by Ashley
I’m really excited about this month’s debt update! I’d originally hoped to put a solid $4,000 toward debt this month and, although we didn’t quite hit that number, we did put a full $3,500 toward debt!
I know I’ve said this before, but moment of silence for that huge, astronomical number!
((((((silence))))))
Thank you! I just like to acknowledge that $3,500 is a ton of money!
If the average American household income is $55,000 (source), then this represents roughly a full month worth of net income for the typical U.S. family. Craziness!
See for yourself…
| Place | Current Balance | APR | Last Payment Made | Last Payment Date | Original debt, March 2014 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Navient | $69826 | 6.55% | $2955 | June | $74218 |
| ACS Student Loans | $8596 | 6.55% | $20 | June | $8215 |
| Balance Transfer Student Loan #2 | $6850 | 0% (through April 2017) | $500 | June | $7650 |
| Medical Bills | $5786 | 0% | $25 | June | $9000 |
| Balance Transfer student loan #1 | $0 | 0% | - | Paid off in March 2016 | $5937 |
| PenFed Car Loan | $0 | 2.49% | - | Paid off in January 2016 | $24040 |
| License Fees | $0 | 2.5% | - | Paid off in April 2015 | $5808 |
| BoA CC | $0 | 7.24% | - | Paid off in June 2014 | $2220 |
| Mattress Firm | $0 | 0% | - | Paid off in May 2014 | $1381 |
| Wells Fargo CC | $0 | 13.65% | - | Paid off in May 2014 | $7697 |
| Capital One CC | $0 | 17.9% | - | Paid off in March 2014 | $413 |
| Totals | $91058 (May balance = 94,292) | $3500 | Starting Debt = $145,472 |
Two things excite me about our debt update this month:
- We’ve dipped into the $60,000s for my Navient student loans! I know we still owe a ton, but it’s SO exciting to finally hit a new first digit! The entire time I’ve been blogging Navient has been up in the 70,000s range, so this is a huge deal to me! To be fair, it’s only within the current calendar year that I really started tackling the student loan debt-mountain! (note – I was paying toward student loans all along, but not at a very aggressive rate, as I had prioritized other debts first). I can’t wait to continue seeing this number drop!
- We’re super close to hitting a new first-digit of our overall debt! At $91,000 currently owed, we should definitely but down into the $80,000s range by next month! EEEK!!! Again (I must emphasize this for newer readers), I know this is still a disgusting amount of debt. But when I started blogging I had nearly $150,000 of total debt, and it feels like just yesterday when we broke the $100,000 barrier, so the last $10,000 has gone in basically the blink of an eye (ahem – it’s actually taken 5 months, but whose counting?)
I’m really feeling the momentum now and it seems like the debt is just melting away! We still have a LONG way to go, but I’m feeling refreshed and rejuvenated! We’ve had great pay in June (budget update coming soon!) and expect to have great pay in July as well. That really helps as we’re working on pounding out a lot of these student loans.
Also, I’ve grouped all my Navient loans together just for ease, but I’m actually paying them one-at-a-time (first I targeted the highest interest loans, and now that all the remaining loans have the same rate I’m targeting them by smallest first – the snowball method). I’ve actually paid a couple in full lately and it feels SO SO good every time I log into Navient and see another loan with zeros all the way across for amount owed and upcoming payments. These are just the kind of emotional “wins” I need to really feel like we’re on the right track. And it feels GREAT!!!
Next steps – build EF and buy a freaking house!!!
Hi, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at heart. Lover of running, blogging, and all things cheeeeese. Freshly 40, married mother of two, working in academia. Trying to finally (finally!) pay off that ridiculous 6-digit student loan debt!
Congrats!
Awesome!!!! You are doing an incredible job at your debt repayment! I’m glad that you are getting some wins, this has been a hard few months with all of your family emergencies. We’re all proud of you Ashley! Have you guys set a new timeframe for the house hunt? You had mentioned that you put it on the back burner with your summer of loss. I’m just excited for more good news, you have worked so hard!
Thank you! Yes, I’m already working on a budget update for Monday and I’m talking about house-hunting in that post. To give you a little “preview”, we’re still hoping/planning to start soon but just pushing it back a couple of months (probably to late summer/early Fall).
Thank you for this perspective! We, too, have been working at this for a while and have a pretty big snowball now, with 3,600 in principal payoff this month. I was bummed at first because some unexpected expenses came up that dropped it a full $600 lower than what I had hoped to pay!
Also, would love to see a status update on just the student loans broken out so you can share all of that progress you’ve made on individual loans. I’m living vicariously through you as we work our way through the slow 20K loans.
We are now down to 76K, with 104K paid off since July 2014. We’ve gone so far but have a long way to go still!
It’s tough when you’re still deep in the trenches! I can relate to that! I’ll plan to do a breakdown of the student loans soon – it’s overdue!
Thank you for actually showing real world numbers and what you’re doing to make progress. While I made the video primarily to help people with credit card debt, the idea of trying to “collateralize” or secure debt would work for student loans as well. If you have vehicle equity, perhaps you can get the ACS rate lowered? I’ve helped some people get them to 1.5% by doing this. https://youtu.be/CMXupUoWyFk
Awesome that you are working on that largest student loan!!! Congrats!
Fantastic! Steady and consistent wins the race. This may be the year that you really see the momentum!
I just stumbled across your blog. Congratulations on the progress you have made so far. I can’t wait to continue following your journey.
Thanks! I’m glad you found us! : )