by Matt Fildes
Happy Belated Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there that read this blog. All mothers are amazing in their own way. Here’s to you!!
I celebrated the Mother’s Day weekend up in the Buffalo. Instead of doing what I normally do for my Mother, which is buying a gift, I brought with me some fresh cut flowers and a note I wrote by hand thanking her for all that she done for me over the years and how much she appreciates it. It felt like small gesture (to me, anyway) but according to her, it was the best gift I’ve ever gotten her.She loved it so much she cried and hung the note on the fridge. I’m very happy that I took everybody’s advice and went with a more sentimental and thoughtful gift than one that I would have picked out in a hurry at Bed, Bath and Beyond or something.
How do you celebrate Mother’s Day- do you visit, call, or write your mother on Mother’s Day? And Mother’s- how do you wish to be celebrated? I see a lot of Facebook posts and tweets wishing their Mother a happy Mother’s Day (or birthday, or any other holiday), even if the person isn’t on the social networks. This just bothers me as it always feels disingenuous and more of a popularity/competition thing. Ugh. Is anyone else bothered by this, or is it just me?
As for Mother’s Day at our home, even though we don’t have kids, we do have “kids” (AKA dogs, lol). So we each do a little something for each other on our day. This year I made GF a little bag with some awesome smelling candles, and a card (each “from the kids” of course). I also made her dinner, took a nap with her (I seldom nap) and relaxed as we watched Game of Thrones. Nothing monumental, just a acknowledgement of how much I and “we” appreciate her.
As for my debt balances:
| Loan Name | Interest Rate | Original Balance- May '09 | Current Balance | Total Paid Off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sallie Mae 01 | 5.25 | $27,837.24 | $23,985.23 | $3,852.01 |
| Sallie Mae 02 | 4.75 | $22,197.02 | $18,820.44 | $3,376.58 |
| Sallie Mae 03 | 7.75 | $20,692.10 | $0.00 | $20,692.10 |
| Sallie Mae 04 | 5.75 | $10,350.18 | $7,407.64 | $2,942.54 |
| Sallie Mae 05 | 5.25 | $6,096.03 | $1,255.39 | $4,840.64 |
| Sallie Mae 06 and 07 | 4.75 | $6,415.09 | $0.00 | $6,415.09 |
| Sallie Mae- DOE 01 | 5.25 | $5,000.00 | $0.00 | $5,000.00 |
| Sallie Mae- DOE 02 | 5.25 | $3,000.00 | $0.00 | $3,000.00 |
| AES | 6.8 | $9,000.00 | $0.00 | $9,000.00 |
| TOTALS | $110,587.66 | $51,468.70 | $59,118.96 |
I’m so close to paying off #5, I can already feel it.
BTW- my feeling from last post (here) has passed. Yay! So I’m back in the mindset of hitting the debt (semi) hard. I have a real good feeling about my “fun” fund and setting that money aside to get me through. Thank you for all your support!
Have a great week!
You are blowing through #5! Nice work!
Thanks! Only a few more days!
You’ll have #5 gone in no time. I assume you’ll focus on #4 next? Do you have a date you’re projecting for paying off 4 and 5? At the pace you’re moving, it seems like the small balances will be knocked out this summer. Loans 1 and 2 will be longer pursuits, for sure.
How do minimum payments work as you pay off the smaller sub-loans? Does the overall minimum drop or does the minimum payment stay the same and just increases how much is put to the remaining loans?
Thanks walnut! This summer sometime I should have #4 gone. The projection is by September.
Yes the overall minimum drops since I never consolidated my loans into 1 super loan. Once I have #5 paid off, my minimum will drop below $400, which will feel amazing. And once #4 is paid off, it will drop below $300, doubly amazing. Navient actually recalculates my minimum on loans not paid off every 3-4 months, so the minimums on 1 and 2 should drop, as well, once I attack those.
The dropping minimums is nice so that you can continue to focus most of your cash on one particular loan. It’s also nice to know that if life hits the fan, you’ll have a reward of smaller minimums while you regroup.
Walnut, you think like me!
Yes! That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking.
Your doing awesome and so close to paying off #5!!
We celebrate Mother’s Day at my in-laws with BBQ. I stopped over my Mom’s house and brought over some fiddleheads that we picked. She was so happy to get those and couldn’t wait to cook them. My parents are 78 and 80 years old. So they don’t want a big celebration. I also helped Mom by putting her minutes on her tracfone. They also don’t plan things just go by how they feel. So this makes it hard to plan a celebration.
My in-laws are 58 and 65 years old. So they are in a different stage of life. It’s funny my oldest sister is the same age as my mother in law lol.
My son also called me on Mother’s Day. He is 18 and lives with his Dad in NJ. So we just talk on the phone daily.
That’s nice, Jackie. It sounds like you had a very pleasant day 🙂
My boyfriend and I invitted both of our families to our place for a Mother’s Day bbq. I too have ‘kiddos’ (2 dogs and a cat), so my boyfriend gave me the gift of sleep. Our 3 month old puppy wakes up between 530 and 6 am, so he kissed me on the forehead, told me to stay in bed, and took care of the kids.
Hahaha- this sounds EXACTLY like my GF’s ideal day.
Sweet! After this loan you will have paid off 5 loans and will only have 4 left. That’s an achievement. My questions are the same as Walnut’s –> What’s next, and does this impact your minimum payments?
Also, it would be great if you included the difference in loan amounts in your update… I always have to go look back and compare to your past updates to see the progress!
Congrats on the great, consistent progress. You are so close to one more!
You’re right, Brooke- I will do that! That will make it a load easier instead of having to go back to previous posts. See my response to Walnut- my minimums will continue to drop until ALL my loans are paid off. Not only does Navient drop my minimum as I pay off loans, but they also recalculate my other, not paid off, loans every so often.
Great job – and as a mom, I love your gift to your mom – that was perfect!!!
I too cringe when I see all the Mother’s Day postings on facebook. I started to get a little caught up in it all “maybe I should post my mom’s photo?” or “how come my kids didn’t post my photo on there?” and then I figuratively slapped myself – both my mom and myself would have hated to have that mush on facebook:) I guess it works for some people, but I just cringe. It seems too much like a competition instead of the day being about showing and sharing love. My two cents.
Thanks Den! Ditto on everything you said about the whole Facebook thing. You said exactly what I was trying to get across. I just don’t see the value in it vs. a phone call, at the very least.
What a super nice gift! & congrats on #4 & #5 being gone soon. That will feel awesome!
Thanks Alexandria!