Happy New Year everyone! Thank you all so much for stopping by to read the blog, commenting on my YouTube videos, and messaging me with your student loan questions. Repaying student loan debt is a long journey and it’s better with awesome folks like you along for the trip.
In today’s post I give a review of my student loan debt progress compared to the goal I set for myself. This is the first year, in all my years of repaying my student loans, that I crushed my repayment goal completely. Estimated read time ~5 minutes, estimated watch time at 1.5x ~4 minutes.
My 2018 Student Loan Debt Goal
Let’s refresh by talking about what I set out to accomplish with student loan repayment in 2018.
My goal was to pay $3,000 per month toward my student loans for a total of $36,000 for the year.
It was an ambitious goal but within reach.
I want to be clear, the specific number of this goal is right for me but might not be right for you. Don’t judge yourself or your student loan repayment goals against mine. Each person has different competing financial needs and income. The number only matters in context to my personal goal. My repayment goal doesn’t determine the value of your repayment goal.
The Start of 2018
At the beginning of 2018 I reflected on my 2017 progress and I was pretty disappointed. I hadn’t been nearly as aggressive as I had hoped. Looking back at my 2017 progress was a good reality check for me. In 2017 I put $23,600 toward my student loans. Not the worst, but really not very good either.
I started 2018 with a total student loan balance of $64,672.61 or about half of my original $132,000 balance.
2018 Student Loan Repayment Progress
2018 was a very successful year for my student loan repayment.
I paid $43,925 toward my student loans and my student loan balance as of Jan 1 2019 is $22,341.69
Ahhh!!! I’m almost out of student loan debt you guys!
2019 Student Loan Repayment Goal
2019 is going to be the year I pay off my student loans completely. One of the biggest things that’s helped me pay so much extra this year is that I can see how close I am to being out of debt. I’ve decided I want to be out of student loan debt before I turn 30.
To make that happen I’m going to pay at least $3,500 each month toward my student loans. That should mean I’ve repayed my student loans completely in July of 2019! Just 7 more months of student loan debt.
2019 is going to be a bit more challenging for me financially because I have a major competing financial interest, I’m getting married in October. My fiance and I are splitting the cost of the wedding and I already have my half saved, assuming I can stick to my budget. I don’t have anything saved for the honeymoon but I’m hoping I can use what I had been paying on my student loans every month to come up with the funds for my half of a really nice trip!
How was your 2018?
I love hearing from other borrowers working to repay their student loans. I’d love it if you could share how repayment went for you in 2018 and what your goal is for 2019. Leave me a comment below or on the Repayable Facebook Page or drop me a message, I’m jeni@repayable.org. Here’s to a 2019 that brings you closer to your #debtfreedream
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