We are Student Loan Debt Free!!
Written by Mrs Money on June 29, 2009 – 6:56 am -
We are student loan debt free!! On Friday, I made the final payment online, checked this morning, and it had posted. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be rid of this debt! We have paid off this last loan of $12,333.80 in 1 year, 3 months, and 25 days. Yes!
I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned it on the blog before, but this $12,333.80 is not the only student loan debt we had. In 2004, Mr. Money enrolled in culinary arts school and we moved across country for him to attend. Fast forward to October 2006, and now he’s got his degree and has left school with over $36,000 in debt. Yes, that is not a typo. $36,000 was more debt than I ever cared to accumulate, and we went full force attacking it.
We paid off almost $24,000 in two years, on mainly my salary of $12 an hour full time, plus Mr. Money’s salary of $8(?) an hour part time. Needless to say, we lived pretty poor to be able to pay off that kind of money in that short of a period of time. In 2007, we bought a house and added more debt to the plate. At the start of this blog, we had $12,333.80 left. I knew I wanted to pay this off as quickly as possible. One of my 2009 financial goals was to pay off this student loan and I thought it was a hefty goal. Here we are, halfway through the year and we’ve done it. It is quite an amazing feeling!
It doesn’t feel real that we’ve paid of $36,000 worth of debt (just in student loans!) in 2 and a half years. Looking at how much money we made doesn’t even make it seem possible but we did it all while saving for an emergency fund, putting a nice down payment on a car, and paying extra on our other loans. The fact is, we did it, and I can’t imagine a greater feeling.
Now onto chipping away at our car loan and living a debt free life soon!
Posted in My Debt Reduction, Pay Off Debt | 11 Comments »







June 29th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Congratulations, that is a huge achievement! I’m making plans to get rid of Mr M’s credit card debt this year, I need to invent a debt zapper called Debt B Gone. Imagine how much you’ll be able to save and invest once all the debt is gone.
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June 29th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Hooray!!!!
The other day, I saw your sidebar reach 100% and was hoping you’d post about it. Way to go! And now, you can have an even bigger snowball for your car, or whatever your next goal is.
You’re doing a fantastic job!
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June 29th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
@ Miss M- Thanks!! I would like to borrow that debt zapper when you get done making it.
@ Kacie- Thank you so much! You have been such an inspiration to me. I can’t wait to see how our new budget shakes out with the decreased mortgage and no student loan payment!
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June 30th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
Congrats! That’s a great achievement, especially on the income you mentioned.
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July 1st, 2009 at 5:29 pm
@ bluntmoney- Thanks so much!
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July 1st, 2009 at 7:33 pm
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
What a wonderful achievement, and like bluntmoney said, on the income you mentioned, it’s phenomenal!
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July 2nd, 2009 at 9:22 pm
I’m totally inspired. There’s no excuse for me not paying off my debt much, much faster than I’ve been paying it off. Congratulations!
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July 6th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
@ FB & Deirdre- Thanks!!
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July 13th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
[...] you aren’t using, cut your cable, put the nix on going out to eat, and so on. We attacked our student loans with gazelle intensity, and paid it off a lot sooner than we had hoped. Now the only unsecured debt [...]
August 4th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
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January 6th, 2010 at 7:30 am
[...] straight towards principal. I think I have a valid reason- we were focused on paying off our student loan, as well as saving more money in our emergency fund and contributing to my 401k. While I think that [...]