Over the first hurdle

I know this is a little premature, but I’m going to say that my loan should be paid off next week! I know paying off loans really isn’t the most exciting thing in the world but this was no small credit card debt. It was a huge school loan, the interest we’re saving over the next 21 years is ridiculous. This is great for so many reasons which I’ll explain below. 

The first reason is that now Cassie and I are starting our marriage debt free. Isn’t money one of the biggest reasons couples fight? Honestly, we are pretty lucky because this has never been an issue for us, even after 7 years together. We still don’t have joint accounts which is not the easiest to pay for groceries but it works for us. I’ve always figured, why fix something that isn’t broke. I’m sure someday we will consolidate but as of right now the few gripes we have encountered haven’t seemed that bad. 

The second reason: this was the huge hurdle in my head that I had to clear before I could comfortably go travel the world. I just had to know that everything was cleared up and dealt with. I have other friends who don’t seem to have this problem about having debt and traveling, but I did. And now that it’s going to be done, I think our trip will be better because of it. It’s one less thing I have to think about. One less thing that I feel like I’m still dragging along with me. Honestly, I don’t want to drag anything along with me. If it doesn’t fit in my backpack it’s not coming with me. 

While this huge hurdle is cleared we still have another one to jump over, and again this one is a doozy.  Now we have to resave up all our money. Which brings me to how we paid off this loan so quickly. First off, we paid off a huge chunk of my loan with the money we had been saving up over the years. We were going to buy a condo or house in Seattle. Then we decided to pass on that and go travel with the money instead. Then only two months before we were planning on leaving we decided to use it on the loan which left our savings in shambles. To pay off the rest of my loan we cut back on a lot of nice things to have, but as we learned to live without. There definitely things you don’t need. Canceled cable, got rid/lost one of our iphones and never replaced it. Broke the other iphone and just picked up a cheap phone with no mobile internet. Do I really need to check my email anytime of the day? Then we cut back on buying expensive clothes. Diesel jeans - $189, Levi’s at Nordstrom Rack - $39.  Before you know it the savings just start rolling in. The challenge for us was to always send any extra money to the loan. While this was super tough it was worth it. We would get paid and almost 70% of it would go automatically to the loan. This goes for both of our paychecks. Then all of a sudden, we’re here. Only a week out from being debt free. I have to say it’s an awesome feeling!

Now for step two, resaving.