Monthly Student Loan Debt Roundup!

I can't believe it's already the end of January (or just about) and a whole year since I got engaged.

After lots of waiting and saving, the wedding is less than six months away!!!!

And little by little I've still been chipping away at my student loan debt.

So here is my monthly report card:



That's all for now, stay warm!

Budget 1/20 - 2/2

I am ridiculously late posting this budget.

Luckily I saved some money from my last paycheck to help towards the $350 attorney registration fee I have to pay.

And saving for the wedding, something that doesn't seem to ever be done with, sigh. It's less than six months away now so I'm getting excited. Still lots of money to be saved (and then spent).

So here's where my money will be going this pay period:

Starting Balance = $1375

400 - Wedding Savings
350 - Attorney registration
174 - Credit card
95 - Perkins loan
55 - Law school loan
100 - Groceries
50 - Valentine's Day*
40 - Health co-pays
111 - Misc.

*I found a cool place to go for Valentine's Day with my fiance and prepaid my half of the cost.

I also filed my taxes last night! I should be getting a refund of about $600, but all of that will be going into the wedding savings.

Where it Went 1/06 - 1/19

I'm 30!!!!!!!!! I celebrated my birthday last weekend with my fiance and some friends. It was a nice, low key evening and luckily all my fears of "getting old" quickly faded into the background. I don't know why I was so focused on a number.

Anyway, I'm in the midst of my busy season at work, getting a little bit behind on wedding planning, trying to get in better shape and dealing with some health and family issues. Such is life at 30 I guess!

But here's where my money went for the past two weeks compared to the budget I set:

Budgeted/Actual

Credit Card - 100/150

Groceries - 75/90

Sallie Mae - 407/407

Defaulted Student Loan - 260/260

Nice Collection Agency - 125/125

Sprint - 73/73

Misc. - 236/214

And I finished the pay period with about $102 to roll over, which is good because my birthday commands a hefty $350 payment to the state court administration (boo!) in order to remain a licensed attorney.

Of miscellaneous, at least $60 was spent on health care co-pays (boo) making me kick myself for not starting a Health Savings Account during the open enrollment period. Oh well.

In other news, my fiance got a promotion!!! Yay, I'm so proud of him. And it came with an extra week's vacation as well as a $5000 raise! He's the youngest one in his company to have made it this far. I guess success is one of the perks of getting older, though his 30th isn't for a few more months (yes, I'm a cougar).

Budget 1/06 - 1/19

My birthday is coming up! Good golly I'm turning 30. And somehow my paycheck today managed to be $5 less than it usually is. But no more! I am adjusting my withholding in anticipation of my 2010 marriage. This has got to be the trickiest thing we have ever tried to figure out but I think (crosses fingers) that my paycheck will get bigger!

So very briefly, here's a rough budget for the next two weeks. I have a couple of annoying expenses that are coming up (professional fee!) and holiday spending that I will have to account for.

Starting Balance = $1275

Credit Card - 100
Groceries - 75
Sallie Mae - 407
Defaulted Student Loan - 260
Nice Collection Agency - 125
Sprint - 73
Misc. - 236*

*Some of this I hope to roll over to the next pay period to help pay for a professional fee.

Where it Went 12/23 - 1/05

Happy New Year!

Between the holidays and my busy time at work starting up I am crazy busy. Or just crazy. :-)

I do have a lot to say so real quickly:

My fiance got a $2000 bonus at work!
We refinanced the condo mortgage today!
I had a work vent but I think everything is okay.
I spent way too much money over the holidays and I'm just trying to make up for it now.

So...in the meantime here's where my "cash" went over the past two weeks and in a few hours I will deal with everything else.

Projected/Actual

Credit Card - 250/250
Charity - 50/50
Wedding Savings - 500/500

Groceries - 75/0
Christmas - 75/180*
Law School Loan - 54/54
Perkins Loan - 93/93
Misc. - 183/60*

*There's some overlap in these two categories.

My siblings never reimbursed me for a gift I bought for my parents. Who knows if I will see that $100 any time soon.

That's all for now.

Monthly Student Loan Debt Roundup

My last monthly student loan debt roundup of 2009 is upon me and I'm happy to say I cleared over $700 in debt this month. Still seemingly a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of six figure debt but I'm satisfied for now with the progress.

One thing I'm not too thrilled to admit is that I failed to meet one of my 2009 Resolutions of paying off my smallest loan, titled "law school loan." In January when I declared that I would pay it off this year the balance stood at $1932 and today it stands at $1269 despite the fact that I paid more than the amount due and threw a couple of extra payments at it throughout the year. The 8% interest is killer.

Anyway, more beating myself up about failing my resolutions will come later. For now, here are the cold hard facts:




Not a bad month. Here's hoping 2010 brings a lot more progress.

My Annual Exam Cost $254!

This post is about women's health so if that doesn't interest you feel free to stop reading...

Recently I had my annual exam and pap smear. This was actually the first time I've ever gone to a private OBGYN practice to have this performed as previously I went to my regular family doctor, the college health center and most recently my local Planned Parenthood. I liked the Planned Parenthood, especially when I didn't have "real" health insurance during law school and it is in walking distance from where I've lived the past 6 years. But I figured it was about time I established a relationship with a local practice because one day I may need care that's more than "preventative" if you catch my drift.

The appointment was fine (as fine as any half hour of your life in which you are prodded in such a personal way) and I paid a $20 co-pay when I left. Today I received a bill in the mail for an additional $10 for charges not covered by my insurance. The statement itself was enlightening.

My doctor's office attempted to bill $210 for the visit alone, of which I paid $20 and the insurance company "adjusted" payment was $56.

The pap smear is billed at $35, of which my insurance paid $27 and I am liable for $8.

The lab work is billed at $9, of which my insurance paid $7 and I am liable for $2.

Total charges = $254
Total paid by insurance = $90
Total paid by me = $30

Damn. Last year at Planned Parenthood, $35 got me my annual and six months of birth control pills. No wonder insurance companies are looking to do away with the annual exam.

Budget 12/23 - 01/05

So I'm kind of stumped making up this budget. There's a few things I need to figure out in the next couple of days/weeks that could alter things but I have to give it my best shot for now.

Still have to get one (or maybe two) small presents before Christmas and want to make a charitable donation before the end of the year.

But here's my budget for the next two weeks and into the new years:

Starting Balance = $1280

Credit Card - 250
Charity - 50
Wedding Savings - 500

Groceries - 75
Christmas - 75
Law School Loan - 54
Perkins Loan - 93
Misc. - 183

Here's hoping the rest of the year goes smoothly!

Where it Went 12/09 - 12/22

Oh my. Two days until Christmas and I am SO busy. I wish I could say it was all holiday fun keeping me occupied lately but mostly it is work. Since I only started this job in April I had no idea how busy things get around this time. Yikes!

So just want to pop in and check on my budget. Something is off since I had $50 extra in my account today even though it looks like I went over budget...but that's okay because I have to turn around and pay my credit card today so that money will soon be out the window.

Anyway, here's where my money went for the past two weeks compared to the budget I set:

Budgeted/Actual
Groceries - 100/100
Sallie Mae - 407/407
Defaulted Student Loan - 260/260
Nice Collection Agency - 125/125
Sprint - 74/74
Holiday Shopping & Parties - 200/150+
Misc. - 101/240

A lot of the miscellaneous spending is holiday related but I just lumped it all together for convenience.

And since I got paid today now I get to figure out how the rest of my financial year will go.

I want to post a year end wrap up but that will probably have to wait until after Christmas.

Snag with the mortgage refinance

I posted a few weeks ago about how my fiance and I were looking to refinance the condo.

Well we finally got out appraisal back and the news isn't so hot. Instead of the $155k we were hoping to get, our appraiser valued the condo at $150k. Boo. And so off in my humble opinion. Based on comps and improvements we've made I think our value should be at least $160k.

But the appraiser 1) used comps from older buildings; 2) used comps from our building for units that have not done any remodeling. We have a brand new kitchen and hardwood floors whereas the other units have old kitchens and carpets!

We are in the process of challenging the appraisal but if worst comes to worst we have to come up with close to $5k to cover the closing costs ourselves.

It totally sucks but I know in the long run getting a mortgage rate 2 points less than our current mortgage rate will save us a lot of money.

Updates to come!

Budget 12/09 - 12/22

And finally I have a free moment on this cold snowy day to post my new budget. We finally got some groceries!

I'm happy to report that most of our Christmas shopping has been completed. We managed to snag one present while at the supermarket and my fiance used his Christmas savings to buy most of the rest, minus a present I got for my parents.

Still have a little more to do...plus an office grab bag ($20), supplies for the office holiday party, a bottle of wine for a group holiday party, and materials for a Cookie Swap. Don't you just love the holidays?

Anyway, so here's where my money will be going over the next two weeks.

Starting Balance = $1267
Groceries! - 100
Sallie Mae - 407
Defaulted Student Loan - 260
Nice Collection Agency - 125
Sprint - 74
Holiday Shopping & Parties - 200
Misc. - 101

We got some less than good news about our refinance, but I'm waiting on more details before I post about that.

Wedding savings is on hold most likely until the new year due to yet another recent development but some wedding spending will be going on very soon too (time to pay those installment payments!).

For those of you in cold regions of the world, stay warm, and for those of you in the warmer areas, count your blessings!

Where it Went 11/25-12/08

It's snowing! Lots and lots of snow is blanketing my fine city and as someone with a five minute walking commute I can enjoy the good things about snow; i.e. it's pretty, and better than rain. Also it's a Ghost Town at work since everyone with kids or a long commute called out.

I've been slowly getting into the Holiday Spirit, first with Thanksgiving and then last weekend we had another family get together with merriment and hot apple cider. Alas, there are some stressors in my life right now that are interfering with fully embracing the holiday, but today's snow fall has me in a good mood so that's a start.

Budgeted/Actual

Credit Card - 200/200
Wedding Savings - 500/500

Wedding Spending - 0/600
Groceries - 75/0
Christmas - 150/156*
Law School Loan - 136/136
Perkins Loan - 93/93
Misc. - 126/280

*Technically I only spent half this amount but one of my siblings owes me the other half.

Once again we failed to do any grocery shopping so both my fiance and I spent money on dining out. This is something we have to work on, even if it's cold out and there's snow on the road.

I bought my wedding dress with money I have been saving for this very purchase. I will pay the remaining balance of $754 in about four months when the dress comes in.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program Not For Me

Back in June I posted that several of my coworkers were looking into applying for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. I didn't think that it was the right thing for me to do but it was too complicated for me to figure out at the time so I promised an update at a later time.

After hearing about the program again, I decided to finally make a decision before too much time has passed.

I knew from hearing a coworker's experience in applying that my job counts as "public service" so that question was resolved.

My next question was "how do I know the loans will really be forgiven after ten years?" Will there be an income cut-off or does my current income qualify me as just broke enough to have the loans forgiven no matter what (after I get married I will have to use our joint income of course). I still can't find an answer to this question, but here's one example I did find:

Example: Jane Justice started out owing $100,000 in qualifying debt at 6.8%
interest and took a full-time public service job with a starting salary of
$40,000 with annual increases of 5%. Jane stayed in public service and paid
$49,132 over 10 years under the IBR plan. The federal government cancels
$118,868, the principal and interest remaining.

From here.

Sounds good, right? Wrong. I pretty much AM Jane Justice...except I make slightly more money, have slightly less "qualifying" debt at a lower interest rate than 6.8%, and anticipate greater salary increases than 5%.

But to qualify for the program you have to pay your loans in one of three ways:

Income Based Repayment (IBR) Plan
Income Contingent Repayment Plan
Standard Repayment Plan with a 10-year repayment period
Any other Direct Loan Program repayment plan, but only payments that are at least equal to the monthly payment amount that would have been required under the Standard Repayment Plan with a 10-year repayment period may be counted toward the required 120 payments.

From here. I'll let you navigate that mumbo jumbo before I attempt to explain it.

I figured out right away that I didn't qualify for the Income Based Repayment Plan because I made too much money (ha!).

The Income Contingent Repayment Plan was less appealing since it only allows discharge after 25 years and you end up owing taxes on the amount discharged.

I thought maybe the Standard Repayment Plan would work but I still wasn't sure. I tried a few online calculators but it was all confusing and I wanted to hear the news straight from the horse's mouth.

So I called up good old Aunt Sallie Mae and got the skinny:

Yadda yadda you have to apply, yadda yadda we can add your Perkins loan to your payment, yadda yadda.....your payment will increase to $795.30 a month.

Excuse me? I am only paying $406 a month on my federal subsidized and unsubsidized loans. Throw in the $93 a month I am paying towards the Perkins loan (which will be gone SO much faster than 10 years from now) that amount only totals $499.

"Let me get this straight," I said, "you want me to give you $300 more a month so in ten years if maybe I have stayed a humble public servant the federal government may possibly forgive the rest of my loan?"

Click. Goodbye. At least now I know I made the right decision.

The explanation, apparently, is because I am on the level 30 year payment plan (where I pay the same $406 every month for the next 28.5 years) my payment is lower than it would be if I started paying based on the 25 year plan. But paying $300 more a month sounds like a crap gift to me, right?

And yes, I do realize that technically it would have possibly maybe saved me some money in the end but I plan to be rid of these loans in ten years without Uncle Sam's help thank you very much.

Refinancing the Mortgage....maybe

Remember when my fiance bought our condo? What a scary yet exciting time that was. I didn't think we would have to even think about another closing for several years to come.

With rates at such low levels, however, we are trying to refinance already.

From my post when we first bought the place:

Estimated Monthly Payments
Mortgage = $937.68
Taxes = $175.00
PMI = $61.38

The reality:

Currently Monthly Payments
Mortgage Principal = $146
Extra Payment to Principal* = $102
Mortgage Interest = $828
Escrow** = $256

*My fiance has been sending an additional payment of $102 a month so we can get rid of PMI sooner. Smart guy!

**Escrow includes PMI and taxes.

So...it seems we are paying $53 more a month than what we had originally estimated (before our extra payment to the principal). I'm not sure why that is but I suspect our taxes went up. I tried to look up our taxes online but the city's website isn't showing anything under fiance's name or our street address. I'm sure my fiance knows more but he's a busy guy today.

I do know this....our current mortgage rate of 6.75% bugs the hell out of us. With rates being offered under 5% to new buyers and buyers who are at risk of default, it seems like we are missing out. At one point, my fiance thinks that since we have so little equity in the condo and since we have an FHA mortgage already backed by Fannie Mae, that maybe we did qualify for the Making Home Affordable Program.

But like all other real estate questions I've seen, this one is complicated even for my legal trained mind. First, we called our bank and they said not only could we refinance at a lower rate, that there would be no closing costs or an appraisal!

Then, they called back and said there would be closing costs. The next call was to say they no longer offered refinancing on condos (ugh!).

Frustrated but not defeated we shopped around until we found a loan company that would refinance our loan at a better rate....with closing costs and fees of course. And we needed an appraisal.

So the appraisal was today! We cleaned, painted the kitchen (finally!), organized and staged. I hope it went well. It's a little frustrating because someone in our building is trying to sell off his multiple units and has priced them below market. And according to my research, a condo appraisal must use comps from the same building.

The loan company told us the appraised value must be about $1500 more than the purchase price of $152,659 in order to tack on the closing costs to the loan. Otherwise we would have to pay them out of pocket or they might not even give us the refinance.

We will hear back in a few days and then we can figure out what to do next, including plugging in the costs/benefits into this nifty "should I refinance?" calculator I found.

Bought my Wedding Dress!

After countless hours searching online, five trips to various bridal salons, two minor meltdowns, and dozens of dresses tried on, I have found THE DRESS.

A lot of brides start thinking about their wedding dress as soon as they get engaged (or even before!) but I was not one of them. This process was long, hard and frustrating. In the end I think I found a beautiful dress I am excited to wear on one of the happiest days of my life to come.

Note: it is not the dress I have included in this post as I don't even have a picture of it yet and I wouldn't want my fiance to see it even if I did. But trust me, it's gorgeous!

So how much did it cost? Under (amended) budget!

When I first was detailing our wedding budget I optimistically (and unrealisticly) estimated I would only need to spend about $500 on my dress (haha, falls down laughing on the floor). Sample sales, David's Bridal's $99 dress sales, used dresses, etc. were on my mind. However, as I learned, finding a dress in my size that wasn't poorly made or wouldn't require costly alterations was going to cost quite a bit more. Therefore, my fiance and I decided to up the budget to $1600.

The base price of my dress is $1100, plus planned alterations of $150 and taxes of $104, the total comes out to be $1354. This does not include other alterations, which have been capped at $300. Hopefully my alterations will not cost the full $300 but even if they did I would end up only slightly over budget. It does make me a little dizzy thinking I have to work a full two weeks just to pay for a dress that I will wear for one day, especially since my second choice dress only cost $550, but I decided it was worth it to have the dress that I loved.

I paid $600 down as a deposit so the store can order the dress, which I will have in (crosses fingers) four months. I can't wait to wear it!

Monthly Student Loan Debt Roundup

I can't believe November is already over and soon 2009 will also be ending. It's been a long, crazy, but wonderful year. (More on that later of course.)

Right now I bring you my monthly student loan debt roundup.

On my way home from visiting family over Thanksgiving, I passed by many cars jammed with college students (and their stuff) heading back to campus and thought to myself "enjoy it now!" when contemplating the fact that I am still paying for the education I recieved as a freshman. And with only a few more weeks until my 30th birthday, my goal of paying off freshman year before I turn 30 is about $5,000 off (or about 3 years away at the current rate of payment).

But in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I remain thankful for my education, as well as my family, my fiance, our home, my career, and of course my furry friend.

Here are the numbers:



Private Undergrad Loan I must have messed up the totals last month when I reported them late so it shows no change.

And even though I managed to accidentally pay too much to Law School Loan, it and my Perkins loan do not reflect the amount of interest that has accrued this month as the website wasn't finished computing their totals. Hopefully that's an accident that can happen again as it will help me knock out my highest interest robbed-on-the-side-of-the-road loan at 8% so graciously given to me by my law school.

Budget 11/25 - 12/08

Three more paychecks until the holiday that shall not be named. I'm not so worried though. No one in our families expects us to give expensive gifts this year as we are saving for the wedding. And...my smart fiance has amassed himself a Christmas fund by saving a little every month all year long like I told myself I would do almost a year ago.

The next money failure I'm about to report is actually a happy accident.

Since I paid off my laptop I decided I wanted to start snowballing the $43 payments I was making towards my highest interest student loan. So today I logged into my account to do just that, except when I computed the total I confused the amount I usually pay ($54; the minimum is $40) with the amount I usually pay to my Perkins loan ($93), since they are serviced by the same lender. As I result, I ended up sending $136 to the loan ($93 + $43). Yes I didn't do it deliberately but I'm still glad I did. This is also my smallest loan (~$1400) and I really hope I can knock it all out soon.

So here's my budget for the next two weeks, in which we actually purchase and use groceries, and I just may buy a present or two.

Starting Balance = $1280

Credit Card - 200

Wedding Savings - 500*

Groceries - 75

Christmas - 150

Law School Loan - 136

Perkins Loan - 93

Misc. - 126

*I already made this transfer so I will not fall short of my wedding savings goal once again!

They Increased My Credit Limit!!!

As I've mentioned before, I have been charging small amounts on my credit card and paying the balance in full each month in an effort to try and get the card company to raise my limit, thus improving my credit score. It's been a little over six months since I finally paid off the whole balance for the first time, a balance that I at one point had let climb up to $650 including late charges and fees on a card with a $500 credit limit. This was during my ostrich phase before I started the blog.

I log in to make my monthly payment today and voila, I see that I now have a credit limit of $5,500!!!

I have mixed feelings about this new development. I am very excited that in all this time of thinking about my money and trying to make up for past mistakes while being treated like a deadbeat by my own bank, debt collectors, student loan servicers, etc. that someone on the outside, i.e. "the man" has taken notice and had a little faith in me.

On the other hand...I know this wasn't an altruistic move on the part of the credit card company. They assume that since I have been charging a few things and then paying for them that given more credit I will charge more things. And frankly, I'm a little nervous about that too. Sure, I have been an authorized user on my fiance's Emergency Credit Card for months now with a similar balance and never ran amok, but it feels a little different when it's just "my card," you know? I am being completely honest here so take it easy on me.

Anyway, I am excited about this news and dedicated to not let it tempt me to spend. Wish me luck!

Where it Went 11/11 - 11/24

Sorry for the lack of posts. I was dealing with an unexpected health problem that is now (mostly) resolved. And then work/life got in the way a bit. But of course, payday always reminds me to be accountable to myself, my readers and my budget.

It was a spendy two weeks in addition to the $50 in health care costs I incurred (2 $20 co-pays, $8 in prescriptions, and $3 on the bus to the doctor, and yes I realize that totals $51 but I like round numbers). Mailed out our Save the Dates for the wedding. Went out to the movies with friends once and the bar three times.

Another budget buster was our inability to grocery shop which means I purchased about 9 lunches in ten work days and more than a few slices of pizza. Bad S.N., very bad. After the holiday we will remedy that problem.

So here's where my money has gone over the past two weeks compared to the budget I set:

Budgeted/Actual

Wedding Savings - 220/40

Wedding Spending - 0/30

Sallie Mae - 407/407

Defaulted Student Loan - 260/260

Nice Collection Agency - 125/125

Sprint - 74/74

Groceries - 75/0

Healthcare - 0/50

Beauty - 0/20

Misc. - 119/180

I still haven't done any Christmas shopping, haven't found my wedding dress and need to be saving more for the wedding. To tell you the truth, I am pretty overwhelmed right now and I hope it gets better soon.

Budget 11/11 - 11/24

Time for a new budget! Need to catch up on my wedding savings a bit as December and January means we need to deplete most of the money we've saved so far paying installments to the photographer and band.

I've said it before and I'll say it again (at least for the next 8 months) but I can't wait until (saving for) the wedding is over! Soon enough I guess.

Without, further ado, here is my budget for the next two weeks. You'll notice it includes absolutely no Christmas shopping. I'm sort of in denial. :-0

Starting Balance = $1280

Wedding Savings - 220
Sallie Mae - 407
Defaulted Student Loan - 260
Nice Collection Agency - 125
Sprint - 74
Groceries - 75
Misc. - 119

And that's how the cookie crumbles.

I should note that I thought my payments to "Nice Collection Agency" were almost done by now but a recent statement from them indicated otherwise. I need to figure out what the balance is so I can nip that payment in the bud and free up another $125 a month towards other goals.