In July, I owed $35,122.50 in student loans. It is now the 12th of October and my debt is down to $21,122.50; I paid a total of $14,000 in about three-ish months. This means I was putting away, roughly, $4,600 per month to date. How did I do this? Well, I started a job that pays $71k a year in a city with a lower-than-average cost of living two months after I left graduate school (actually, I flunked out of graduate school, but more on that later…). I put what I saw of my sign-on bonus ($5k before taxes) and what we saw of my wife’s scholarship money ($5k before taxes) towards my debt; they were, to say the least, a big help. After making those large initial payments I elected to pay approximately $3,000 per month. Note that, after deductions, my paychecks were $4,119 per month; so I have been putting away 72.8% of my income towards my debt!
My goal is simple. I want to erase the debt I owe from student loans as quickly as I can. I was hoping to pay it all off in a year, but my projection tells me that I might actually accomplish this goal in less than a year; if I continue dropping $3,000 a month on the loans. When this happens, I will finally be debt free. Actually, this is the only debt my wife and I have between the two of us. Therefore, we will both be free of debt as a married couple. Amazing! So how do I feel about putting 72.8% of my income towards my loans? I feel GODDAMN GREAT about it! Really, I do, and perhaps I will tell you why I feel this way in more detail later on.
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