Made my last payment today!!

I DID IT! At 33, I made my final payment today in one big chunk to just be DONE. No more student loans!

I am a new mom (7 month old), and between childcare, formula, diapers, saving for her future, and my own retirement, I no longer wanted my student loan hanging over my head.

Here’s how I was able to do it:

– Earned my associates degree at my local community college. Used whatever Pell Grants I qualified for and took the minimum loans needed outside of that for tuition, fees, and books. Worked full time during school.

– Got my bachelors degree paid for by my employer, and worked full time while obtaining my bachelors degree

– Worked for 8 years, saved as much money as I possibly could during that time, although I did get married and we bought a home, so some money went toward our down payment (this was right before the pandemic, so we were fortunate to get an insanely good deal on our home purchase and interest rate)

– Went back to school for my masters. Worked full time during school again. Took minimum amount of loans to pay for my tuition and fees. Graduated with about $40,000 in student loan debt

– Got a job using my masters degree (nurse practitioner) but also kept my bedside nursing job on a part time basis and another side job ( was working 3 jobs my first year as a NP since building up my client base took so long and I work fee for service, so was not even making enough to pay my bills)

– Kept my PRN bedside nursing job my second year as a NP even when things picked up a bit; picked up weekends and holidays- threw that money at my loans

– Finally left my PRN nursing job about 3 months before I had my baby girl, with only about $8,000 left to go on my loans, and through some careful planning and creative budgeting, made my final big payment today!

IT FEELS SO GOOD TO BE FREE 🙌🏼

To anyone reading, it is possible to pay your loans off! You CAN do it!