by Hope
As I have been diligently paying off the smaller of my two student loans, I continue to see that I might be able to pay it off by the end of the year versus next May as I originally thought. (When I originally made this plan, I and the BAD community thought that pay off by May, 2021 was a reach goal. It’s so exciting to feel it becoming a reality!) At the end of this month, the balance of the smaller of my student loans will be right around $8,000.
This table shows the planned payments toward this single loan for the rest of the year. (This is what is in my budget for it currently or rather in my financial planning worksheet where I have the remainder of the year planned out.) Not accounting for interest, this would bring the loan down to right at $1,400 by the end of the year.
| Nelnet | 8-Aug-20 | -600 |
| Nelnet | 22-Aug-20 | -600 |
| Nelnet | 5-Sep-20 | -600 |
| Nelnet | 19-Sep-20 | -600 |
| Nelnet | 3-Oct-20 | -600 |
| Nelnet | 17-Oct-20 | -600 |
| Nelnet | 31-Oct-20 | -600 |
| Nelnet | 14-Nov-20 | -600 |
| Nelnet | 28-Nov-20 | -600 |
| Nelnet | 12-Dec-20 | -600 |
| Nelnet | 26-Dec-20 | -600 |
If business continues like it has, I am 100% confident I can pay off this loan before the end of the year. And that includes continuing to pay minimum payments toward my other student loan to stop it from growing. (No payments are due until 9/26/2020 due to COVID-19.) And paying a minimum payment toward my only other debt, my car loan.
This is really exciting!
Thanksgiving Trip Money
Now, other than business going bad, which I don’t see happening these days there are a couple of other things that could affect this…but both in a positive manner. If I decide, due to COVID-19, that we will not go to Texas at Thanksgiving, I will dump the money budgeted for that trip into 1) paying this loan off, 2) some groceries because I don’t have groceries budgeted for the week before or the week of Thanksgiving and then 3) paying toward my final student loan! In addition, if I pick up any addition projects, not already planned for, which also seems pretty likely, I plan to dump all that income (after expenses and taxes) in this debt. Well, that’s definitely a run on sentence, but I think you get the point.
I am really sad to consider not going at Thanksgiving, but it is a reality due to COVID-19. But the thought of what I could do with that trip money…well, that kind of balances it out. I plan to make a decision about Thanksgiving in October to give the twins plenty of time to get off work if they need/want too to go. I’ve told my parents that if we don’t come then, we will try to come in February when the kids have “winter” break. Traveling at a less busy time will hopefully lessen the risk with the pandemic and two be cheaper.
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 3 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.
I can’t imagine that the family member that generously fronted the money for your new car last year would be all that happy if they knew this. You’re putting thousands of dollars into a student loan you’ve carried for decades, instead of paying him back any thing more than the bare minimum.
He actually does know.
this is my point – Hope has said tons of times that the family member is super flexible on the repayment – so why can’t you just leave a positive statement? You act like it’s your $$$ she spends.
Thank you. Thank you for reading, what it is I think I’m writing and explaining. I really appreciate that. Sometimes I wonder if I am just speaking a different language when I try to explain things.
It’s nice to see your follow through Hope, and the results of it. If you were to simply use your schedule with the extra payments you have made already, you would be done with the loan in February three months earlier than projected. Awesome! Keep going.
I think its exciting to be getting these student loans paid off. They are something that just sticks around forever and it will be such a blessing to have them totally gone. After this year you can probably really put the heat on the final one!
In 8 weeks you’ve paid $3,600 on your smallest student loan, with only $600 bi-weekly payments? After, 5+ years of not even being able to meet the minimum payment consistently? I feel like we aren’t getting the full story here…
I’d be really interested in a post on your income streams and how you’ve been able to pivot and build them in a midst of all this change. To me that’s more remarkable than some extra student loan payments!
The $600 bi weekly payments are in my financial plan. I pay more or early when the money comes in early.
Business has been growing exponentially since many business owners are pivoting to offer more online services, revamping their websites with their new offerings and setting up systems to manage the back end of their new business processes. I am a high tech VA so do a lot of systems integrations, web design/sales funnels, etc. Does that answer your question of how/why my business is growing during this difficult time?
The ways of business are evolving, and I’ve been around a long time with lots of clients to refer people to me.
Good job, keep it up. It will be great to meet a solid goal.
L O L. Love the username!!