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Down to $90 Thousand – Figuring Out the Next Big Milestone

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At the end of last week I hit another milestone in my student loan debt repayment when my latest payment was processed and my total outstanding student loan debt hit about $90 thousand. That’s a pretty big drop from the $121 thousand that I started out at, huh?

And while hitting $90 thousand in outstanding student loan debt is a big accomplishment, I find myself focusing in on defining the next big milestone in my repayment plan. Sure, the obvious choice is to hit $80 thousand outstanding (and I project that I should be there around July 1st), but there has to be something in between – and I think I know what it is.

I now owe a little more than $35 thousand on my NJHESAA loan. I think a nice interim “big milestone” will be when I bring that particular loan below $30 thousand. According to my projections, I may hit that particular milestone around May 15th, but that depends on a lot of different things falling into place.

So, today I celebrate getting the student loan debt down to $90 thousand. Here’s hoping that we have an entry about me reaching $89 thousand before the end of the month!

In May 2006, I graduated from Rutgers University with a Masters Degree and $120,720 in student loan debt. I currently owe $90 thousand, which breaks down to $35 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.

Student Loan Update – Getting Close to Another Milestone

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No time for big celebrations of elongated entries today about defeating my student loan debt and so on. Today, my student loan debt has fallen from $93 thousand to $91 thousand. I’m particular proud that I started this year with about $97 thousand in student loan debt. In fact, check this out:

Student Loan Debt Today: $91 thousand

Student Loan Debt at 12/31/2009: $97 thousand

Student Loan Debt at 12/31/2008: $105 thousand

Student Loan Debt at 12/31/2007: $110 thousand

So far this year I’ve reduced my debt by $6 thousand and we’re less than 2 full months into 2010. I’m pretty happy with that pace. Also, I’ve been very vocal about how much disdain I have for the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (NJHESAA). Here is my history with that loan over the same time:

NJCLASS Loan Debt Today: $36 thousand

NJCLASS Loan Debt at 12/31/2009: $41 thousand

NJCLASS Loan Debt at 12/31/2008: $48 thousand

NJCLASS Loan Debt at 12/31/2007: $51 thousand

I don’t like the attitude of the organization that holds this particular loan and I’m putting all of my effort towards completely retiring this debt in the next 12 – 15 months. And I might have a few tricks up my sleeve to help reduce this debt quicker as time goes along…

Anyway, I’m too close to another milestone ($90 thousand) to spend any time celebrating right now. Be on the lookout for some more student loan good news in the next week to ten days…

In May 2006, I graduated from Rutgers University with a Masters Degree and $120,720 in student loan debt. I currently owe $91 thousand, which breaks down to $36 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.

Online Payments – A Form of Useless Help from NJHESAA

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One of the great things about the digital age is the ability to automate certain aspects of one’s life. For example, I recently began automating my United States Department of Education (USDOE) student loan payments. Beginning on March 28th and on the 28th of each month thereafter, an automatic debit will be taken from my bank account to make this payment. I’ve budget for it, I have it set to go, and it’ll all be done automatically. Perfect.

The USDOE has figured out how the system is supposed to work. There’s no hassle, no aggravation, no fees for the online payment service, and they even offer an incentive to use the automated system. This incentive comes in the form of a 0.25% interest rate reduction. That’s some pretty good customer service and the USDOE deserves credit for doing the right thing by its borrowers.

And then you have the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (NJHESAA). Ugh… These profit-focused folks just don’t get it.

The NJHESAA recently instituted an online payment portal, too. Sounds good, right? Well, not so fast! Not only is there no incentive for the borrowers to use the system (i.e. no interest rate reduction), but there is a fee for using the service! And not just a small fee, a 2.5% fee! How disgusting is that?!

Think about that fee in action. I just sent a $2,000 check to the NJHESAA. If I opted to make that payment online, that would have resulted in a total charge of $2,050. I’m sorry, but that’s just unacceptable. And I’m sure that the NJHESAA’ers that troll this blog are thinking to themselves, “Hey! We get charged to offer those online services. There is a cost to process payments online due to merchant fees and other fees charged by the credit card companies. This guy clearly doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

Having dealt with the NJHESAA over the phone I know that they typically think their borrowers aren’t as intelligent as they are when it comes to, well, pretty much anything. So since I know that the NJHESAA folks are likely reading this and that they are likely thinking what I wrote above, let me remind them of a few business basics. First, there is a cost to doing business. The NJHESAA’s cost for offering the online payment system is being charged the various merchant fees associated with credit card and other payments. Since the NJHESAA isn’t in the business of selling retail products, it can’t raise the price of its goods to cover this fee. Instead, if the company wants to offer this feature, it has to absorb the cost.

Second, this company couldn’t try any harder to project a money-grubbing public image. Sure, they can get away with continuing to sell their services to unsuspecting new borrowers. However, with a growing chorus of voices like mine who aren’t necessarily focused on “exposing” anything, but instead are focused on educating younger generations on what getting a loan from the NJHESAA really means, I wonder how long they’ll be able to operate in their profit-first, borrower-second mindset.

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And to think, all the NJHESAA needed to do in order to avoid this particular entry of negative press was take their focus off of profits and put it on the needs of their borrowers. All they needed to do was absorb the cost of doing business instead of passing on that fee to their borrowers. But they just couldn’t do it. They just couldn’t focus on what was best for their borrowers because they were blinded by their bottom line.

For shame.

Boom! My Student Loan Debt Drops Again

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As you can probably tell by now, I love making these announcements. It was about two or so weeks ago now when I announced that my student loan debt had fallen from about $96 thousand to $94 thousand. Well, the balance just keeps on decreasing! My student loan debt is now clocking in at about $93 thousand and that is before I make a big payment that I planned for later this month.

Earlier this month I was talking to a friend of mine about this student loan debt burden that I carry around. We were talking about this strict repayment plan that I put myself on and how I project being able to repay my New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (NJHESAA) loan within the next 16 – 18 months. She asked me if I can see the light at the end of the tunnel yet and I had to answer honestly and say no, I can’t see that light yet. Announcements like the one you are reading today are a good source of “feel good” news for me and some of my close friends and family that read this blog, but just because I’m happy that one of my student loans is on the fast track to getting repaid doesn’t mean that I can see/sense/feel the end of this repayment journey.

However, I can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel with respect to successfully repaying my NJHESAA loan!

I should define what “success” is for this repayment plan. You may have become aware of this little italicized blurb that I’m including at the end of each student loan repayment-related entry (scroll down and read it if you want). You’ll see that I talk about both of my loans – the NJHESAA one and the United States Department of Education (USDOE) one. You’ll also see that the USDOE loan figure (currently at $55 thousand) doesn’t really change much. There’s a reason for that – success in this repayment plan doesn’t anticipate accelerated repayment on the USDOE loan.

In other words, you’ll know when I’ve achieved success when I have somewhere between $52 thousand to $55 thousand left outstanding in my total student loan debt. When I reach that amount outstanding it means that I probably paid off my NJHESAA loan in full, leaving me with just the USDOE loan. And since the USDOE loan is on a repayment plan that triggers an automatic forgiveness of outstanding debt after 10 years of payments (for me, that will occur in October 2017), I have time to sit back and let that one hang around for a little bit longer.

Or accelerate its repayment. Who knows?

Anyway, since you’re all going to be following my student loan repayment story right here on JerseySmarts.com, you will all be along for the ride as the NJHESAA loan gets smaller and smaller. You’ll know when my repayment plan is almost complete because JerseySmarts.com will erupt in a celebration when that loan is paid off!

In May 2006, I graduated from Rutgers University with a Masters Degree and $120,720 in student loan debt. I currently owe $93 thousand, which breaks down to $38 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.

Another Notch on the Student Loan Debt Reduction Belt

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Get used to posts like this one – I’ve dropped my student loan debt by two thousand more dollars to take it from about $96 thousand down to approximately $94 thousand. These baby steps are all going to add up quicker than anyone can imagine; remember, it was only last month that I had two separate announcements about my declining student loan debt.

So, as I’ve said before on this blog – get used to reading these types of entries because I am committed to attacking one of my two outstanding student loans this year. If I can stick to the plan that I created in December, I’ll rid myself of the $39 thousand debt remaining on my NJHESAA loan in the next 18 to 24 months. And, believe it or not, time seems to be flying by these days so I could potentially be free from this loan before you even know it. That will leave me with just my USDOE loan left to repay, which I’ve opted to keep for the longer haul since the interest rate isn’t as ridiculous as the NJHESAA interest rate and since the USDOE loan will continue to provide a decent annual tax deduction. Also, the USDOE loan is on a repayment program that retires the outstanding debt after ten years of payments. I’m already a few years into that plan so I’ll re-evaluate whether I want to stick with it once my plan to eliminate the NJHESAA debt is complete.

Anyway, today is a day of celebration – another two thousand bucks is gone from the albatross around my neck!

In May 2006, I graduated from Rutgers University with a Masters Degree and $120,720 in student loan debt. I currently owe $94 thousand, which breaks down to $39 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.