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Weekly Debt Update #27- One More Down, Two to Go!

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Hey everybody!

I’m feeling pretty awesome today! The reason? I paid off Sallie Mae 04 this weekend! I paid off the last $1,221 in one swoop. When I graduated college in 2009, the original balance of this loan was $10,350.18. The balance as of mid-May ’15 (when I started hitting this loan hard) was $7,407.64. It feels fantastic to have paid this loan off in essentially 4 months (I took off in July). Now, I only have the 2 big ones left. After I replenish my EF and get my car’s annual inspection (end of October/early November) I’ll be ready to hit Sallie Mae 01. Here’s my updated balances:

Loan NameInterest RateOriginal Balance- May '09Current BalanceTotal Paid OffPaid Since Last Week
Sallie Mae 015.25$27,837.24$23,662.64$4,174.60$0.00
Sallie Mae 024.75$22,197.02$18,556.32$3,640.70$0.00
Sallie Mae 037.75$20,692.10$0.00
$20,692.10$0.00
Sallie Mae 045.75$10,350.18$0.00$10,350.18$1,221.75
Sallie Mae 055.25$6,096.03$0.00$6,096.03$0.00
Sallie Mae 06 and 074.75$6,415.09$0.00$6,415.09$0.00
Sallie Mae- DOE 015.25$5,000.00$0.00$5,000.00$0.00
Sallie Mae- DOE 025.25$3,000.00$0.00$3,000.00$0.00
AES6.8$9,000.00$0.00$9,000.00$0.00
TOTALS$110,587.66$42,218.96$68,368.70$1,221.75

I’m shooting for having a paid off Sallie Mae in August of ’16, which would only give me 10 months to do it. It’s aggressive, but I definitely feel it’s doable.

Funny story concerning my student loan payments: I had a meeting with my bank to go over my checking/savings accounts and to see if they could offer me anything else. The lady that I met with must have gone through my account activity because she asked me a couple of specific questions: 1) Why do you pay estimated taxes? (Easy explanation concerning the withdrawal of my gov’t retirement account in 2014) and 2) Who is Navient? I told her this was my student loan provider, so she asked how much I owe since I pay them roughly $2,400 a month. I told her about $300,000. Lol- her face went white, like she couldn’t believe it. I then told her I was joking and I only owe about $40,000. I then explained to her than I’m working really, really hard to get them fully paid off and that, between my loans and my car, I’ve paid off $62,000 in 2 years. She was stunned and couldn’t believe I’ve accomplished that much in such a short time, especially on a single salary. That felt pretty awesome too, to be honest.

As for any type of celebration, we didn’t really have one. GF wanted to celebrate it, so she offered to make a celebration meal. As a kind of off the wall response, I asked for raspberry crepes. For never having made them before, GF did amazing! They were so good and the perfect celebration as we had most of the ingredients already at home and didn’t have to go out anywhere. Here’s a pictures:

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Like I said above, I’m going to take the next couple of weeks to replenish my EF before hitting Sallie Mae 01. I hope everyone has a great week!

 


20 Comments

  • Reply Juju |

    Way to go Matt! That is also awesome how your gf is into your debt payoff and offered to make a celebratory meal.

  • Reply Judi |

    Congratulations!!! I am certain you can pay off your next loan by August 2016! You are doing so well and definitely deserved some amazing raspberry crepes!

    • Reply Matt |

      Haha, thanks, Judi! I’m hoping I will, too. I’m definitely going to give it my all to get there.

  • Reply Den |

    Wow – great job! And I’m so glad you’re going to refill your emergency fund before tackling the next debt.

    Quick question though – have you thought about paying off the smaller debt first? You could pay it off in about 7 months (June, 2016), then finish off the last debt after that. The interest rate difference isn’t much and it might just keep the motivation going strong knowing you’ll have another one gone by summer. Just a thought….

    • Reply Matt |

      Thanks Den! I guess my thought process is that I want to hit the harder of the two loans first so I can finish with the easier one. I think, mentally speaking, if I can pay off $23,000, it should make the last $18,000 seem that much easier.

  • Reply Maureen |

    Congrats! You make me want to spend less and tackle my loans even faster too (I am tackling some debt related to a move last year first). I owed $190K when graduating from law school 6 years ago and I am down to $125K. I think I can have all my loans paid of in 3 years. I am lucky to have a spouse with good income and I recently went back to working FT W2 after being self-employed for 6 years. I made a good income as a solo attorney, but a move out of state made going back to a W2 employee the best decision until my loans are paid off.

    • Reply Matt |

      Thanks, Maureen! And trust me when I say- 3 years goes a lot faster than it seems, especially at the beginning. It just feels like it’s never going to end, but you look and sure enough you’re down 5%, then 10%, then %20, then %50. You’ve already paid off so much, too!! It’s such a fantastic feeling, isn’t it??. Sounds like you have great income and a supportive spouse, so I’m sure you’ll be able finish it all off per your timeline. Good Luck!

  • Reply debthaven |

    That’s fantastic Matt!

    I am a sucker for blueberry pancakes and generally buy a package of frozen blueberries once in a while … I’ve been craving them for weeks, I definitely need to stock up! (My DH is the pancake maven in this house lol).

    So if I’m correct you should have your electric bicycle next September?! 😉 Hopefully prices will go down by then!

    • Reply Matt |

      I think I’m going to wait until the end of my debt to get the bike, lol. It was fun to think about getting this spring, though.

      And yes– that’s where our raspberries were hiding, too! We had them leftover in the freezer from who knows when, lol. I must have saw them in there at some point since my mind went to raspberries when GF asked me what I wanted. Now that we know what GF can do with frozen fruit, we’re going to try and stock up, too!

  • Reply Walnut |

    Holy payoff batman!! Nice job. I agree with Maureen above in that you’re motivating me to keep my spending in check so I can meet some big savings goals. We are hoping next spring to kick off some home renovation projects (Hello 1920’s house!) and we fully intend to pay cash for the work. It’s time to put a number to the renovation and commit to a plan to fund it.

    • Reply Matt |

      Thanks, Walnut. You guys have kept me motivated for so long, that I’m stoked to see that I can do the same for you! Good luck with your house. I’m sure you’ll have no problem meeting your goals 🙂

  • Reply anon |

    Nice job! I feel like I can totally support when you take a month off because you hit it so hard when you return. Excited to see your progress toward dumping Sallie Mae!

    • Reply Matt |

      Thanks, Anon! The month off does feel good, but it also makes me want to crush the debt when I get back. It’s a win/win- I get some R&R away from the debt balances, and it keeps me motivated to hit it hard when I return.

  • Reply Sue |

    FANTASTIC!!!!! I love the way you celebrate too – and gf did a great job – crepes are hard (at least for me!!!)

    • Reply Matt |

      Thanks, Sue!! They are hard! GF wasn’t sure how they would turn out, but they were EXCELLENT. She’s such a talented chef.

  • Reply Ashley |

    Great job! Each new debt being crossed off the list feels like such a huge milestone! Way to do it!

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