I originally took out around 20k for my bachelor's degree which mostly went to my housing costs since university housing was insanely expensive. I know 20k isn't much to a lot of people, but being all on my own since I was 16 and still fending for myself alone until now, it was a heavy weight on my shoulders. I saw how my mom's loans went from 15k to over 60k in her lifetime and didn't want the same to happen to me.
I graduated in December of 2019 and had a 6 month grace period, but before payments began, covid started.
Covid actually helped me out a lot in this process as I took advantage of the 0% interest and paused payments to pursue my masters degree. I worked hard to pay it all out of pocket to not need more loans (which would have been 7% interest). My masters degree then helped me land a job with a large salary increase.
I finally made my first ever loan payment in August last year, and now this month I fully paid it off!
I had less than $1,500 in interest thanks to the Covid pause and the timing of everything.
Wishing everyone the best in their journey!
Finally debt free at 29 with a bachelors and masters degree.
byu/Unusual_Tip7894 inStudentLoans
Posted by Unusual_Tip7894
1 Comment
Well done and congrats!
Now pipe the payments you were making into your 401K… pretend that you are still paying loans off, but this time you are paying yourself in the future! In a few years you will not even notice that as your salary inflates.
You averaged around $2500 per month with those loans, which is an amount that would pre-tax max your 401K to fed limits. Even with no employer match of any kind you will have about $2.5M at a 6% growth…