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It seems like just last week I was asking you all if I should pay my student loans down or keep my savings bolstered up. And after some awesome discussion, I decided to plop $3,000 of my savings on those blasted student loans! That brought my total from about $14,000 to just under $11,000. I was pretty excited to see the progress, but to be honest, having these loans the past 4 years, it has felt like they were moving slower than a traffic jam in China (no seriously, look it up!). But today marked a momentous occasion as I can now remove a digit from the total debt left on our student loans.
Less Than $10,000 To Go!
I logged into our Mint.com account to look at our budget yesterday, and a number caught my eye. It was a number I had not seen before, so I scrolled down to take a closer look. It was a fun-looking, four-figured number that was happily sitting under my student loan heading. Wait, did I just see a four-figure number under student loans?! O. M. G.!!!! My eyes weren’t lying to me. Nope, our student loans were comfortably sitting at $9,887.10! W00t!
Having seen our student loans start at $24,000, and watch it slowly but surely drop down over $14,000 really has boosted my motivation for getting rid of these pesky things once and for all. And now that we’ve dropped below 5 figures, I am planning and scheming how I can kill these things faster than Miley Cyrus killed Hannah Montana. I want these things gone, and $200 a month back in our pockets to start putting towards our mortgage and retirement accounts. I want it so bad I can nearly taste it (and it tastes like freedom!)
How Much Longer?
At the beginning of the year, I set an aggressive goal to kill the student loans by the end of the year. Looking back now, that was definitely wishful thinking, but I have been able to knock out about $6k of the loans so far, and there’s 4 months to go! If I can make some things happen this year, I’m hoping to get it down another $2,000 by the end of the year. That would put me at just under $8,000 left on the loan.
Assuming I can earn some extra money through side hustles and being an awesome tax accountant, I believe I should be able to knock out this loan by June next year! That means we could be debt free (except the mortgage) by June 2014! WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO! I can’t even imagine what that will be like, but I’m hoping to find out sooner rather than later. Then I can join the ranks of my fellow student loan killers, like Michelle and Kathleen, and be free from the slavery that is consumer debt forever!
I have a tough road ahead, full of frugal decisions and determination to be debt free, I know that this goal is much more solid than what I set before. I have access to the possibility of extra income online, am still a professional tax accountant, and am always looking for opportunities to move up at work. Combine that with always trying to figure out how to save money and rocking an AWESOME budget, our chances are looking pretty good at becoming DEBT FREE FOREVER in 2014!
Join Me In Celebration
Everyone has their milestones set before them, even if they only seem like a pipe dream at the moment. But join me in celebrating the small wins, because your big win is definitely on the way. Our big win is getting below $10k in debt. What’s yours? Share with us in the comments and help motivate others to see that the small steps do add up to big wins, and those big wins feel great!
That is awesome, Jacob. I love seeing numbers drop like that! Keep it up and you’ll have it all paid off in no time!
Thanks Holly! I’m pretty excited to see these get down ASAP!
Good job! To this day, I still cannot believe that my student loans are gone. The feeling is great!
I hope to join you within the next year! 😀
Great job on getting below $10K. I haven’t missed my student loans at all since we paid them off this past spring. I would love to get our mortgage below $150K by the end of the year.
That’s an awesome goal! Mortgage is definitely my next target 🙂
Congratulations Jacob, its always good to reach a milestone. Keep going and that last “few dollars” will be gone in no time at all.
I challenge you to make the “YAY – I’m debt free (other than mortgage” post in or before May 2014?
Think you can do it?!
May would be tough, but doesn’t mean I can’t kick it into overdrive! Challenge accepted!
Dropping digits! Keep up the great progress and you guys will kill it in no time.
Thanks Mrs PoP! 🙂
Woo, that’s awesome! That must feel so good knowing that your student loans will be gone soon. I think being under $10k is a great milestone – I am hoping to be in the $14k’s by the end of this month. Slowly but surely the amount is getting lower.
Perseverance is key! Every little bit counts, and contrary to popular belief, student loans DO actually get paid off, eventually 🙂
I’m looking forward to the celebration when those loans are at $0! Congrats on your progress.
Thanks Kurt. I’m very much looking forward to it as well!
Wow, great news! There is the light at the end of the tunnel (and no, Metallica, it isn’t a freight train).
Thanks PK. The light is dim, but I know it’ll end. Just hoping for sooner rather than later.
Outstanding- you’ll feel so free when they’re gone. Then it’s on to the mortgage!
My goal? Retire at 45.
My favorite pizza topping? Pepperoni.
Pepperoni can be the only topping for that matter!
Mortgage is definitely next, but I’m tackling it a little slower. 50% extra money to mortgage, 50% towards retirement/investments
Have you ever tried Pepperoni and Pineapple?
Why are you looking at me that way?
Congratulations! That must be an awesome feeling. We are almost down to half of Tori’s initial post graduate balance and that is a pretty major victory for us!
Nice work. We just past halfway (which was $12k), and feeling great!
Nice progress! You will love it once you have those loans paid off.
Heck yes I will! Really hoping 1 year from now i can be posting about how awesome it feels to be debt free!
Congratulations on the progress. You have been doing great on paying down the loan. I don’t doubt that you will get it paid off by next June as you plan.
Thanks Andy. The road looks rough, but I’ve got my wife and my budget by my side!
Nice progress, but I hope you are still saving for retirement.
That is awesome, congratulations on the four figure milestone. It will be a couple of years before I can crack the cork for that milestone. I did pat myself on the back for cracking under 40k not to long ago.
Congrats Jacob! That’s a pretty nice milestone to hit. We recently hit 1 year of annual income in retirement savings, which was pretty cool. Always fun and motivating to see progress like that.
How exciting – congratulations!!! I can’t wait to get to this point in my debt repayment journey!!
Nice work! It was one of the best feelings paying off all my business school loans. I suspect you are now going to be extra motivated to pay it off within a year!
Congratulations!!! Our bin win this year was fully funding both Roth IRA’s despite making less than last year and $12,000 in dental expenses that just popped up.
Great milestone to see Jacob. I always loved to see those and I am excited for you. Keep it up!
Nice job! There seems to be a lot of celebrations like that in the PF world today!!
That is awesome! Congratulations on job well done. It’s really nice to read accomplishments like this.
Congrats, that’s awesome! I cannot wait for that day. I recently celebrated getting my student loans under 50k, which was a huge milestone!
Nice work. I started at like $40k, so don’t worry, you’ll get there, probably quicker than I did 🙂
Fabulous! We recently paid off $8,000 on a $12,000 student loan, and it was such a wonderful feeling. We can’t WAIT to make that last payment and have it off our shoulders forever! (although, we still have $200k left. Wah wah)
That’s a huge chunk! Nice work!