I started paying off my student loans one year ago in November 2012. Technically, this is the second round of repayment for me, due to my second degree, but it still marks the first year of my first aggressive attempt to pay it down. I started with about $27,000 in student loans at 5.5% interest, calculated daily. When I started repayment, my daily interest charge was well over $4. That’s a latte a day!
I hate this website…
November 2012
Loan Amount: $27,574.78
Daily Interest Charge: $4.84
When I started repayment, my payments were regularly scheduled payments that came out of my budget. I started at the minimum monthly payment and increased it to $500 a month as my salary increased. I also made additional payments from income generated from the blog, mystery shopping, and monetary windfalls such as tax returns.
After one year, I’ve managed to pay $11,093 towards my student loans. Out of that amount, $1,170.57 went towards interest and $9,542.93 went towards the principal amount. I’m down to just over $17,000 and my daily interest charge is almost cut in half!
October 2013
Loan Amount: $17,652.35
Daily Interest Charge: $2.66
I’m hoping to pay off the remainder of my loan in the next 12-16 months. A few things should help facilitate that:
- I’ve increased my monthly payment from $500 a month to $750 a month
- I should have another raise at work by April or May of next year, allowing me to contribute more money
- I should be able to continue contributing money from my side jobs
I’m super excited for the day I can log into the awful, awful NSLSC website and be able to see a loan balance of ZERO.
Anyone else battling a student loan?
