Author Topic: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)  (Read 9639 times)

TyGuy

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Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« on: December 22, 2019, 01:21:26 PM »
Starting the thread for 2020 early, I will be posting here beginning January 1, 2020 to hold myself accountable for my student loans. Together, we all made some serious progress this past year and I am excited to see what 2020 brings for us! I plan to begin the year paying down my loans aggressively before transitioning to saving aggressively for a mortgage down payment as I have plans to buy my first house in 2020! Enjoy the year's end and see you all in the new year :)

Rimu05

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #1 on: December 23, 2019, 07:13:20 AM »
I couldn't be fully committed last year and just paid the minimum but next year is the year for me to chew mine out. Probably going to pay the minimum for a few months and then start throwing extra money.

Loan as of today - 24,871.7

mckaylabaloney

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #2 on: December 23, 2019, 09:36:28 AM »
Excited to see this thread! I made very little progress last year -- was focused on other financial goals instead, including buying a house -- but I plan to really start going for it in 2020.

Loan balance today: $142,343.68

TyGuy

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #3 on: December 23, 2019, 04:14:52 PM »
@Rimu05 @mckaylabaloney Welcome, I'm excited to see the progress you both make this coming year!

bcbaseballman

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #4 on: December 27, 2019, 09:50:13 AM »
Count me in. I really focused on my student loans the end of last year and hoping to carry it over into the next year and dropped them by a little over 8k

Current Balance: $23,396.66

Goal for the year is to pay off 12k of the loans this year. (current salary is 43k).

Good luck everyone.


eav

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #5 on: December 30, 2019, 11:03:47 AM »
I'm in for this year. Starting balance on graduation in 2016 of $38,684 was fairly aggressively paid down. However, I've been slow paying them for a while due to favoring investing. This year I will knock them out!

Starting loan balance: $11,002

appleseed

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #6 on: December 31, 2019, 06:42:22 PM »
Coming over from the 2019 thread with a current balance of $3,054. We started 2019 owing $9,965, and paid 2/4 loans off. These are my husband's loans from 2005, and I'm determined that they'll be gone by his birthday in April.

Happy New Year!

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Civex

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #7 on: December 31, 2019, 07:17:08 PM »
I'll join in, participating in the 2019 threat has helped be more aggressive about payoff.

Current balance:$28,208

Background: Started with just over $90k in student loans in 2014 after graduating. I immediately consolidated/refinanced into a single loan at 5.09% with a 25 year term and began making payments. I made the decision to pay the minimum (lately I've kinda regretted this) for 2 years post graduation while I aggressively invested and tried to build some equity. Instead of paying extra towards loans I maxed out Roth IRA+401k the year I graduated and the following year (first full year of employement) put away >$50k between 401k, Roth, and Mega Backdoor Roth. Doubled my payment from the minimum at the end of 2016 when I switched jobs and lost access the MBD Roth. Upped it again about a year later and got serious about taking it out in 2018. Refinanced to 3.95% through SoFi towards the end of 2019. Potential for payoff in 2020, realistic goal of 5/2021, with a "guaranteed" payoff of December 2021 if I continue the auto payments. Good luck everyone.

May 2014 (initial):$90k
January 2018:$64k
December 2018:$47k
December 2019:$28k


penguintroopers

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #8 on: December 31, 2019, 07:40:47 PM »
Porting over from the 2019 threads, so I'll include numbers for this past year!

Dec 30, 2018: $81,096.72
Dec 30, 2019: $33,506.48

Total Debt Payoff in 2018: $47,590.24

Here's to (hopefully) debt free in 2020!
« Last Edit: May 14, 2020, 07:27:05 AM by penguintroopers »

haypug16

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #9 on: December 31, 2019, 08:21:48 PM »
I'm in! Ready to tackle these student loans more aggressively in 2020.

Current Balance = $37,378.80
Goal is to pay the min on all loans except the smallest until that is paid off and then move on to the next. All my interest rates are roughly the same amount so I am going for the rush of crossing off loans from my list.

First loan up is $2,091.70 - Should be able to get this knocked off around April.
« Last Edit: January 03, 2020, 11:20:41 AM by haypug16 »

TyGuy

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #10 on: January 01, 2020, 01:59:00 PM »
Nice to see more folks committing to this thread, I suspect several of us will be free from student loans at some point this year!

@haypug16 Definitely an exciting way to pay off the loans, I paid my first one off (highest interest rate) last month, and it increased my excitement to cross more off the list this year!

I will update my numbers later this week, I hope 2020 is off to a great start!

Jim Fiction

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #11 on: January 01, 2020, 02:36:41 PM »
I love these threads (I graduated in September 2018), best of luck to everyone involved! You absolutely can do it!

TyGuy

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #12 on: January 03, 2020, 10:39:48 AM »
Thanks for your support @Jim Fiction


I am bringing in some numbers from last year's thread to help me track my progress and stay accountable.


Student Loan Debt:

01/12/19: $43,762.76
02/01/19: $42,561.06 (-$1,201.70)
03/04/19: $41,418.69 (-$1,139.41)
07/05/19: $37,901.63 (-$3,517.06)
08/10/19: $36,673.79 (-$1,227.84)
09/01/19: $35,289.89 (-$1,383.90)
10/02/19: $33,624.85 (-$1,665.04)
11/04/19: $31,707.48 (-$1,917.37)
12/08/19: $30,043.85 (-$1,663.63)
01/03/20: $28,335.39 (-$1,708.46)


Net Worth per Personal Capital:

03/04/19: -$30,065
07/05/19: -$21,711 ($8,294)
08/10/19: -$18,173 ($3,538)
09/01/19: -$12,615 ($5,558)
10/02/19: -$10,089 ($2,526)
11/04/19: -$6,559 ($3,530)
12/08/19: -$1,673 ($4,886)
12/22/19: $237 ($1,910) (First day of having a positive net worth)
01/03/20: $1,447 (1,210)

Excited for January as it is a 3 paycheck month. Happy debt eliminating!

PrezZaphod

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #13 on: January 03, 2020, 05:44:14 PM »
Here to keep myself accountable. This is the year I finish it.

Initial balances 6/1/2018
Private loan: ~$62,500 @ ~9%, refinanced immediately to $62,060 @ 4.8%
Direct subsidized loan: $5,000 @ 5.2%
Stafford loans: $20,000 @ ~4% (averaged across 4 distinct loans)
School endowment loan: $5,000 @ 0%, no repayment schedule
TOTAL: $92,500

---


1/1/20
Private loan balance: $11,800
Direct loan balance: $0
Stafford loan balance: $18,200
School loan balance: $5,000
TOTAL: $35,000

---

I got myself a $200/mo raise, and it's all going to loans. January will be a 5-check month, and with luck that'll take $4.2k off the private, and I'll be done with that one within the next few months and onto the federal loans. We'll see what the tax refund brings, but I think it'll be good news. Paying the private one off has felt like a year and half long fever dream, but I feel like I'm waking up to find I've gone and beaten the mountain to dust with my fists. Just a little longer now.

I'll be updating my balances monthly.
« Last Edit: January 03, 2020, 06:17:35 PM by PrezZaphod »

appleseed

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #14 on: January 28, 2020, 09:09:27 PM »
Coming over from the 2019 thread with a current balance of $3,054. We started 2019 owing $9,965, and paid 2/4 loans off. These are my husband's loans from 2005, and I'm determined that they'll be gone by his birthday in April.

Happy New Year!

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk

Beginning of the year - $3,054
Ending January - $2,789.90

Chipping away... but unfortunately shifting my goal from an April payoff. I decided to max our HSA and SEP accounts for 2019 first, since the interest on these loans is low (2.625%).

haypug16

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #15 on: January 29, 2020, 11:41:38 AM »
January Update
2020 Beginning Bal. = $37,378.80
1/29/2020 = 36,507.66

Total paid off in 2020 = $871.14

I put an extra $50 into my smallest loan. I hope to be able to do more next month so I can kill this loan by April and move on to the next. Current bal on smallest loan = $2,020.75

thece1ebrity

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #16 on: January 30, 2020, 06:55:54 AM »
TLDR:  I've put $8986.00 towards my loans in the last five months with a 62k salary, house and two kids.  Current Balance: $4288.00

I converted to Mustachianism about two years ago after realizing I was in pretty bad shape financially.  There were some other debts that needed to be wiped out before attacking my student loans.  Fortunately, I reached that point in September and am now hurling all available money after bills towards my loans.  I'm pretty happy with my progress given my salary (62k) and my financial obligations (kids, house).  I have a zero fee balance transfer offer for fifteen months of zero interest on one of my credit cards right now (I like to churn) so I'm planning on putting the last $4,000 there and cruising to the finish line interest free while going head first into my retirement plans.

Civex

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #17 on: January 30, 2020, 11:02:05 AM »
I'll join in, participating in the 2019 threat has helped be more aggressive about payoff.

Current balance:$28,208

Background: Started with just over $90k in student loans in 2014 after graduating. I immediately consolidated/refinanced into a single loan at 5.09% with a 25 year term and began making payments. I made the decision to pay the minimum (lately I've kinda regretted this) for 2 years post graduation while I aggressively invested and tried to build some equity. Instead of paying extra towards loans I maxed out Roth IRA+401k the year I graduated and the following year (first full year of employement) put away >$50k between 401k, Roth, and Mega Backdoor Roth. Doubled my payment from the minimum at the end of 2016 when I switched jobs and lost access the MBD Roth. Upped it again about a year later and got serious about taking it out in 2018. Refinanced to 3.95% through SoFi towards the end of 2019. Potential for payoff in 2020, realistic goal of 5/2021, with a "guaranteed" payoff of December 2021 if I continue the auto payments. Good luck everyone.

May 2014 (initial):$90k
January 2018:$64k
December 2018:$47k
December 2019:$28k
January 2019-$25,669
--$1250 auto payment + $1273 extra

PrezZaphod

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #18 on: February 01, 2020, 12:14:24 AM »
Spoiler: show
Here to keep myself accountable. This is the year I finish it.

Initial balances 6/1/2018
Private loan: ~$62,500 @ ~9%, refinanced immediately to $62,060 @ 4.8%
Direct subsidized loan: $5,000 @ 5.2%
Stafford loans: $20,000 @ ~4% (averaged across 4 distinct loans)
School endowment loan: $5,000 @ 0%, no repayment schedule
TOTAL: $92,500

---


1/1/20
Private loan balance: $11,800
Direct loan balance: $0
Stafford loan balance: $18,200
School loan balance: $5,000
TOTAL: $35,000

---

I got myself a $200/mo raise, and it's all going to loans. January will be a 5-check month, and with luck that'll take $4.2k off the private, and I'll be done with that one within the next few months and onto the federal loans. We'll see what the tax refund brings, but I think it'll be good news. Paying the private one off has felt like a year and half long fever dream, but I feel like I'm waking up to find I've gone and beaten the mountain to dust with my fists. Just a little longer now.

I'll be updating my balances monthly.


2/1/20
Private loan balance: $8,000 (-$3,800)
Direct loan balance: $0
Stafford loan balance: $18,000 (-$200)
School loan balance: $5,000
TOTAL: $31,000

MILESTONE: I have more money in the bank than I do outstanding balance on my private loan.
NEXT MONTH: 4 paychecks, and although I did get myself a raise, my max matching retirement contribution also went up. I'm not going to complain about that, given that it's free money, but it will set me back a bit. I'm cutting back on discretionary spending to try to maintain at least $3,000 in payments per month. Loan service is now a plurality of my spending.
« Last Edit: February 03, 2020, 09:03:07 PM by PrezZaphod »

bcbaseballman

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #19 on: February 03, 2020, 07:34:39 AM »
1/1/2020: $23,396.66


2/3/2020: 22,522.75

Got a check back from insurance that was not expecting so all of that went straight to the loans!

TyGuy

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #20 on: February 05, 2020, 10:33:19 AM »

Student Loan Debt:

01/12/19: $43,762.76
02/01/19: $42,561.06 (-$1,201.70)
03/04/19: $41,418.69 (-$1,139.41)
07/05/19: $37,901.63 (-$3,517.06)
08/10/19: $36,673.79 (-$1,227.84)
09/01/19: $35,289.89 (-$1,383.90)
10/02/19: $33,624.85 (-$1,665.04)
11/04/19: $31,707.48 (-$1,917.37)
12/08/19: $30,043.85 (-$1,663.63)
01/03/20: $28,335.39 (-$1,708.46)
02/05/20: $26,625.37 (-$1,683.02)

Net Worth per Personal Capital:

03/04/19: -$30,065
07/05/19: -$21,711 ($8,294)
08/10/19: -$18,173 ($3,538)
09/01/19: -$12,615 ($5,558)
10/02/19: -$10,089 ($2,526)
11/04/19: -$6,559 ($3,530)
12/08/19: -$1,673 ($4,886)
12/22/19: $237 ($1,910) (First day of having a positive net worth)
01/03/20: $1,447 ($1,210)
02/05/20: $5,209 ($3,762)

Happy to see more folks joining the thread, welcome! Looks like there will be some serious progress here over the next year

ApacheStache

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #21 on: February 09, 2020, 02:42:08 PM »
I'll jump in on this challenge. I have another 12 months of school left but I'm hoping to have the majority of my loans wiped out by the end of the year.

My current loan balance:

02/09/2020: $25,784.05

TyGuy

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #22 on: February 10, 2020, 09:52:43 AM »
@ApacheStache Welcome! Can you provide some background on your situation (i.e. are you working full time while finishing school)?

ApacheStache

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #23 on: February 10, 2020, 08:33:26 PM »
@ApacheStache Welcome! Can you provide some background on your situation (i.e. are you working full time while finishing school)?

Absolutely! I'm currently working in my career field Full Time and going to school Full Time for my Bachelor's Degree. My loans are a combo of my Associate's Degree from a few years ago and my Bachelor's. The interest rates range from ~3.5% to ~6%. I'm choosing to focus on paying down my loans now because I don't want to be stuck with student loans should the economy take a tumble in the next few years and/or if my employer decides it's time for another round of layoffs.

$101,000/yr - Gross Income
  $10,100/yr - Contributing 10% to 401K (no match) until my loans are paid off, then I'm upping my contribution back to 30%
    $3,550/yr - Fully Contributing to HSA
    $6,000/yr - Fully Contributing to Roth IRA
    $2,600/mo - Goes toward my loans
    $6,000/yr - Goes toward my Emergency Fund. I'm replenishing and increasing my EF until I have a year's worth of expenses covered. Once that's covered I'll route these funds elsewhere

The remainder of the money goes toward the mortgage, vehicle expenses, pet expenses, food, discretionary, cellphone and personal investments (contributions to these are on hold while I pay my loans off).

regenaeb

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #24 on: February 20, 2020, 08:02:00 AM »
Joining in here. Making 2020 the year I make a serious dent in my student loan balance. Currently I am at 15,135.00
I have been paying on my loans for about 15 years now. I have always made my payments on time and have not been in a rush to pay them off because I was fortunate enough to refinance during a really low interest rate time in the history of student loans. My loan rate is 1.75%, so most of my monthly payment has been paying on my principal. But since my twins college is fully funded I decide to take what we were putting towards their college and add it to my monthly payments to get this paid off by 2022. Since making this my goal, I have been working extra hours and all the extra money I have also been putting towards the loan, so hoping by the end of this year to have it down even more then originally planned, but we shall see.

appleseed

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #25 on: February 20, 2020, 08:20:21 AM »
Joining in here. Making 2020 the year I make a serious dent in my student loan balance. Currently I am at 15,135.00
I have been paying on my loans for about 15 years now. I have always made my payments on time and have not been in a rush to pay them off because I was fortunate enough to refinance during a really low interest rate time in the history of student loans. My loan rate is 1.75%, so most of my monthly payment has been paying on my principal. But since my twins college is fully funded I decide to take what we were putting towards their college and add it to my monthly payments to get this paid off by 2022. Since making this my goal, I have been working extra hours and all the extra money I have also been putting towards the loan, so hoping by the end of this year to have it down even more then originally planned, but we shall see.
Welcome! I'm on a mission to pay off my husband's graduate loans this year, which are also 15 years old. Ugh!! I thought we had a good deal with the 2.625%, but you've got a great rate.

We've got just $2100 left, and I am counting the days!




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PrezZaphod

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #26 on: February 29, 2020, 03:52:43 PM »
Spoiler: show
Here to keep myself accountable. This is the year I finish it.

Initial balances 6/1/2018
Private loan: ~$62,500 @ ~9%, refinanced immediately to $62,060 @ 4.8%
Direct subsidized loan: $5,000 @ 5.2%
Stafford loans: $20,000 @ ~4% (averaged across 4 distinct loans)
School endowment loan: $5,000 @ 0%, no repayment schedule
TOTAL: $92,500

---


1/1/20
Private loan balance: $11,800
Direct loan balance: $0
Stafford loan balance: $18,200
School loan balance: $5,000
TOTAL: $35,000

---

I got myself a $200/mo raise, and it's all going to loans. January will be a 5-check month, and with luck that'll take $4.2k off the private, and I'll be done with that one within the next few months and onto the federal loans. We'll see what the tax refund brings, but I think it'll be good news. Paying the private one off has felt like a year and half long fever dream, but I feel like I'm waking up to find I've gone and beaten the mountain to dust with my fists. Just a little longer now.

I'll be updating my balances monthly.

---

2/1/20
Private loan balance: $8,000 (-$3,800)
Direct loan balance: $0
Stafford loan balance: $18,000 (-$200)
School loan balance: $5,000
TOTAL: $31,000

MILESTONE: I have more money in the bank than I do outstanding balance on my private loan.
NEXT MONTH: 4 paychecks, and although I did get myself a raise, my max matching retirement contribution also went up. I'm not going to complain about that, given that it's free money, but it will set me back a bit. I'm cutting back on discretionary spending to try to maintain at least $3,000 in payments per month. Loan service is now a plurality of my spending.


3/1/20
Private loan balance: $5,400 (-$2,700)
Direct loan balance: $0
Stafford loan balance: $17,900 (-$200) (chalk it up to rounding)
School loan balance: $5,000
TOTAL: $28,300

MILESTONE: Net worth is above the -$10k mark. Over 90% of the private loan is paid off after 21 months.
NEXT MONTH: 4 paychecks and a ~$1,300 tax refund. I'm also out about $800 on plane tickets that should get reimbursed next month. Hopefully a bit of cash for my birthday as well. With a bit of luck (and maybe some slight overspending), I may be able to straight-up KO the private loan.
« Last Edit: February 29, 2020, 04:45:22 PM by PrezZaphod »

bcbaseballman

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #27 on: March 02, 2020, 07:10:41 AM »
1/1/2020: $23,396.66
2/3/2020: $22,522.75


3/2/2020: $ 20,655.42

I did pay off one of my loans completely this month. so I am now down to only 4 total.
« Last Edit: March 02, 2020, 07:12:16 AM by bcbaseballman »

mckaylabaloney

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #28 on: March 02, 2020, 08:14:57 AM »
1/1/2020: $142,413.58
2/1/2020: $142,664.65 (I refinanced in January so didn't make any payments that month while the loan was processing)
3/1/2020: $138,476.52

That's $1900 of extra payments in February (on top of my ~$2500 minimum monthly payment).

regenaeb

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #29 on: March 02, 2020, 08:55:58 AM »
December 31, 2019 - $ 16,065.31
January 31, 2020 - $ 15,512.72
February 29, 2020 - $ 14,869.92

Feels great to see that number coming down. Had a good month, worked some extra hours and kept my monthly spending in check. Hope to add even more this next month.

eav

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #30 on: March 02, 2020, 10:29:57 AM »
January 2020: $11,002
March 2020: $8,403 - Put entire tax refund toward loans.

With recent market conditions and this loan being 3% interest, I'm going to favor investing and slow pay this at 390/mo. for the rest of the year. I'll re-evaluate if I want to do a lump sum payment at that time.


TyGuy

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #31 on: March 03, 2020, 09:19:43 AM »
Student Loan Debt:

01/12/19: $43,762.76
02/01/19: $42,561.06 (-$1,201.70)
03/04/19: $41,418.69 (-$1,139.41)
07/05/19: $37,901.63 (-$3,517.06)
08/10/19: $36,673.79 (-$1,227.84)
09/01/19: $35,289.89 (-$1,383.90)
10/02/19: $33,624.85 (-$1,665.04)
11/04/19: $31,707.48 (-$1,917.37)
12/08/19: $30,043.85 (-$1,663.63)
01/03/20: $28,335.39 (-$1,708.46)
02/05/20: $26,625.37 (-$1,683.02)
03/03/20: $24,941.42 (-$1,710.95)

Net Worth per Personal Capital:

03/04/19: -$30,065
07/05/19: -$21,711 ($8,294)
08/10/19: -$18,173 ($3,538)
09/01/19: -$12,615 ($5,558)
10/02/19: -$10,089 ($2,526)
11/04/19: -$6,559 ($3,530)
12/08/19: -$1,673 ($4,886)
12/22/19: $237 ($1,910) (First day of having a positive net worth)
01/03/20: $1,447 ($1,210)
02/05/20: $5,209 ($3,762)
03/03/20: $5,821 ($612)

The stock market dip lead to a minimal increase in overall net worth this past month, but I continue to make steady progress on my student loans. Should see a large increase this next month with tax returns on the way and markets starting out low. Keep up the great work everyone!

Civex

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #32 on: March 07, 2020, 10:31:48 AM »
May 2014 (initial):$90k
January 2018:$64k
December 2018:$47k
December 2019:$28k
January 2019-$25,669
--$1250 auto payment + $1273 extra
February 2019-$24400
--$1250 autpayment & $108 extra

Our vacation and paying some work expenses that haven't been reimbursed yet cut into the extra, but should be able to put an extra $1k towards the end of March or beginning of April when I get reimbursed

bcbaseballman

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #33 on: March 25, 2020, 01:18:46 PM »
1/1/2020: $23,396.66
2/3/2020: $22,522.75
3/2/2020: $ 20,655.42


3/25/2020: $14,885.66

with these not accumulating any interest figured I would go ahead and post this now instead of waiting until the beginning of next month. Got a good size bonus that I was not expecting.
I am changing my goals for the year from paying 12k off to having 20k paid off. with a stretch goal of having them completely finished!




PrezZaphod

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #34 on: March 30, 2020, 07:44:31 PM »
Spoiler: show
Here to keep myself accountable. This is the year I finish it.

Initial balances 6/1/2018
Private loan: ~$62,500 @ ~9%, refinanced immediately to $62,060 @ 4.8%
Direct subsidized loan: $5,000 @ 5.2%
Stafford loans: $20,000 @ ~4% (averaged across 4 distinct loans)
School endowment loan: $5,000 @ 0%, no repayment schedule
TOTAL: $92,500

---

1/1/20
Private loan balance: $11,800
Direct loan balance: $0
Stafford loan balance: $18,200
School loan balance: $5,000
TOTAL: $35,000

---

I got myself a $200/mo raise, and it's all going to loans. January will be a 5-check month, and with luck that'll take $4.2k off the private, and I'll be done with that one within the next few months and onto the federal loans. We'll see what the tax refund brings, but I think it'll be good news. Paying the private one off has felt like a year and half long fever dream, but I feel like I'm waking up to find I've gone and beaten the mountain to dust with my fists. Just a little longer now.

I'll be updating my balances monthly.

---

2/1/20
Private loan balance: $8,000 (-$3,800)
Direct loan balance: $0
Stafford loan balance: $18,000 (-$200)
School loan balance: $5,000
TOTAL: $31,000

MILESTONE: I have more money in the bank than I do outstanding balance on my private loan.
NEXT MONTH: 4 paychecks, and although I did get myself a raise, my max matching retirement contribution also went up. I'm not going to complain about that, given that it's free money, but it will set me back a bit. I'm cutting back on discretionary spending to try to maintain at least $3,000 in payments per month. Loan service is now a plurality of my spending.

---

3/1/20
Private loan balance: $5,400 (-$2,700)
Direct loan balance: $0
Stafford loan balance: $17,900 (-$200) (chalk it up to rounding)
School loan balance: $5,000
TOTAL: $28,300

MILESTONE: Net worth is above the -$10k mark. Over 90% of the private loan is paid off after 21 months.
NEXT MONTH: 4 paychecks and a ~$1,300 tax refund. I'm also out about $800 on plane tickets that should get reimbursed next month. Hopefully a bit of cash for my birthday as well. With a bit of luck (and maybe some slight overspending), I may be able to straight-up KO the private loan.


4/1/20 (or close enough)

Private loan balance: $2,600 (-$2,800)
Direct loan balance: $0
Stafford loan balance: $17,700 (-$200)
School loan balance: $5,000
TOTAL: $25,300

Tax refund didn't come in yet; state tax board said they couldn't verify my withholding. Hopefully it'll be fixed by... June, I guess. FFS. And I screwed up my calculations for my federal student loan interest deduction, which brought the federal side of my refund down to like $100. Also, I got a big ol' nothing for my birthday. Plane ticket reimbursements aren't in either, so I'm carrying the balance on long-term spending. Also, I'm going to qualify for the full stimulus this year, but I'm only going to get half of it up front. On the plus side, I'm still employed, and likely to continue being. Count my blessings, right?

MILESTONE: None, really. Unfortunate, but so it goes. Next month will be big though!
NEXT MONTH: Five paychecks! The private loan will be gone, and with a bit of luck my net worth will end up above $0. I'm really excited for it.

Also, a note to anyone in the thread with federal loans: I called my loan provider today and they said they'd be setting auto-payments to $0 automatically while interest is waived, that the zero rates would be backdated to March 13, and that all payments applied to interest past that date would be retroactively applied to the principal. They did NOT indicate that they'd try to refund any auto-payments already made.

Bettersafe

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #35 on: March 31, 2020, 01:57:47 AM »
Late to the party I guess...


My student loan is a 0% interest one so I only pay the principal at the moment. With corona in our world I decided against paying it off entirely this year and buff up the EF instead. I've 10,596.17 left of some 36,000.00. End of next year the interest is up for renewal. Depending on interest I may pay it off at once at that moment (5,651.30) out of my EF or let it run for another 2 years and be done with it (it should be payed of by then no matter what).

Great progress here, so inspiring to see! Keep up the good work y'all!

regenaeb

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #36 on: March 31, 2020, 10:22:16 AM »
December 31, 2019 - $ 16,065.31
January 31, 2020 - $ 15,512.72
February 29, 2020 - $ 14,869.92
March 31, 2020 - $ 13,997.65

This month was a good month for paying extra on the loan. Not sure if this can continue with the current economic situation. I am still working 40 hours and even getting extra hours. We had many jobs under contract before COVID-19 started here in the US that we have been overwhelmed with work and playing catch up. But in June or July when all this work is caught up and no new contracts in April or May, my hours will probably be cut. So instead of adding a lot of extra in the next month or so I am going to add it to savings instead and hold it. If I end up still working regularly through the summer, I can make a large lump payment at the end of August. But I have been down this road before with Hurricane Irma/Maria (my job is located in FL) and work dried up for about 2 months, so I am preparing now. After Irma/Maria, I became a substitute for our school system, which was great to fall back on, but now even the schools are out, so that is not a revenue stream for me until next Fall at least.

penguintroopers

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #37 on: March 31, 2020, 12:44:49 PM »
Adding ourselves to the group of "waiting out the COVID storm". My hours were cut to 35 last week and now 30 this week. Hubs office is all WFH and sounds like they have enough work to be ok for a little while, but other firms have already started layoffs so we're just going to set us in a holding pattern.

Crossing our fingers that we just pile up cash, things get better, and we can chuck the balance at the loan in a few months and be done around August like we planned.

TyGuy

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #38 on: April 03, 2020, 10:09:27 AM »
Student Loan Debt:

01/12/19: $43,762.76
02/01/19: $42,561.06 (-$1,201.70)
03/04/19: $41,418.69 (-$1,139.41)
07/05/19: $37,901.63 (-$3,517.06)
08/10/19: $36,673.79 (-$1,227.84)
09/01/19: $35,289.89 (-$1,383.90)
10/02/19: $33,624.85 (-$1,665.04)
11/04/19: $31,707.48 (-$1,917.37)
12/08/19: $30,043.85 (-$1,663.63)
01/03/20: $28,335.39 (-$1,708.46)
02/05/20: $26,625.37 (-$1,683.02)
03/03/20: $24,941.42 (-$1,710.95)
04/03/20: $23,233.85 (-$1,707.57)

Net Worth per Personal Capital:

03/04/19: -$30,065
07/05/19: -$21,711 ($8,294)
08/10/19: -$18,173 ($3,538)
09/01/19: -$12,615 ($5,558)
10/02/19: -$10,089 ($2,526)
11/04/19: -$6,559 ($3,530)
12/08/19: -$1,673 ($4,886)
12/22/19: $237 ($1,910) (First day of having a positive net worth)
01/03/20: $1,447 ($1,210)
02/05/20: $5,209 ($3,762)
03/03/20: $5,821 ($612)
04/03/20: $5,001 (-$820)

Student loan repayment progress remained steady this past month. I am looking forward to the next several months as I pass the halfway point of repayment for my loans and my loans that remain will have 0% interest due to the pandemic (small silver lining in this difficult time).

Civex

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #39 on: April 03, 2020, 01:30:13 PM »
May 2014 (initial):$90k
January 2018:$64k
December 2018:$47k
December 2019:$28k
January 2020-$25,669
--$1250 auto payment + $1273 extra
February 2020-$24400
--$1250 autpayment & $108 extra

Our vacation and paying some work expenses that haven't been reimbursed yet cut into the extra, but should be able to put an extra $1k towards the end of March or beginning of April when I get reimbursed
March 2020-$23,200
-$1250

No extra because my work expenses won't be reimbursed-work trip was canceled and I'm stuck with flight credits. Can't complain too much because I'm getting regular hours and haven't been laid off, but now I have ~$1k in flight credit that won't be used in the near future.

The $1250 is a double payment and I plan on keeping that up-we are debating on shoring up E-funds and/or refinancing our mortgage, so I don't know if I'll be throwing extra beyond that at the loan. Still targeting 5/21, but worse case scenario looks like 12/21. Good luck everyone!

Rimu05

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #40 on: April 14, 2020, 08:28:25 AM »
I couldn't be fully committed last year and just paid the minimum but next year is the year for me to chew mine out. Probably going to pay the minimum for a few months and then start throwing extra money.

Loan as of today - 24,871.7

I admit, I haven’t paid as much as I thought I would. I have also found out that due to Corona, my fed loans have been deferred until September which means, I can now pay off my credit card and be done with those first. Since, the loan is now at 0%, I will probably start paying extra in July.

bcbaseballman

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #41 on: April 22, 2020, 07:53:34 AM »
1/1/2020: $23,396.66
2/3/2020: $22,522.75
3/2/2020: $ 20,655.42
3/25/2020: $14,885.66


4/22/2020: $13,455.66


regenaeb

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #42 on: April 30, 2020, 07:46:08 AM »
December 31, 2019 - $ 16,065.31
January 31, 2020 - $ 15,512.72
February 29, 2020 - $ 14,869.92
March 31, 2020 - $ 13,997.65
April 30, 2020 - $ 13,517.38

Still working extra hours, but instead of paying extra I am holding cash for when my work falls off this summer. It's been very hard to hold the cash, I have a good amount and I want to really just pay a big chunk on the loan off, but have to keep it for the rainy day that is coming in June/July/August. At least I am still hitting my goal of paying double my payment amount each month. My interest rate is ridiculously low, so it makes sense to just keep paying my extra payment for now until we see what the Fall holds for us. We are moving this summer so there will be added expenses (we are military and do not have a choice of moving).

PrezZaphod

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #43 on: April 30, 2020, 09:21:10 PM »
Spoiler: show
Here to keep myself accountable. This is the year I finish it.

Initial balances 6/1/2018
Private loan: ~$62,500 @ ~9%, refinanced immediately to $62,060 @ 4.8%
Direct subsidized loan: $5,000 @ 5.2%
Stafford loans: $20,000 @ ~4% (averaged across 4 distinct loans)
School endowment loan: $5,000 @ 0%, no repayment schedule
TOTAL: $92,500

---

1/1/20
Private loan balance: $11,800
Direct loan balance: $0
Stafford loan balance: $18,200
School loan balance: $5,000
TOTAL: $35,000

---

I got myself a $200/mo raise, and it's all going to loans. January will be a 5-check month, and with luck that'll take $4.2k off the private, and I'll be done with that one within the next few months and onto the federal loans. We'll see what the tax refund brings, but I think it'll be good news. Paying the private one off has felt like a year and half long fever dream, but I feel like I'm waking up to find I've gone and beaten the mountain to dust with my fists. Just a little longer now.

I'll be updating my balances monthly.

---

2/1/20
Private loan balance: $8,000 (-$3,800)
Direct loan balance: $0
Stafford loan balance: $18,000 (-$200)
School loan balance: $5,000
TOTAL: $31,000

MILESTONE: I have more money in the bank than I do outstanding balance on my private loan.
NEXT MONTH: 4 paychecks, and although I did get myself a raise, my max matching retirement contribution also went up. I'm not going to complain about that, given that it's free money, but it will set me back a bit. I'm cutting back on discretionary spending to try to maintain at least $3,000 in payments per month. Loan service is now a plurality of my spending.

---

3/1/20
Private loan balance: $5,400 (-$2,700)
Direct loan balance: $0
Stafford loan balance: $17,900 (-$200) (chalk it up to rounding)
School loan balance: $5,000
TOTAL: $28,300

MILESTONE: Net worth is above the -$10k mark. Over 90% of the private loan is paid off after 21 months.
NEXT MONTH: 4 paychecks and a ~$1,300 tax refund. I'm also out about $800 on plane tickets that should get reimbursed next month. Hopefully a bit of cash for my birthday as well. With a bit of luck (and maybe some slight overspending), I may be able to straight-up KO the private loan.

---

4/1/20 (or close enough)

Private loan balance: $2,600 (-$2,800)
Direct loan balance: $0
Stafford loan balance: $17,700 (-$200)
School loan balance: $5,000
TOTAL: $25,300

Tax refund didn't come in yet; state tax board said they couldn't verify my withholding. Hopefully it'll be fixed by... June, I guess. FFS. And I screwed up my calculations for my federal student loan interest deduction, which brought the federal side of my refund down to like $100. Also, I got a big ol' nothing for my birthday. Plane ticket reimbursements aren't in either, so I'm carrying the balance on long-term spending. Also, I'm going to qualify for the full stimulus this year, but I'm only going to get half of it up front. On the plus side, I'm still employed, and likely to continue being. Count my blessings, right?

MILESTONE: None, really. Unfortunate, but so it goes. Next month will be big though!
NEXT MONTH: Five paychecks! The private loan will be gone, and with a bit of luck my net worth will end up above $0. I'm really excited for it.

Also, a note to anyone in the thread with federal loans: I called my loan provider today and they said they'd be setting auto-payments to $0 automatically while interest is waived, that the zero rates would be backdated to March 13, and that all payments applied to interest past that date would be retroactively applied to the principal. They did NOT indicate that they'd try to refund any auto-payments already made.


5/1/20
Private loan balance: $0 (-$2,600)
Direct loan balance: $0
Stafford loan balance: $10,400 (-$7,300)
School loan balance: $5,000
TOTAL: $15,400

Tax refund still not here; trip reimbursement still not here. Stimulus, or at least 3/4 of it, did arrive, so there's that at least. Parents finally paid me back that $5,000. I'm not gonna have a month like this ever again, but DAMN does it feel good.

MILESTONE: Above $0 net worth. Private loan paid in full. One federal loan paid in full.
NEXT MONTH: 4 paychecks, and my tax return should (finally) be here. Second federal loan paid in full.
« Last Edit: April 30, 2020, 09:33:36 PM by PrezZaphod »

appleseed

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #44 on: May 01, 2020, 12:14:48 PM »
Wow @PrezZaphod - amazing progress! Receiving the letter in the mail that the loan is paid in full is so satisfying.

We've paid off 2/4 of my husband's graduate loans. I thought we'd qualify for the 0% interest, but they're FFELP loans and bank owned. I would've kept paying anyways, but the lower interest would've been nice.

We are very much in the home stretch.

Total balance of two loans is $1,291.81. I was not planning on adding anything else last month, but I did have some refunds come through that I wasn't expecting for activities and events we prepaid for that were cancelled, so I donated some back to the orgs (nonprofits) and used the rest on the loans.

We're anticipating a stimulus check, but I think that is going into savings/emergency fund. I would love to just pay these off, and if I pick up another freelance job I might do so - although I am looking at less than 8 more monthly payments at our regular payment, so by the of this year for sure. Phew.

Hope everyone out there is healthy and safe.

TyGuy

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #45 on: May 04, 2020, 12:52:43 PM »
Student Loans:

01/12/19: $43,762.76
02/01/19: $42,561.06 (-$1,201.70)
03/04/19: $41,418.69 (-$1,139.41)
07/05/19: $37,901.63 (-$3,517.06)
08/10/19: $36,673.79 (-$1,227.84)
09/01/19: $35,289.89 (-$1,383.90)
10/02/19: $33,624.85 (-$1,665.04)
11/04/19: $31,707.48 (-$1,917.37)
12/08/19: $30,043.85 (-$1,663.63)
01/03/20: $28,335.39 (-$1,708.46)
02/05/20: $26,652.37 (-$1,683.02)
03/03/20: $24,941.42 (-$1,710.95)
04/03/20: $23,233.85 (-$1,707.57)
05/04/20: $21,456.11 (-$1,777.74)


Net Worth per Personal Capital:

03/04/19: -$30,065
07/05/19: -$21,711 ($8,294)
08/10/19: -$18,173 ($3,538)
09/01/19: -$12,615 ($5,558)
10/02/19: -$10,089 ($2,526)
11/04/19: -$6,559 ($3,530)
12/08/19: -$1,673 ($4,886)
12/22/19: $237 ($1,910) (First day of having a positive net worth)
01/03/20: $1,447 ($1,210)
02/02/20: $5,209 ($3,762)
03/03/20: $5,821 ($612)
04/03/20: $5,001 (-$820)
05/04/20: $10,739 ($5,738)


Payed off my largest, and highest interest rate loan this past month. The remainder of my loans have no interest until the fall so I will be making only small payments until then and may pay a large lump sum when interest rates resumes in the fall. Additionally, with my remaining loans having interest rates under 4%, I may end up paying them at a slower rate in order to optimize increases in net worth, but likely won't make any decisions until the fall. Keep up the good work everyone!

clarkfan1979

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #46 on: May 13, 2020, 08:38:36 PM »
I left grad school ABD in August 2011 for my first faculty job. I had 56.5K of students loans and a rental house with 80K of equity. My net worth was positive around 26K. My wife to be (Married = August 2012) had a negative net worth around -26K, so we were at zero.

Fast forward 9 years and my student loans were reduced from 56.5K to 26.5K. Progress was slow because we choose to fund real estate. Our current net worth is around 742K. I'm currently paying $650/month on my student loans.

I'm waiting to hit one million net worth before paying off my students loans. I think that should happen in about 3 years.

TyGuy

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #47 on: May 14, 2020, 01:58:38 PM »
I left grad school ABD in August 2011 for my first faculty job. I had 56.5K of students loans and a rental house with 80K of equity. My net worth was positive around 26K. My wife to be (Married = August 2012) had a negative net worth around -26K, so we were at zero.

Fast forward 9 years and my student loans were reduced from 56.5K to 26.5K. Progress was slow because we choose to fund real estate. Our current net worth is around 742K. I'm currently paying $650/month on my student loans.

I'm waiting to hit one million net worth before paying off my students loans. I think that should happen in about 3 years.

First of all, welcome! It is nice to have someone on the other end of the spectrum in regards to net worth here. Seems your student loans are "pocket change" in the grand scheme of things. Might I ask what type of real estate investments you have made? @clarkfan1979

clarkfan1979

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #48 on: May 15, 2020, 02:17:04 PM »
Some people like to focus on being debt free. Others focus on building wealth. I think it's a personal decision. My path since 2007 has been on building wealth.

I bought my first primary residence in May 2007. We (my wife and I) bought our 4th primary residence in November 2019. When we moved, instead of selling the house, we just rented it out. It's work, but it's totally worth it for us.

If I focused on paying off student loans first, our net worth would probably be around 200K to 300K, instead of 740K.

After grad school in Colorado, we moved to Florida for my first academic job in August 2011. We bought a single family home (3 bed/2 bath) for 95K in January 2012. Our PITI was $650/month. To rent the same house, it would cost $1,200/month in 2012. When we left in 2015, market rent would have been $1,600/month. To rent a 2 bedroom condo, it would have cost $1,000/month in 2012 and when we left in 2015 the market rent would have been $1,200/month. The rent to buy ratio was super unbalanced and it made much more sense to buy a house and make the minimum payments on the student loans. We now rent that house out for $1850/month and it's worth about 250K.




bcbaseballman

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Re: Student Loan Challenge (2020 Edition)
« Reply #49 on: May 26, 2020, 08:00:47 AM »

1/1/2020: $23,396.66
2/3/2020: $22,522.75
3/2/2020: $ 20,655.42
3/25/2020: $14,885.66
4/22/2020: $13,455.66

5/26/2020: 11,755.66

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!