Student Loan Challenge (2021 and Beyond)

[Rimu05]

I thought I would crush these last year but once the interest was dropped. I barely touched my loan. I am hoping this year to at least lower by $10,000. Current balance is about $24,000

Update: $23,760.22

Been a while, but update: $20,846.18

I finally made it under $20,000. I swear if I don't finish this off next year, I will consider it a failure. My only New Years resolution is to be debt free.

19,940.98

Let me keep better track here. Goal is debt free by May. I was targeting April but trying to be realistic now. I took basically money from my savings to kick start the journey.

Dec - 19,940.98
Jan 2 - 15,940.98
Jan 21 - 14,000

[TyGuy]

@Rimu05 I'm excited to watch you clear your student loan debt over this next few months!

[Rimu05]

I thought I would crush these last year but once the interest was dropped. I barely touched my loan. I am hoping this year to at least lower by $10,000. Current balance is about $24,000

Update: $23,760.22

Been a while, but update: $20,846.18

I finally made it under $20,000. I swear if I don't finish this off next year, I will consider it a failure. My only New Years resolution is to be debt free.

19,940.98

Let me keep better track here. Goal is debt free by May. I was targeting April but trying to be realistic now. I took basically money from my savings to kick start the journey.

Dec - 19,940.98
Jan 2 - 15,940.98
Jan 21 - 14,000

Feb 15 - 13,548.
Student loan normally gets paid on the 15th so will be doing a March update soon.

[Rimu05]

I thought I would crush these last year but once the interest was dropped. I barely touched my loan. I am hoping this year to at least lower by $10,000. Current balance is about $24,000

Update: $23,760.22

Been a while, but update: $20,846.18

I finally made it under $20,000. I swear if I don't finish this off next year, I will consider it a failure. My only New Years resolution is to be debt free.

19,940.98

Let me keep better track here. Goal is debt free by May. I was targeting April but trying to be realistic now. I took basically money from my savings to kick start the journey.

Dec - 19,940.98
Jan 2 - 15,940.98
Jan 21 - 14,000

Feb 15 - 13,548.
Student loan normally gets paid on the 15th so will be doing a March update soon.

Mar 21 - $0

Update, I used up my savings and got a small bonus from work so I am officially exiting this thread. I no longer have student loans.

[Log]

I thought I would crush these last year but once the interest was dropped. I barely touched my loan. I am hoping this year to at least lower by $10,000. Current balance is about $24,000

Update: $23,760.22

Been a while, but update: $20,846.18

I finally made it under $20,000. I swear if I don't finish this off next year, I will consider it a failure. My only New Years resolution is to be debt free.

19,940.98

Let me keep better track here. Goal is debt free by May. I was targeting April but trying to be realistic now. I took basically money from my savings to kick start the journey.

Dec - 19,940.98
Jan 2 - 15,940.98
Jan 21 - 14,000

Feb 15 - 13,548.
Student loan normally gets paid on the 15th so will be doing a March update soon.

Mar 21 - $0

Update, I used up my savings and got a small bonus from work so I am officially exiting this thread. I no longer have student loans.

Congrats!

[mckaylabaloney]

Way to go @Rimu05!

[diapasoun]

Loans are currently $17,186.45 as of the start of 2021. Paying the minimum gets me down to $11913.89; ideally, I'd like to get this down to $10k overall by the end of 2021, and maybe -- completely gone before the end of 2022? o_o

Currently sitting pretty at $16073.35. Progress!

Down to $14,797.02.

Nessa reminded me to update: now at $11,785.75! Everything I pay to loans from here on out is gorgeous extra payoff gravy. :3

I haven't made any excess payments in quite a while (throwing money towards a house fund instead! ahhhh!), but I'm sitting pretty at $9707.76.

[TyGuy]

Hoping to finish my loans off by years end with the help of funds from the student loan forgiveness. I hope others are also able to capitalize!

Current Student Loan Debt: $21,431
Forecast Forgiveness Amount: $20,000

[Rimu05]

I thought I would crush these last year but once the interest was dropped. I barely touched my loan. I am hoping this year to at least lower by $10,000. Current balance is about $24,000

Update: $23,760.22

Been a while, but update: $20,846.18

I finally made it under $20,000. I swear if I don't finish this off next year, I will consider it a failure. My only New Years resolution is to be debt free.

19,940.98

Let me keep better track here. Goal is debt free by May. I was targeting April but trying to be realistic now. I took basically money from my savings to kick start the journey.

Dec - 19,940.98
Jan 2 - 15,940.98
Jan 21 - 14,000

Feb 15 - 13,548.
Student loan normally gets paid on the 15th so will be doing a March update soon.

Mar 21 - $0

Update, I used up my savings and got a small bonus from work so I am officially exiting this thread. I no longer have student loans.

It seems I may qualify for debt cancellation so I have called and asked them to refund me back all my money. My income was low during the pandemic so hoping, I qualify for at least $10,000 of debt relief. As of now, back to having $20,000 in student loans.

[TyGuy]

@Rimu05  I hope for you as well, that you are able to receive the 10K!


I am hoping this will finally be the year to pay these loans off! If debt forgiveness does not happen, I have a large some of money currently in a high-yield savings account that I can use to pay off a significant portion of my remaining loan balance of $21,456. Best of luck to everyone else as you continue to pay down your debts!

[Log]

Well, my bank just keeps offering higher and higher interest rates on my savings account, and it's now at a higher rate than the vast majority of my student loans. So I'm feeling pretty good about totally ignoring my student loans this whole time...

[mckaylabaloney]

I just paid off my student loans! Graduated from law school nine years ago with ~$225,000 in student debt. Can hardly believe it's gone.

Cheering you all on too!

[Dicey]

I just paid off my student loans! Graduated from law school nine years ago with ~$225,000 in student debt. Can hardly believe it's gone.

Cheering you all on too!

Congratulations! Don't be a stranger. We're interested in what you're going to do next.

[mckaylabaloney]

Thank you @Dicey! My next step is actually a sabbatical to do some long-term travel. Part of me wonders if it's crazy to pause my pursuit of early retirement and to spend some time (a year, maybe?) spending a bunch of money in the middle of my career, but -- I'm going for it!

[Dicey]

Thank you @Dicey! My next step is actually a sabbatical to do some long-term travel. Part of me wonders if it's crazy to pause my pursuit of early retirement and to spend some time (a year, maybe?) spending a bunch of money in the middle of my career, but -- I'm going for it!

WooHoo! I was never able to pull that off because [pre-Obamacare], I couldn't be without health coverage. I just slogged my wat through to FIRE. I did take a month off once to go to AUS & NZ with a terminally ill friend. I also took a month to complete an Outward Bound cycling trip through Nova Scotia. Both were worth every moment of preparation and income lost, but what you're planning to do sounds amazing! You will not regret taking time off! I hope you'll take us along for the ride. Carpe diem!