Over at Girl with the Red Balloon, she announced that she just recently paid off the rest of her loans, and she’s now completely debt free! Go over there and congratulate her. I honestly can’t stop thinking about this, because I bet this is such a great feeling. I am extremely jealous, but I know I am close (ok I am not close when it comes to my mortgage though).
She talks about how she did some extreme things to save money and pay off debt faster, such as eating very cheaply. But she was also super determined in paying off all of her loans. I’ve always admired how determined she was with the whole process, and I wish I would buckle down more and do this.
I do wish I would’ve graduated without debt. I worked full-time in high school and while in college I worked full-time the entire time as well. I also had to live on my own due to my dad passing and this ate up a significant amount of the money that I made. I also had to (and I still am) support my mom and help her with bills. I did manage to pay off around half of my tuition bill each semester, so of course I would have more loans. The university I went to was around $30K a year (without room and board) and I also am attending an MBA program right now, so I’m not too down about being around $33K in debt for student loans when I have 2 business undergraduate degrees and I’m about to have my MBA as well.
I’ve talked about my goals related to my student loans a lot lately. I also talked about how I want my student loans to be decreased to around $20,000 by the end of this year. And I’ve talked about in my 5 year plan how I want them COMPLETELY gone by 2013.
Last time I said:
“Decrease my student loans to $20,000. I owe $27K right now, but I will probably take out about $5K for my 6 remaining classes (I’m going to pay the majority and then loans paying just a little bit). So that means that I will have to pay off around $12K in student loans this year. “
I’m guessing that my student loans will be gone by the end of 2013, or the beginning of 2014. I do not want to be one of those people that pay their loans for 20 years.”
I’ve also talked about my debt in this post and to summarize:
As of January 1, 2012, my debt was:
Student Loan Debt: $27,147.76
Car Loan: $2,200
Mortgage: $114,136 (this is an estimate)
Credit Card: $0
Total Debt: $143,483.76
However, I have added around $4,000 more in loans to my student loan debt total. No one hurt me please! It doesn’t gain interest until 6 months after I get my MBA, so I’m not too upset by that because I plan on paying off my debt relatively fast, so too much interest should not build up. I could’ve used cash but I want to pay off my car first so that I could get rid of something that’s gaining interest at the moment.
I’m not sure how realistic having all of my student loans paid off by 2013 is, but I am about 80% positive that I can do this. It will be about $1,500 a month until the end of 2013, but in 2013 I am pretty sure that I can contribute higher amounts towards my loans.
My grace period of no interest won’t begin until the beginning of 2013, or if for some sad reason I cannot graduate until December of 2012, then I won’t have to start paying interest until June of 2013. So I do not expect too much interest to be building up.
Right now I have one student loan that gains interest. The interest rate is around 4.5% and this is the only student loan I am paying off right now, and I’m hoping that it will be gone relatively soon.
I would like to do more frugal things to pay off my debt faster. But there are certain things in life that I can’t help but spend my money on. Now I could do all of these things, but I honestly think that if I crossed the line of frugality and into cheapo land, that I would go insane. I’m not saying certain things don’t work for everyone, different routines for different people! I know some of you are probably still thinking about my traveling budget and how I could eliminate this. But I don’t think traveling is something I can give up.
Things I have thought about and could do:
Eat more cheaply. I could definitely limit this and then probably contribute around a couple hundred more towards my debt.
Restrict my clothing shopping. My shopping is definitely a lot better than what it used to be. I don’t spend a ton. But I would like to start selling stuff in my closet and hopefully breaking even with my clothing spending for at least most of the months in 2012. I know I have enough in my closet to do this, so here’s to hoping!
Decrease my entertainment budget. My budget for this is still a little high, but it’s definitely not as bad before I started my blog. I didn’t realize how much I was spending on having fun until I started telling all of you and when I put the numbers in front of me, it terrified me.
I can’t wait until my student loans and all of my loans are gone. I’ll be able to spend money on the things that I want and hopefully retire super young. I can’t wait until I have that free feeling.
What things are you doing so that you can pay off your loans faster? How much in student loans do you have?
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