Coming to you again exactly 1 year since my last post, 5 Loans in 4 Years, 2 years after my 4 Loans in 3 Years, and 3 years after my 2 Loans in 2 Years post! The debt payoff continues as I’ve now paid off 6ish out of 9 loans!
I say 6ish, because this journey was primarily focused on paying off my student debt loans – which I had 9 of. However, once the forgiveness was cancelled (we’ll get to that in a second), I chose to redirect my intentions to paying off my car.
I purchased my car in 2018, and after 5.5 years of payments, I finally made my last one in July!! Paying off any loan is something to celebrate, but paying off a car just hits different. Most would probably say something like, “We’ll at least now there’s one less bill to pay”, which for the average human may be true. However, I am no average human.
While I’d love to say I’m making an extra $230 a month now not having to pay it to my car, I’ve instead decided to redirect that payment. To what you ask? My student loans of course! Since I’m also planning a wedding I do give myself some leeway with this, but either way that payment certainly isn’t going back into my pocket (not yet anyways 😉 )
In last year’s post, I emphasized how great it was that we were finally getting forgiveness… however I should’ve known it was too good to be true as the Supreme Court decided to block this move.
Interest on student loans restarted on September 1st, and payments became due again in October – marking the restart of the cycle after over 3 years. With this announcement, also came the SAVE plan – President Biden’s attempt to still provide some relief.
This is an income-driven plan that determines your monthly payment using your income amount and family size. For many, this plan was a life saver. It allowed some people’s payments to be $0, and this plan also comes with an interest benefit. As long as you make your monthly payment each month, any remaining interest that is unpaid will be waived.
This means your loan will not grow due to unpaid interest – which is the REAL culprit of the student debt crisis. For example: If $50 in interest accumulates each month and you have a $30 payment under this plan, the remaining $20 would not be charged. So the way I understand it is: if under this plan your monthly payment is determined to be $0, your loan will not be growing since technically you’re “paying” $0 each month. So while your loans will not be paid off for a longer time (since no payments are being made) you will also not see your loan growing bigger due to interest. Again, THIS IS HUGE.
For me personally, the SAVE plan was not more cost effective than the income driven repayment plan I was already set up on. Therefore, I’m unfortunately still accruing and paying for interest. However, I do know many people that benefit from this new plan, and I’m happy for them for that!
While I’d have loved for the forgiveness plan to be passed and my loans to be forgiven (making me officially debt free in about a year), I can’t say I’m fully surprised it didn’t. I find it very disappointing that we as Americans continue to pick sides instead of wanting the best for our people. Many people will say, “will I get forgiveness for my mortgage then?” or “I paid off my loans, so you should have to too” or “you took the loan so you have to pay it back”, and while those all may be valid – only other low/middle class Americans are saying that. Because the upper class/wealthy most certainly are getting subsidiaries, forgiveness, and assistance. Remember the $790B in Covid PPP loans that were given? Well $758B of that got forgiven. Just saying.
Currently, my student loan balance is about $15.8k. I should have my 6th student loan paid off (hopefully) in the next 6 months or so, which will still keep me on track with one loan a year! Assuming the trend continues, I should be debt free (from student loans at least) by the end of 2027, the latest😅
As always, thank you for reading! Make sure you subscribe so you can stay tuned for next year’s update on my progress.
Until next time!
TRAUDTSTWOCENTS 