This Repayment Plan is Tough, But Worth the Strain

Anyone that has been following my student loan repayment story here on JerseySmarts.com has to know that this plan is pretty tough to stay on. There are a variety of interests that pull my money from my pocket and they range in value and necessity from buying new clothes (a necessity at times) to making donations to causes that I care about (a necessity for personal and tax reasons) to trying to get a bite to eat at a restaurant every once in a while (not a necessity at all). However, I refrain from spending money foolishly because I have to repay this student loan debt.

And when I stick to the plan, I get to make announcements like this one. Today, my student loan debt has dropped from $80 thousand to $79 thousand. I hope that by now, you’ve become accustomed to the thousand dollar drop every other week. I hope to keep that going through the end of the calendar year. And, frankly, with the addition of my adjunct professor paycheck starting in about 6 weeks, I expect to be able to jump over a grand here and there and make announcements that I’m two thousand dollars lower than the previous update.

But that will come in time.

I’ve taken a look at my finances through the end of November and it’s pretty interesting. I’m projecting to bring my student loan debt down by another $10 thousand or so before December 31st. That’s not bad. And I plan to accomplish that by beginning another goal that I have – to make this the fiscal year (July 1, 2010 – June 30, 2011) where I achieve my highest level of support for the Foundation where I serve as a Trustee. Granted, that may amount to only a few thousand dollars worth of donations over the course of now through next June 30th, but it’s a goal that I want to achieve.

And when I think about how – once the student loans are paid off – I’ll be able to use some of this extra money that I’m currently diverting towards my student loans and put it towards other causes, that’s pretty exciting. I’d like to sponsor scholarships for undergraduate and graduate student that are struggling to get their degree. I’ll be able to do that once these student loans are gone. I want to invest more in the market. I’ll be able to do that, too, once these student loans go away. There are limitless possibilities as to what I can achieve once this albatross is gone from around my neck.

Right now, though, I’m celebrating another thousand bucks biting the dust!

In May 2006, I graduated from Rutgers University with a Masters Degree and $120,720 in student loan debt. I currently owe $79 thousand, which breaks down to $24 thousand owed to the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority and $55 thousand owed to the United States Department of Education. Follow my student loan repayment story on JerseySmarts.com.