At the end of September, we were able to pay off the second to the last student loan. I think the beginning total was something like $9k. I’ll just go ahead and overshare with actual rough totals:
Debt #1 – $6k, paid off in August 2010
Debt #2 – $9k, pad off in September 2011
Debt #3 – $38k, to be paid off in 2013
It doesn’t seem all that long ago that I wrote that we’d paid off Debt #1, and it really wasn’t. How did we pay off $15k in less than 2 years? And how will we pay off $32k by 2014? By being very lucky with our jobs and living well below our means. We’re fairly average according to Dave Ramsey, with being able to get through the Debt Snowball in three years–$53k in three years doesn’t sound too shabby.
I recently heard that students shouldn’t borrow more than they will make in their first year working. After I thought, “that’s impossible,” I realized that this holds true for both my spouse and I. He made more than $15k his first year after he finished with school, and I made more than $38k. And, with not changing our lifestyles from being students to part of the full-time workforce, quickly paying off the debt and saving over $25k in interest payments has been marvelous.
November 10th, 2011 at 10:51 PM
Great job paying off debt.
November 28th, 2011 at 6:56 PM
Congrats! That is awesome.