Thursday, September 30, 2010

Monthly Student Loan Debt Roundup


I can't believe September has come and gone so quickly. It seems like just yesterday I was posting August's student loan debt roundup. Yet happily I was able to decrease the balance by over $1000 this month. Sometimes I make charts and spreadsheets and see how fast I could get rid of all my student loan debt and I get encouraged...until I realize that would mean ignoring all of our other financial goals. It's frustrating.

The good news, however, is that I am achingly close to paying off my first student loan! Because of my increased snowball, the balance stands at a measly $434.41. I hope knocking it out will give me the momentum I need to push harder at attacking the rest of the balances. (I also would like a raise but that's a whole other story.)

Anyway so here's my updated chart:



Thanks for reading and I hope we can celebrate the payoff of loan #1 soon!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe make a list of $-free rewards you can give yourself for getting rid of the first loan. Either way...congratulations! (or soon) karla

Daizy said...

Yea! Bye bye Law School loan very soon. That will be very motivating to delete it from your list.

Anonymous said...

great, great news! love it. i'd actually consider giving yourself a "freebie" month when you pay off that loan, where you take either the minimum payment or some portion of it and give yourself a treat. just one month to go, this is what it feels like when my cash flow's up because i've paid off a debt. yay! and then back at it snowball style. after this much time, a celebration's in order.

Anonymous said...

I know what you mean about creeping credit card debt. I had an $800 splurge on hookers last week - a one night (2 hour to be precise) extravaganza. I didn't put the two girls on my credit card but I hadn't saved up for the treat so it went on my overdraft. And I'll be paying for it for a little while to come.

Now, I enjoyed the experience very much but it was an unplanned, impulse buy - or "rental" I guess. I could have got a better deal if I had planned ahead and, no, I didn't think about the financial consequences. Infact, I didn't let any rational thought enter my head just incase I managed to talk myself out of it.

I'm lucky in that I have low levels of debt and a high networth for my age. The experience taught me, however, that I'm not a million miles from my old spendthrift ways and I still have to be en guard!

Keep up the good work. You're making solid progress.

paisley penguin said...

I too have a spreadsheet where I have aggressive payments to debt and how quickly we will be debt free. Then I realize we have to save money, finish some condo projects, eat.

There is more to life than shoving all of your extra money at your debt. Quality of life has to be there or its not worth it.

Congrats on your balance. You will have that amount gone in no time!

Have a great weekend and thanks for the good juju from my post today!

Jen said...

A raise would be nice, especially since you're paying off school loans. You invest all that money in to your education in hopes of getting high paying jobs.

I definitely think by paying off one loan will give you momentum for the remaining ones. Keep it up!