Skip to main content

So After Five Years, THIS Happened:

Something big happened earlier in October and I wanted to share it here, especially for those who've stuck around since the summer of 2017 when we started this journey:



That right there is our student loan balance. Let's take a closer look:




And please note that it is now



ZEROOOOOOOOOOOOO.

(Okay, actually -$1.02, and Mohela says they will be sending us a refund check for that amount. Whatever will we DO with our newfound fortune)

That's right. The student loan that has clung to us like an ultra-persistent leech for the past 20 years is gone.

What's more, we are finally, FINALLY

[[[Drum rolllllllllllll]]]

DEBT FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Here's a graph of our debt payoff in the context of big life events such as medical emergencies, job changes (including my Big Quit back in April 2019), and a global pandemic. The x-axis represents month/year (with June and December shown). The y-axis represents total debt in thousands of dollars:



Five years, people! FIVE! That's a long time.

And trust me, it FELT like a long time.

As you can see, we made rapid progress in the first year before hitting a 2.5-year slump during which we had multiple job changes (green = me, orange = my partner). During the height of the pandemic, we were able to save about $30K in our low-interest savings account, thanks in part to the stimulus money. Once we were sort of convinced that the worst was behind us, we used a big chunk of that to pay off part of our last remaining student loan this past spring. 

We still had about $8500 left to go as of the end of this summer, and after weeks of hemming and hawing about it, I finally asked a family member if they would gift us enough money to wipe it all out. (Note that the loan did not qualify in any way for federal debt relief, which we've known for a long time.) I was stubbornly determined that we would pay off our debt without extra help. But once my child was diagnosed with diabetes, I realized that it is absolutely okay to seek support. Doing so would allow us to focus on ensuring that his and our healthcare needs were met, which is way more important than trying to maintain some sort of self-enforced pride in going it alone.

We were fully prepared for them to say no and for us to move on without a grudge, but they said yes right away and so we made it happen. 

I have more to say about paying off $76K, and definitely more to say about federal student loan debt relief and WHY IT IS AN AWESOME THING, but for now, I'll wrap it up with this:

We used to be $75,000 in debt, but we've paid it off. The $22,000+ in credit card debt? Gone. The $53,000+ in student loan debt? Eliminated. Kicking our debt out the door took a lot of discipline, patience, and a long-term mindset. The process wasn't always easy, nor did it always go as planned. We've made some mistakes. We've had some setbacks. Ultimately, though, we stuck with it. Now we live in place we love, and we're not saddled with hundreds of dollars in debt payments every month. We persisted. We're free. 

Comments

  1. 76!!!!!!!!!!! This is the best news I've seen in a long long time!! Congratulations, and thank you so much for sharing your story along the way. So blessed to have you among our friend group 💙

    ReplyDelete
  2. CONGRATS!!!! That's so amazing and it must be such a relief. Good on your for asking for support and so wonderful that the answer was yes 💖! This warms my heart. I wish you all the best and your kid the best access to the right healthcare services to manage his diabetes safely!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm happy for you. Congratulations. Sue H.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Congratulations! I've been following your blog/twitter for a long time and am so glad to see this news. I should have another two years and I will be debt-free, too. Your story gives me hope. Bravo!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Long time follower here - I'm so happy to read this update! It took us 4+ long and hard years to be rid of ours and I like think if it had been faster/easier I might have not ended up as resolute as I am about NEVER slipping back into that situation. I'm sure you feel the same way. Enjoy your freedom!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Congratulations!! I am so happy for you!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fall 2022 Post-Debt Expenses Breakdown

Now that we've finished paying off our debt (I'm still over the moon about it, I really am), I've been working on an updated list of our household expenses for the current quarter. This season of the year is typically our spendiest, thanks to two birthdays, our anniversary, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  We try to restrain ourselves when it comes to presents, but even when we're conservative and limit ourselves to 1-2 gifts per person, we always seem to veer away from true frugality (and frankly, I'm at the point now where I'm not going to forego gift-giving in my immediate family just to save a little money).  Although the topic of expenses might seem a bit boring, I've found it useful to track how they've changed over time. And I know that even with no debts to service, we're spending more than we used to , partly because our needs have changed and partly because of inflation (I'm looking at you, grocery bill and rent!) Here's what our month

Work: Caring Less Until They Let Me Care More

I've been at my current company for more than 1.5 years. It's a record for me. In the past, I've lasted a year on average before calling it quits for one reason or another (documented extensively in my posts tagged as "work"). My current job isn't exactly a passion of mine. I took it because it was the only thing I could get at the end of 2020, when the job market was still in pretty rough shape thanks to the pandemic. It's dull. Most of the time I feel like Helly in the show  Severance  as she slouches at her computer and drops numbers into bins for eight hours a day for reasons unbeknownst to anyone but the powers that be.  I made it through my first year at my company as an underpaid customer service rep mostly because I had a supportive boss and collaborative teammates. Last December, after a frustrating negotiation in which it was made clear to me that I am a mere cog in the giant company wheel, I was promoted to a new (but still tedious) role with a