Of course this post had to begin with a cute pet photo! I’ve never seen these two be so close to each other!
Been a little bit since I’ve been able to give an update, but I promise this one has been worth waiting for!!
May is the month I’ve been waiting for all year!! Yeah, baby….it’s the first 3 paycheck month of the year! And I have a plan for those extra dollars – they are going to go straight to my private student loan.
Here’s how the debt is looking as of now:
LAL Loan: $17,401.24
Simmons Loan: $23,620.04
Big Daddy (federal) loan: $75,390.94
Total balance: $116.412.22
My last payment on the LAL loan was made on April 16th, for 167.11. That’s my regular monthly payment now. Of that, $151.56 went to principal with just $15.55 going to interest. Before that, I had made a payment of $433 of which $410.31 went to principal and $22.69 went to interest. I remember the days when that loan was nearing 8% and when most of my payment went to interest rather than the other way around.
So what’s my plan? Well, here it is:
Paycheck of 5/2/14: $1133 EXTRA to LAL loan (this includes the usual $433 extra that I pay on the loan, plus $700)
Paycheck of 5/16/14: $130 EXTRA to LAL loan, plus the usual regular payment of $167.11, for a total payment of 297.11 – ok, now that I look at it, I need to make it an even $300, or that’s gonna drive me crazy!
Paycheck of 5/30/14: Let’s say an EXTRA $100 to the student loan.
I want to try to pay more at the end of May, but I know with that paycheck, I’ll be attending a conference in Providence for four days that is held by Perform Better. I need to leave myself money and time to take either the commuter rail or a rental car. It’s looking possible to do, however, with the commuter rail, which will save me a TON of $ over taking a rental car there. It’ll be some long days but that’s ok. It’ll be worth it.
So, that comes to a grand total of $1533 to be paid on the loan this upcoming month of May. WOW. I sure hope I can turn that into a reality. That would definitely bring my loan down into the $15K range – woohoo! Not bad considering it was almost $21K back in September, and in the meantime, I’ve really increased my savings and also paid off a personal loan of about $4200. (See the numbers below.)
Sept. 2013:
Personal loan: $4,211.42
LAL loan: $20,939.94
Simmons Loan: $23,620.04
Big Daddy (federal) loan: $75,390.94
TOTAL BALANCE: $124,162.34
Just think – it might be more than $10,000 of debt I’ll have paid off in about 9 months if I can do this!! And saved more than I have ever saved before. The work is paying off. I’m proud to say that as of now, I have more saved than I ever had saved before, even when I was married. 🙂 [Of course, some of it is being saved for next year’s taxes for my freelance work, but hey, let me revel in this goal, ok?!)
Wow. I just reread this post and thought about it. I have spent more in the past month than normal, due to my friend being in town for the marathon, and having bought some new sneakers (the beautiful Hoka One Ones Bondi model), plus I have bought some sports nutrition products through a company called Vega. The products are all plant-based, so I’ll let you know how they work out. Just part of the marathon training program.
I’ll give everyone an update once these payments hit the loan account and I can see how much goes to principal vs. interest, etc.
DIE, LAL Loan, DIE!!! (Picture me saying this while brandishing a sledgehammer!!)
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Chasing Simple Dreams 