Hey guys! I’m sure you are saying to yourself, there is no way she paid off so much of her student loans in such a small time. But, yes way! I totally have! And before you guys even start: 1. I’M NOT RICH 2. I DON’T LIVE AT HOME… I LIVE IN HOUSTON… IN AN APARTMENT… BY MYSELF.. &&& MY RENT IS $1000 A MONTH 3. I DON’T HAVE A SPOUSE OR A ROOMMATE. 4. I MAKE A SALARY AVERAGE FOR THE HOUSTON AREA… I WORK IN INSURANCE… NOTHING SPECIAL AND I’M NOT IN MANAGEMENT.
If you guys will look below, I have a screen shot of where my student loans stand as of April 30th, 2020. I made my first real payment on February 5th, 2020… for $3,100.00. If you all will take a look at the expanded details of my February 5th payment, you’ll see that $3,014.80 of my $3100.00 payment WENT TOWARDS INTEREST ONLY!!!! Only, $85.20 actually went towards my actual principal…. all I can do is freaking laugh (KIDDING I WAS CRYING). Freaking highway robbery.
Before I made my $3100 payment, my total student loan balance stood tall at approximately $77,545.50.
A few days later… I decided to take a little more out of my emergency fund.. then a little more. Look… what really happened was that I drew up a little debt o meter… like the one below… the only problem was that I made the big part at the bottom worth $10,000 and then each additional knot $1,000 increments. I felt so… underwhelmed at the amount I was able to color in by paying $3,100, so I went ahead and dumped an additional $7,000 out of my savings account so that I could make it an almost even $10,000, lmao. Say what you want about my reasoning.. because I don’t care lol.
Then I realized… the federal government didn’t make an interest subsidy payment on my behalf in the month of March and I was baffled! What in the H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS WAS GOING ON? Then I realized… they won’t make an interest subsidy payment because I had no interest on my loan… I’d paid it all! So, whoops! I decided to wait until April the 1st to make another payment!
Unless you guys have been living under a rock…
… you’ll certainly know that some things changed in March regarding student loans. The federal government decided due to the COVID-19 pandemic.. they were going to drop student loan interest rates to 0%. Further, they back dated the decision to the middle of March through the end of September 2020. Woot Woot!!!!
I no longer had to wait for the interest subsidy to post because the government was going to be paying my interest for the next 6 months!! woohoo!!!
So how did I come up with the $24,789.38 of payments I made on my student loans from my savings account?? I’ll tell ya how!
- I emptied my personal savings account down to 5-6 months of emergency savings! I was sitting on a lot of savings, because.. what if my world was turned upside down? What if I woke up and decided I needed a 6 month break from working? (I’ve done this before), What if I decided I wanted to book a flight tomorrow out of the country? (I’ve done that before too) What if I decided tomorrow, I want to move to a new city where I don’t know any one? (I’ve done that before)… lol. I need to be still!
Dave Ramsey suggests only having $1000 in savings.. but…NAH BRUH. I can’t even do it.. yet… I may do that when I get closer to my $0 pay off, but not right now… nah son. - I’m living off of rice and beans.. rice and beans! Well not exactly, but I’ve cut my food budget tremendously (well mostly… its increased a tad because I’ve been home more due to COVID-19). I shop at Aldi and I cut all fun things out of my budget! My budget is literally bare bones.
- I don’t really go anywhere or do anything!- Well… I can’t even if I wanted to now due to the COVID-19 outbreak… but before this all started, I was planning to socially distance.
- I automated my savings! I don’t have access to my Ally savings account.. can’t go to the bank and get money out, and I don’t have a debit card… I go online every so often and just move however much is in my savings account to my student loan account. Easy peasy! By cutting my budget I’m able to put at least $1800 a month on my loans. Woot!
- I got a promotion! I remember trying to argue my annual raise in my one on one with my supervisor in mid January … 2 or 3 days later I had an interview for the promotion and got offered the position… ya’ll. God funny, got to be if I was made in his image!! I have to give the glory to God for that promotion.. The manager that hired me said he couldn’t think of the last time he hired someone with such little experience in the role. lmaooooooooooo ! Did I mention one of the perks is a company car??? Even once this lockdown is over, I likely will be able to take “car gas” out of my monthly budget.. I don’t go anywhere really besides work and home.
- I put any extra funds I got towards my debt! Specifically, my tax refund, my stimulus check, and some of the proceeds I received from selling a property back home in Saint Louis! That was honestly a big chunk of the debt pay off… I’d say about $17,600 came from these sources. The rest was legit savings from my 9-5 since January 2020.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Live below your means… and make more money! There is no magical move.. congress will likely not pay off all of your student loans.. Even though Vice President Biden is “all of the sudden” calling for “Widespread Student Loan Forgiveness” now that Bernie is out of the race… I’m nearly 99% certain that he is going to require people to make some sort of payment towards their student loans for 15+ years before the debt is forgiven.. and I just… I can’t even deal. I say that because that’s literally the 2.0 version of the option that is already out there…
Move home, get a roommate, sell your car back to the dealership, cancel any vacations you have if you’ve got cancellation protection, get a smaller apartment, learn to say no! Above all else… if you owe somebody or something money besides the roof over your head…my friend, YOU ARE BROKE AS FUCK! ACT LIKE IT!
astoldbymickb 