June Student Loan Payoff Details

June 2018 Student Loan Payoff Details

Just like that another month has passed by and we are halfway through 2018. As each month passes, I can’t help but think that I am one month closer to having no student loan debt. I look forward to the magical land of ZERO balance. However, which each payment and each month there are hard decisions to be made. There were two big things that I said, “No” to. One was essentially a free trip to beach. We had a free place to stay but we would still have to cover gas, meals and any extras that might pop up. This was a hard decision to make because I love going to the beach, I mean L-O-V-E. The next “No” came when I declined a trip to Essence Festival in New Orleans and trust me, I wanted to go. However, when I considered the costs of my plane ticket, meals, concert tickets, transportation, etc – the decision was, “I will pass this year.”

Sometimes saying “No” is the easy part and the hard part really comes in the action. The action of making those extra payments. Because I don’t know of anyone that truly finds joy in paying off debt or I dare to say any bills – or is that just me. True it is a great feeling to make progress monthly towards becoming debt free and also knowing that your electricity, water and cell phone bill is paid but that doesn’t mean that you like paying bills. I would pick spending my income on experiences or investing over paying off debt any day but its good to know that the fun stuff will come soon.

If you are new to my debt payoff story – currently I only have Student Loans (not including mortgage) six loans to be exact and at one point I had ten. The strategy that I am using to pay off my student loans is the snowball method where I pay the minimum required payment  on all groups and then throw all remaining money on the student loan with the lowest balance. I plan to continue with the snowball method except for when I get down to the last two loan groups. Then I will have one loan with a 2.125% percentage rate and one with a 6.3% percentage rate.  In that case, I will pay off the 6.3%  interest rate loan first and then the 2.125% interest rate loan, even though the balance will be lower on the 2.125% loan. Therefore, the last two loans will be paid off using the avalanche method. The avalanche method is where you pay off the debt with the highest interest rate first. This will save money on interest.

2018 Numbers and Progress YTD:

January – $2450.00 – Credit Card Payoff!

February – $900 .00– Paid off Student Loan Group G. YAY!

March -$126.00 – Cash flowed a beach house rental for April, purchased spring/summer items and cash flowed some other expenses that came up. Honestly, just did a lot of spending this month.

April -$899.00- I planned to pay $1000 but I didn’t fully submit the payment so it was added to May’s payoff amount.

May – $2000.00 – This payment put me under the $50,000 mark! It was great to see $49K….

June – $1175.12 – I set a goal to pay off $1350.00 and honestly, I am a little disappointed that I did not meet that goal. Even though, I was only off by $174.88, I was still off! But now I am super focused to meet my goal for July – which will include the payoff of a loan group so there will be strict budgeting for July and saying, “No” to more events and non-essential shopping. However, I am a real believer of making short-term sacrifices now for long term successes in the future.

The numbers reflected show payments made above the minimum payment required to show actual debt reduction.

Sugar and Money for the Month of June

Sugar for the Month- a weekend trip to Atlanta for a women’s conference. The women’s conference was worth the ticket price and more (To save money, the ticket was purchased during an early bird special and the hotel stay was split with a friend) Personal development is definitely worth the cost.

My husband and I also took a weekend trip to Richmond, VA to celebrate a friend opening a store front for her boutique. Thankfully, we were able to stay with our friends for free and our main expenses was only food and gas. Celebrating with friends and a low cost weekend getaway is a win -win in my book.

Now Let’s Imagine… What could I have done with $1175.12 if it didn’t go toward debt…

Sugar – Two tickets to see the off Broadway theatre show “Hamilton” when it comes to Charlotte, NC in October, which would be right around the time of my birthday.

Money – Continue funding the imaginary Roth IRA that I would have opened in May. I could add $1175 to it and I would only be $2325 away from the 2018 contribution limit of $5500.00.

Next Steps with Debt Payoff:

Currently targeting Group D with a balance of $1,447.83 and my current overall balance on my student loans is now under $49,000. Hello $40’s and now I am gunning for the $30’s.

As always the goal is to be as transparent as possible but I won’t disclose our income. After all, it’s not how much money you make but how you spend what you make.

Feel free to share a sugar and/or money moment of the month below.

Let me know of any questions or comments and Thank you so much for reading and all of your support!