by Adam Dawson
It’s time for a debt update! I’ve been waiting for my balances to update after my Stafford loans were transferred to Great Lakes. Unfortunately, they don’t make it as easy to apply my payments directly to one of my four disbursements. Their website only shows 2 loans instead of 4. Not only that, but by default, they apply my extra payments to my higher balance loans, and I have to call each month to get my payment reapplied.
So as of today, my balances reflect payments against the wrong loan, but hopefully by the next update that will be corrected.
Some people have asked about the minimum and snowball payments. Minimum payments on our loans are about $1100 total. The snowball payment is just shy of $2400. Because we weren’t budgeting in July, we didn’t quite make the full snowball payment. Also, the balance difference won’t reflect the interest payments, only the reduction in principal.
Previous Balance: $112033
September 1 Balance: $107951
Difference: -$4082
We still have a long way to go, but as of now, we have 47 months to go to be debt free! Personally, I’m looking forward to breaking that $100k mark in the next few months.
Happy Labor Day!
Awesome job this month!
Money speaks sense in a language all nations understand.
Great job! I’m really enjoying following the two of you! It’s great to get the couple’s perspective. My hubby and I are working through 97k in debt (not including the mortgage!), and should be done in about 36 months. We celebrate each 10k with a little victory dance party in the living room:) That 100k mark is a biggie…be sure to take a moment and think about what you have accomplished so far. It’s is totally doable, and you guys have such a great team attitude. Looking forward to celebrating with you!
That’s some great progress! 5 figures are just around the corner!
Good job, and thanks for the numbers! Also, I really like the blog redesign!
Great Job! I know it can be hard, I am dealing with the same issues! I just started figuring out this snowballing thing….wish me luck!
congrats! Don’t you just love watching the numbers go down? I do. 🙂 You will feel so excited to see that number go below the 100k mark.
Yay for your shrinking numbers! Have a great Labor Day!
wow! Great job! This is definitely a milestone.
I can’t imagine being able to throw $4,000 per month at the debt. Here I was, happy, because I was able to throw $1,000 at my debt (not often)! At this rate, you guys are definitely going to be successful soon.
Great job! I wish you happy next 47 months with your debt 😉
Maybe I missed it, but what’s the details on your emergency balance? I’ve been trying to pay down debt/build up the EF, but got hit hard with – what else – car engine.
Thanks for stopping by and reading the blog. Reducing debt and getting to cash only was the smartest thing we ever did. We ended up doing a chapter 11 bankruptcy to get us started in the 90’s. This is different than a chapter 7 and we did pay all of our debt back it just took awhile to accomplish. Then we made a huge mistake and started getting credit cards again in the early 2000’s and ran up debt again. Obviously we didn’t learn anything. This time we went to a debt counselor and and now we are finally debt free and loving it. When I lost my job in 2010 being debt free was something we needed and to this day we maintain by not buying anything unless we have the cash and we really feel it is needed. Good luck on your adventure.
Excellent!!! =)