by Ashley
I’ve written a lot about my student loans over time as a blogger here. At this point, the student loans are my last remaining debt (besides a mortgage), and this is the year when they’ll officially be GONE! I cannot wait!
That said, I continue to find the process completely confusing and the online systems counterintuitive. I’m in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which is supposed to discharge remaining loans after 120 on-time eligible payments have been received.
I currently have 3 loans remaining that total just over $26,000 (the balance has grown because the interest costs more than the $180/monthly payments I’ve been applying).
In the Federal Student Aid platform, it says I have 113 qualifying payments (7 remaining). It also says the Estimated End-of-Repayment Term is Sept 2026.
However, I must re-certify my employment annually and the last time I did so was in late August 2025, so my 113 qualifying payments are only through August 2025.
I also have an additional 6 payments that should qualify (Sept 2025 – Feb 2026), meaning after my March payment later this month…I should meet my 120 required payments and qualify for student loan forgiveness for the rest of my balance owed!
This is obviously a bit of a discrepancy from the predicted September 2026 date listed in their system. I’m absolutely planning to re-certify employment at the end of the month and cross my fingers and hope and wish and pray that this is IT! That after nearly eleven years of faithful payments (even during the pandemic times when everyone had payments paused – I continued to pay monthly because I’d been trying to pay off my debt before the forgiveness deadline)…..I will FINALLY be FREE from this burden that’s just been hanging around so long it might as well have its own room!
I cannot tell you what this community has meant to me to help guide, give advice, and cheer me on along the way! It hasn’t always been easy – I graduated with over $100k worth of student loan debt, alone! But continual progress across time has been the key. And honesty, I’ve benefitted so much from the community of readership here offering me your generous advice across time.
The question is…what’s next?
I love talking about money (something that’s so taboo in everyday life, but we talk about freely and openly in this space)! And you all have helped me think through longer term financial planning, thinking about retirement, health care, teaching my kids (now teens!) financial literacy, etc. What do you think? Should I hang around BAD a bit longer or is it time to move on? I haven’t fully decided within my own heart so I’d like to know your thoughts on whether the content I’m providing is interesting or useful or if it’s time to bid farewell once my last remaining debt is gone! Thoughts?
What do your plans in a debt-free life look like? Where do you focus your financial energy?
Hi, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at heart. Lover of running, blogging, and all things cheeeeese. Early 40s, married mother of two, working in academia. Trying to finally (finally!) pay off that ridiculous 6-digit student loan debt!
I’d love to stay along on your FIRE planning ride.
Thanks, Walnut! 🙂
I second this! I have learned a lot from Ashley and hope she stays around!
I would not count your chickens before they are hatched. I know several people who have hit their date and had it pushed out several times and then refused all together. It is really confusing (likely intentionally) and frustrating. Fingers crossed for you!
Good point! And to be fair, this is already nearly a year after I hit my 10-year mark of student loan repayment so I definitely fell into that trap of having the date pushed out from what it “should” have been.
I’ve enjoyed reading what you share since you started writing here the first time. I’d be happy to continue following along, even after you’ve finished blogging away the debt!
Thanks for the kind words, Megan! And for following along on the crazy ride of life! 🙂
I think if BAD still feels useful to you, please stay! I hope this is the end of payments for you too, this system is so horribly designed and it’s amazing to see you finally see the end of the road.
I hope it’s the end too! Fingers crossed!!!
Would love to have you stay. I enjoy hearing about your life and am interested to see how your girls handle their finances as they grow. Would be fun to hear from them about teen money stuff.
Oh this is a good idea! Maybe I can interview them and add include some quotes in their own words about how they feel about the whole situation.
You are the type of person that should receive debt relief. You have taken loans for an education you are using. You’ve also made lots of payments yourself and been very careful with the system and the paperwork. While I don’t agree with broad student loan relief for everyone this is a great use of taxpayer funds. Congrats!
So who doesn’t deserve debt relief?
I think the student loan system needs a complete overhaul. Interest rates are usurious, terms are draconian, and the stringent limitations on bankruptcy has created an industry that has an ample source of free-flowing money with low risk to the lenders, so many of whom are private. Some education/training programs are of questionable quality, the institutions aren’t incentivized to economize, and the lenders can tie an 18yr old to insane amounts of debt with just a signatures, with little vetting because they know the borrower has almost no out. So we have a generation of young adults who have an unprecedented financial anchor preventing them from progressing in life as they should. It’s unconscionable.
However, not all borrowers should have their debt relieved. I knew more than one student who would include spring break trips to Cancun and ski trips for Christmas into their loans. Others for sorority/fraternity related costs, which included shopping at high end stores to fit in, bought cars (nice cars, new cars, not a well-used one to get around) and a handful of idiots who took out loans to invest in the stock market.
And that doesn’t get into the nuances of blanket loan forgiveness (not referring to public service programs here). There are those who pay minimums, defer, forebear, etc for years but buy houses, invest in retirement, go on vacations, etc. All that largess is subsidized by taxpayers, many of whom do not, cannot, and will not go to college themselves. The ethics are murky.
So many good points brought up by “The Other Jen” (also – I learned a new-to-me word, usurious). I also knew people in undergrad who took out loans to finance Spring Break trips and shopping sprees and such. And then there’s people like me who lived literally below the poverty threshold (I lived in a tiny 500 square foot duplex with NO A/C in TUCSON, AZ where summer temps reach 115 degrees F), and worked 2 jobs and scrimped and saved just to get by, but due to the price of tuition, I still graduated with six figures worth of debt. I think most people would assume $100k student loan debt would have to be frivolous. Nope. Mine was literally tuition and fees and maybe $1k/month to help subsidize my rent and groceries (and again – I worked 2 jobs on top of my full time graduate program). Anyway, I’ll step off my soap box. There is a LOT wrong with the student loan industry. I’m just glad to *ALMOST* be out of those chains!
It’s the big screen TVs and spring breaks that most of us have problems with financing. Personally I have no problem paying or books, classes, dorm rooms and even meal passes. I do have problems with paying for a trip to Daytona, a big screen TV for the dorm rooms and meals and drinks out on the town every night because you could not be bothered to visit the school cafeteria during operating hours.. I recognize that school is a multi year endeavor and you have to live while you are learning. I recognize that some of the people still learning may have families already and staying in the dorm is not practical. However, some of the people in school appear to have racked up debt that has little to do with the learning process and more to do with quality of life improvements.