Let’s Talk About Debt and Celebrating the Small Victories
When all was said and done with student loans, I had -$32k in debt. A number that terrified me, still does to some extent. After my grace period ends, with that amount of debt, my lender estimated that my minimum monthly payments were going to be ~$330. That number wasn’t any prettier, and frankly I hated it, so did my hubby (although we weren’t married yet). Starting in January, we did the obvious thing and started throwing everything we could spare towards it.
To date, this is what we’ve shoved at my student loans:
| Date | Payment |
| January 1 | 200 |
| January 10 | 483.43 |
| January 27 | 200 |
| February 1 | 200 |
| February 13 | 200 |
| February 24 | 500.81 |
| March 2 | 300 |
| March 9 | 200 |
| March 12 | 150 |
| March 20 | 200 |
| March 27 | 150 |
| April 3 | 5 |
| April 11 | 400 |
| May 2 | 5 |
| May 16 | 50 |
| July 7 | 500 |
| August 7 | 500 |
| August 22 | 50 |
| Total | 4294.24 |
To be honest, at first, I was really disappointed by this number. I wanted it to be bigger. I wanted to have a crazy success story “I paid off all my loans two months after college graduation because I’m BA”, but honestly, that’s not my story.
Actually, that’s my husband’s story. But he got the benefit of cashing in Amazon shares that had been sitting for him since he was little thanks to his family. And that’s amazing and has totally helped us the heck out. But I hear stories like that, (I watch people live stories like that), and it’s frustrating. Super, exceptionally frustrating.
Because I’m not getting there that quickly. I’m not even making the pacing goals I set out for myself. Before we got married, we were chucking large amounts towards my loans each month, and we were actually ahead of where I wanted us to be, which is to have 10k put towards debt in the year. Throw in a marriage and the huge shift in lifestyle that comes with it, and now we’re $2372.43 behind where I wanted us to be.
But, and here’s what I’ve been struggling with, that’s okay. I had been grandiose plans to be debt free in 3 years, and you know what, that’s still possible. If I got a full-time job with benefits, then we could take the money we currently pay for my health insurance and shove it at loans. That’d be an extra $600 a month. And boom, debt free in three. (See, doesn’t it have such a nice ring to it).
But even if that doesn’t happen, and if we keep heading down the path we are, it’ll take 5 years, not 3, that’s okay. Because it’s about the long climb to victory. I want to be out of debt, and I want to be out of debt now, but there comes a point where our budget breaks if we push too much towards our debt. And there comes a point where you have to step back and realize how far you’ve come.
When we first started paying off my student loans, the minimum monthly payment estimation was $330. Now, it’s $294. By just throwing what we could towards the debt, we’ve lowered my monthly average by $36. That $36 is almost enough to sponsor another kid through Compassion International. That $36 is enough for a really nice dinner date once a month.
Now, obviously, that $36 is just being thrown at debt. We’re putting $500 a month towards student loans for the rest of the year, and then we’re reassessing come January.
For me, progress is impossible to see when I’m 28k away from where I want to be. But that $36 is just that, progress. It’s progress towards financial freedom, and progress towards a better life. It’s a light at the end of the tunnel that’s reminding me I’m going somewhere. I’m making headway. I’m reclaiming my life.
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[…] Life was more expensive (thanks healthcare), and our priorities changed. But the last two months we’ve chucked $600/mo towards those suckers, and we’ll be on track to hit 7.5k down by Dec 31st. It’s not quite the 10k I was hoping for. […]
This is reality… and it’s inspiring. The reality is that most people don’t pay off all their debt quickly and most people DO go into debt for college. Your story of taking small steps and it actually getting you somewhere, is hope giving to people like me (a person on the verge of graduating).
Thanks! Honestly, I was so overwhelmed by how much I had that I hadn’t seen how far I’d come, and how much my husband and I have worked to make debt repayment a goal of ours. Reviewing the year’s debt repayment even though we’re not through the year has really been essential in helping my personal confidence about our debt repayment journey. Otherwise, it would be so so so overwhelming.