Now That December 21, 2012 Has Come And Gone… The End Really Is Near!

Since we’re all here and you’re reading this it would appear that the Mayans were way off on their prediction for the end of the world. And if you thought that since the Mayans screwed up their end of the world prediction that all “end of” predictions were way off course, don’t worry! I’m glad to report that my student loan repayment projections are still very much on track and heading strongly in the right direction. If you can indulge me for a few paragraphs, I’d like to review some of the current year’s financial figures regarding my remaining student loan debt and how this leads to the end of my loans in 2013.

The one statistic that I always find the most interesting is the amount of interest that I’m paying on my student loans per day. As of January 1, 2012, I was incurring $4.30 per day in interest expenses. Think about that for just a moment: just about one year ago I was losing $4.30 each day to interest costs that were accruing on my student loan. In a year, that interest expense alone would have cost me $1,569.50.

That’s fifteen hundred dollars of lost money. Sickening.

As of today, I’m losing $2.33 per day in interest expenses. Doesn’t sound like much, right? Think again! In a given year, accruing interest at $2.33 per day could cost me $850.45 per year. Remember, interest expenses are completely lost money – funds that don’t reduce the total amount of principal for the loan (and thus reduce the total amount of the interest paid on the loan). It’s just money that you give to whoever lent you the money to no benefit of your own.

Another financial statistic from 2012: this year, I reduced the total principal of my student loan by approximately $16 thousand. Not bad, huh? With about $18 thousand left in student loan debt, I’m looking forward to late spring/early summer when I project that this loan is totally repaid, done, and over with for good.

Stay tuned, folks. The year 2013 will be the last year where I’m repaying my student loans!

In May 2006, I graduated from Rutgers University with a Masters Degree and $120,720 in student loan debt. Since I started repaying my student loans in July 2006, I’ve repaid a total of $103 thousand in principal to various lenders including the federal Perkins loan program, the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority, and CitiBank. I currently owe $18 thousand in principal to the United States Department of Education’s federal Direct Loans program. This loan is serviced by the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority. To date, I’ve repaid over $35 thousand in interest to these lenders. Follow my student loan repayment story on JerseySmarts.com.