and my wife's name so I don't have concrete numbers until 2018 when I switched to Personal Capital.
A few notes to get me thinking though in response to what you wrote.
-We have never had consumer debt, every bill is paid at the end of the month, always has been.
-We still drive a 2008 Honda Fit that we bought new in 2008(with mostly cash) and a 2008 Acrura RDX we bought used in 2017(all cash). We have had other cars along the way but all were used(05 civic, 06 silverado, and some random collectibles/money pits)
-We still live in the same house we bought in 2010 for 134k(it is currently estimated at 240k). This is the only property we own.
-We are probably 30% taxable and 70% retirement(mix roth and traditional)
-Have maxed out our 401k and IRA for 6 years each, IRAs, before that we always did at least the match and up to 20%
-Everything is in 100% index funds except for some Tesla stock. Investment are in a Mix of total stock market, s&p, bond, small-cap, and international(weighted heavily towards total stock and s&p)
-I don't have solid numbers but I think we are still living at the same level we were 5 years ago, not too much different honestly from 10 years ago honestly.
-The last few years we have probably been close to 70k yearly invested.
Dude, eight posts in almost five years? You should hang around and post more, because your story is a real inspiration! Congratulations!!!
Haha, thanks for the kind words. I never know what to share or what people will find intersting.
You're a good example. Talk about how you went from 150 to 1000
Did you buy shares or property? Did you avoid consumer debt? Did you optimise your expenses? Taxable or retirement accounts? And that's only talking about the financial stuff!
There is a lot people who could learn a lot from this.
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Another random update. Since my update in December of 2020 stating that our net worth crossed $1,000,000 our portfolio is up over $200,000 for the year. Which means our investment portfolio is now over $1,000,000.
Looking back on the data there are so many things that blow my mind. One that stands out is that we hit $500k less than 2 years ago.
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Another random update. Since my update in December of 2020 stating that our net worth crossed $1,000,000 our portfolio is up over $200,000 for the year. Which means our investment portfolio is now over $1,000,000.
Looking back on the data there are so many things that blow my mind. One that stands out is that we hit $500k less than 2 years ago.
Wow! That's a wonderful update!
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Thanks, it's been a hectic year, we had a 2nd kid, and are in the process selling our house and moving back to the east coast.
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We recently made it above 1 million in net worth during the past 3-6 month real estate boom. I still have 24K in student loan debt.
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We recently made it above 1 million in net worth during the past 3-6 month real estate boom. I still have 24K in student loan debt.
Since it's you, I'm guessing it's in forbearance, at a super low rate, or both.
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I left grad school in August 2011 to start my first job. I signed up for the lowest possible payment which is the 25-year graduated extended plan. My original payment was $333/month. It's now $165/month. My original balance was around 57K in student loans.
I now have around 13K at 2.2% and another 11K at 6.55%. I haven't made any payments since COVID-19. No interest is accruing. Is that called forbearance?
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So another year or more has gone by. We finished the move to New Jersey and bought a house outside Philadelphia in a great town, we love it and the easy access to Philly. We kept our jobs in our former LCOL state and while they pay well we are definitely adjusting to our money not going as far as it did previously. Our property tax alone is more then 10x what we were paying. Our net worth is +/- $1.25 million and our portfolio is right under $1 million, both down about $150,000 form previous highs. We have been pretty lax the last year or so on spending what with the move and all but are back making smarter decisions now.
Mentally it has been a little challenging we made really fast progress for about 8 years straight and now have felt like a solid plateau has been hit, combined with our FI number probably doubling with the new costs here. Now that I am back engaged and looking at numbers though I am feeling more proactive and aware which always helps me feel better.
Anyway, just a little update.