Close It Down

Yesterday I used half of our tax return to pay off the remaining $2,606.66 of my student loans.

It felt amazing.

I know I’m very lucky that my parents paid for my public undergraduate education, and that I only had graduate school debt to pay back. I’m sad I probably won’t be able to afford my children that same luxury. (Even the California State schools and UCs are becoming prohibitively expensive.)

I’m so glad I paid more every month than was required and closed out my account three years early. That is one of the few sound financial choices I’ve made in my adult life.

We still have so far to go to reach the financial security we are hoping to achieve, but paying off my student loans is definitely a step in the right direction.

22 Comments

  1. Yay! congrats, this is a huge win. Not having to make that payment every month should lighten the budget a tad, right?

  2. “One of the few sound financial choices” youve made? You’ve said that you never bounce checks, you only pay cash for cars, you save for retirement, you own a home (and rental property!), you look at your budget for things to cut…you’ve made a lot of sound financial choices!

    1. You’re right. I probably don’t give myself enough credit (BTW, I do sometimes overdraw on my checking account. Not super frequently, but it definitely happens). I just see other people making way better choices than I do and it cheapens my good choices in my own mind (which is dumb, I try not to do it). But I’m really proud of paying ahead on my student loans. I’m SO EXCITED to have paid them off.

  3. Congratulations! I did the same thing a few months ago and it felt great! That $450/month payment was rough. And I was in the same boat as you- I didn’t have any debt from college, only from law school.

    1. Law school is a way bigger bill to pay off than a masters so congrats! That is awesome. I will definitely NOT miss that payment every month.

  4. Now you can do the debt snowball… take that $450 and apply it to something else to pay down faster! I can’t stand money guy Dave Ramsey (ahem politics) but I think that idea is fab and we plan to do that once we stop paying daycare costs in August! (Holy shit, no daycare soon!)

    1. OMG no day care! I think about how amazing that will be! Only three more years! 😉 (Fucking October birthday!)

      You may not be so proud of what I plan to do with the money though. 😉

  5. That’s fantastic! Congratulations!!! I still have a looooong way to go just paying off my private undergrad. I often wonder if it was worth the price tag… O_O

  6. Oh my word, congrats!!! You should be very proud of yourself (and I hope to be like you one day) and your financial decisions.

    1. Thanks. I’m realizing I wasn’t all the proud of myself, but I’m trying to make that happen inside. I really did make some good choices to be hear today. It’s worth celebrating.

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