Student Loans: The Great Payback

If you have ever met me, or have read back any amount of posts, you will know that I am obsessed with money and my student loans.  Well I am glad to finally tell you that the day has finally arrived, my students loans are paid off.

Can we just take a minute here.  I mean really.

You can bet I ate a huge cupcake for dinner after that.  And then dinner.  And then a dairy free soy based ice cream.

So for anyone who may also be struggling under the weight of bad decisions when you were 19, here is a quick breakdown of how I paid off my student loans 6 years early.

First being a VISTA helped- tremendously.  I don't make a lot of money monthly, but at the end of my service I will be awarded an additional Education Award.  That's $5,500 towards my student loans. So technically I still have a balance of $5,500 in my Sallie Mae account, but it's been deferred with no interest on my part. Then when my service is officially over, that extra check will be mailed in my name straight to Sallie Mae.  I make less each month sure, but that money would have been going towards my student loans anyway, so it all works out in the end.

Me in my VISTA getup

Second, three years ago I opened a savings account with paying back my loans specifically in mind.  Every time I had extra cash, or thought I had extra cash (I'll get to that in a second) I put it in that savings account.  Then each month, or every couple of months I would make additional payments to my loans out of this savings account.  These payments never replaced a regularly scheduled payment, they were additional payments.   Sometimes I would wait until I had a huge chunk of change and make one big payment, but sometimes little bits would turn into bigger bits really fast and I would make as many as 6 extra payments a month if I took on odd jobs or something.

Third, I got into the habit of spending money on myself.  When I had money burning a hole in my pocket or I got the hankering to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe, I would ask myself how much I was willing to spend on that item.  Would I feel comfortable spending $200 at Target right now?  Then that meant that I had too much money in my bank account and I would transfer that money into my savings.  Sure it sucked sometimes, but reality checks like that really helped turn my head around and got me to refocus my attention.

Finally, when the going got tough, I got a little crazy.  There for a few months, before I started as a VISTA, I had a goal of putting $1,000 a month towards my debt, and I got a little crazy.  I took on odd jobs, I had two yard sales, baby sat, baked, anything I could think of.  The purging helped me really look at what I was spending my money on, and the selling really helped me reach those goals.  Sometimes you just gotta dig deep and find the motivation to keep going, and if you dig up some cool stuff while you're at it, all the better.

Was it easy?  Nope.  I am very fortunate to have a wonderful husband who took on most of our financial responsibilities while I focused on my debt, and not everyone has that chance.  But slowly, very slowly, I was able to hack away at it.  And now, 4 years and a few months after I graduated with my degree I'll probably never use, I can finally say it's all over.

And now it may be time for a second cupcake...