I'm thrilled to announce that I've successfully made a $1,000 payment towards my student loan, bringing my new balance to $30,709.63, with just $5.78 in interest. I am so thankful 

Looking ahead to November, my goal is to reduce the balance to under $30,000. To achieve this, I'm planning to make a payment of $709, in addition to the expected interest of about $174. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping to meet this target.

Between yesterday and today I was able to make $500 in student loan payments. I've met my goal of $1000 toward this debt for the month. For November I have to cut my monthly goal payment to $500. Which means I'd only pay about $300 on the principal. $200 would go to interest. 

I'm turning 50 next year and am planning a birthday dinner with friends and I want to pay cash for it. 

I can't help but think student loan providers are acting like loan sharks. This daily compounding nonsense is beyond infuriating!

I set out to knock off $1,000 from this loan in October, and I achieved that milestone today with my $200 payment. When it eventually updates, my new balance, excluding the absurd estimated interest of $17, will stand at approximately $30,988.00. It's taken me a whopping 10 years of relentless payments, even during COVID, to finally dip below my original borrowed amount. SMH!

Tuesday can't come soon enough – it's payday, and I'm ready to hurl another $300 at this never-ending debt. My mission: squeeze out $1,000 a month to get rid of it. 😤💸

Side note, my ex figured out how to pay for his home repair, he never asked to borrow the money, I guess with me telling him up front I had no money he got the hint. 

My ex recently called, but he didn't muster the courage  to request a loan. Instead, he went on about needing $300-$400 for a home repair. If he ever decides to ask, my answer is a firm "no."

Since our breakup, it's clear that he hasn't been able to improve his financial situation, and I'm skeptical he ever will. It's unfortunate because he's a genuinely kind and caring man, but it seems he's unwilling to pull things together.

On a different note, I participated in an interview discussing the challenges of repaying student loans. I'm eager to read the article about it.

As you all know I had the new car itch, it comes and goes. 

A family member recently bought a new car, a Lexus, and I’ll admit I was a tad bit envious, and even considered a new car as well. Long story short, i didn’t buy a new car, and got the sense that this person wasn’t happy with the purchase, they’d make little remarks. Well, finally yesterday the person mentioned that it was the worst thing they could have done. 

I said to this person, that I felt like they weren’t happy with the purchase. $600 a month car note, and I’m not even sure how much the car insurance is. Wow, crazy. 

I’m thankful that when I get the urge, I manage to talk myself out of it. 

Regarding  the student loan, it appears as though the interest corrected itself(?) today, either way I’m glad it’s the $5.80 vs the $11+ a day amount. Can’t wait for pay day so I can make another payment. I’m estimating the interest will be about $98 when the payment is made. 

Other news I’m turning 50 next year, I’m planning a nice dinner with a few close friends. It’s been a significant year for me, so much has happened in my life. There was a time that I attempted suicide, twice, but now the thought doesn’t even cross my mind. 

Do I get down sometimes, and still make bad financial decisions, yes. I just pick myself up by the bootstrap and keep going. It’s only by the grace of God, that I’m still here. 

Lastly I'm just sitting on my porch enjoying the R&B 90s music station and this beautiful south Florida weather

I diligently monitor my student loan balance, interest, and payments on a daily basis.

On average, my daily interest rate used to be approximately $5.80, but it has now surged to $11.70, nearly doubling.

This increase is perplexing, especially since my loan balance has decreased. I plan to reach out to the service provider for clarification. Does anyone have information on where I can report this matter?

I have 18 days left until my next student loan payment. With daily interest at $5.85, that adds up to $105.30 in total interest. To bring my balance below $31k, I'll need to make a payment of at least $300. It's a bit challenging but definitely achievable.

I've already adjusted my budget, so I should be on track. Fingers crossed for a successful outcome!

Today was payday, and here's how it all unfolded:

I managed to save $1,147.50, which accounts for approximately 41% of my take-home income. It's worth noting that roughly half of this amount is earmarked for future expenses through sinking funds, but I'm still quite content.

Another chunk of $516.13 was allocated towards debt repayment, accounting for about 19% of my take-home pay.

I also set aside $490 for my everyday spending fund, which I manage using cash envelopes. This amounts to around 18% of my income.

An additional $240.52 was directed towards various bills, such as internet and phone, making up less than 1% of my take-home pay.

I allocated 10% towards tithes as part of my financial plan.

To top it off, my payment posted, and I'm thrilled to report that my student loan balance has now dipped to $31,106.85, with only $5.85 of that being attributed to interest. I'm incredibly close to breaking the $31,000 mark this month, which is a source of great excitement.

All in all, it was a  successful day on the financial front.

It's that time of the week – payday Friday! And guess what? I was so pumped to have the funds I budgeted for this week's student loan payment, that I couldn't resist paying it early. No more agonizing weekend waits for the funds to post! 💰💃

Drumroll, please... According to my calculations, my new balance on Friday should stand at $31,148.22 for the principal, $17.70 in interest, totaling a jaw-dropping $31,165.92. 🎉 It's all part of my plan to achieve my goal of paying $1,000 a month! 😄

But wait, there's more thrilling news! The client I was anxious about possibly losing has thrown a game-changer my way.

They want me full time, and if everything falls into place, I'm ready to hire an assistant to help manage the workload.

This means the potential for an additional six-figure income this year, and even after paying the assistant, I'm looking at around $75k! 🤑 of course I'll have to set aside for taxes  

If the blessings keep flowing, my student loan could be a thing of the past by June next year.

My excitement is off the charts! 🌟💫

In the world of personal finance, making decisions about where to allocate your money can be a bit of a puzzle. One might argue that I should have applied this extra cash towards my student loans, but there's something about paying extra on my mortgage that I just can't resist. I've been doing it consistently for over a year now, and today was no exception.

Earlier today, I made an additional payment of $60.35 towards the principal of my mortgage. It might seem odd, but I've always had this habit of rounding up to the nearest hundred. So, instead of the paying  $57.35, which would have been $300 to wards the principal, I opted for $60.35

To some, it may sound like a financial quirk or even an addiction. But for me, it's a source of comfort. I don't feel quite right when I don't do it. Each time I make an extra payment, I see that principal amount decrease, even if it's just by a little bit. Though the actual amount should have been $57.35, but that extra $2.65 makes a difference in my mind.

In a world where financial decisions can be stressful and complex, paying extra on my mortgage has become my peace. It's a small, simple act that brings me a sense of satisfaction and control over my financial journey.

Exciting news! My student loan payment has finally posted, and guess what? My new balance is a thrilling $31,441! 🎉 

Since my payment on 9/29, the interest accrued is  $17.75, which means my loan is now accumulating under $6 a day in interest. 💰 

There's more good news! I received an unexpected check for $200. I immediately put $100 towards my student loan, $25 into my emergency fund, treated myself to $20, and the rest went towards paying down my credit card debt. 

Next Friday is payday and I’m trying to see how I can trim the budget to get $300 to pay towards my student loan. 

It feels fantastic to make progress on my financial goals! 💪🏾💸

Today’s student loan balance is $31,941.17 of that $84.17 is interest. 

I paid $500.17 today, therefore $84.17 should go towards the interest leaving a balance of $415.83 to be applied to the principal. 

With the payment made today the balance  should be $31,441.00. Given that it takes 2-3 days to post any payments, I’m thinking by Monday my actual balance should be about $31,459, this includes the $6 a day accrual of interest. SMH 

Next pay date is October 13th, I’ll only be able to add about $200 to the student loan. That’s about 13 days, at $6 a day the interest would be about $178. So just over $100 will go towards the principal. SMH. 

I’m going to keep chipping away that this. 

I also paid an extra $25 on the Home Depot card. The interest is set to zero until 2024. 

Tomorrow is pay day and I’m so looking forward to paying on my student loan. Who would have thought, one would be so excited to pay on a student loan, smh. 

Today’s balance  is $31,935.17, interest accrued as of today is $78.17. My goal is to have this thing paid off by the end of 2024. 🙏🏾

Other news I finally got my fence finished, cost $3800, who’d think that a fence would be so expensive, but these are times. I’m just thankful that I was able to pay cash. 

I can't wait to be debt free, I know it's doable; however it's been a chore. 

Today’s student loan balance is $31,917.19 and the interest accrued since 9/18 is $60.19. In one week I’ve accrued over $60 bucks in interest, by the end of this week this amount will double. Shameful 

Friday is pay day and I plan on paying about $300, the issue with this is the payment won’t post until the following week, that means I’d be accruing interest on an unpaid balance. Not that it makes a whole lot of sense difference it just bothers me. I’m really trying to get this thing down. 

I’ll say it a 1000x,  I am so thankful that I continued to pay on it during the pause. I think if I hadn’t my payments would be through the roof. 

Different news, I went out and purchased items I didn’t need, so now I have buyers remorse. I’ll be returning these items this weekend. I really have to figure out what my triggers are. 

Today’s student loan  balance is $32,111.59, of that $24.16 is interest accumulated since 9/11.

Today I’m paying $254.59, $24.16 will go towards the interest as of today; however,  I added an extra $12.04 which should cover the next few days of interest.

 Hopefully the new balance  will be $31,857 by time the payment post, which I'm anticipating Monday🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾. 

While paying today I noticed a box that read "don't push my payment forward though I have no payment due."  I've never seen that before, when I clicked on the link, nothing appeared. I'm assuming that when you make extra payments your original due date is pushed forward. This could be why my payment is showing due in November vs October, however there is no statement for October, strange. 

Well I know I’m going to drive myself nuts trying to keep up with the interest. So I’ve decided that every pay period, which is twice a month, I’ll just pay the interest, about $90, and when my payment is due, I'll just pay that. 

At the end of the month my side gig pays me, I’m unsure if this gig will continue, either way I’ll have an extra $500 to throw at the loan 

I really wished the pause would have continued however I understand that things needed to end. I also wish Congress would do something about this reverse amortization, interest is killing us. 

I am always amazed at the folks who are against student loan forgiveness, it's ridiculous that you make regular payments for 10+ years, based on income in many cases and your loan balloon's out of control, these very people have no problem with congress men and women having their PPP loans forgiven, or auto and airline industries being bailed out.

It’s shameful that these loans do not have the same standard consumer protections as other loans

Either way we have a right to our feelings. 

I received an unexpected check in the mail for $66, through it at my student loans. Every little bit helps. 

So I did the math, I'm averaging about $6 a day in interest on my student loans, that's $180 for the month. 

My monthly payment is $319, this is tentative, I haven't received the notice as to what my actual payment would be. If this is true, about $139 will go towards my principal a month. To stay a float and ahead of this thing I have to pay an extra $200, at least a month. 

I reworked my budget to pay $180 a month, $90 a pay check, since I'm paid semi-monthly. 

I still have my side hustle, so I'm budgeting my monthly payment and extra with my side hustle gig funds. 

Things are tight, but I think I can do it. 

I saw this article posted in a Facebook group and thought I would share, it sheds the light on student loan debt. 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2020/02/10/student-loans-balance-increase/

Paid another $29.25 towards my student loans because I hate odd numbers. Next week I'll pay an extra $41. 

I wish I could drop more on this loan but for now I'll pay extra no matter how small, when I can. 

I’m so anxious about my student loans, why I don’t know. In the three year period when loans were on pause, I continued to pay, never missing a month and paid off two. 

Now that interest has resumed I’m freaking out. I have checked my balance, the interest rates daily and it’s given me pure anxiety. I pray I don’t end up with another inflated loan. 

It really sucks because once interest starts accruing it’s difficult to pay down the principal. I’m thankful that I was able to get my balance down, but I’m nervous it’s going to balloon out of control with the interest. 

I'm participating in a savings challenge, rather than saving the money I'm throwing it at my student loan, $41 was paid towards my loans today. 

It's just a little over the anticipated weekly interest incurred. November is my first official payment, I honestly thought it was October, either way I'll keep chipping away at it. 

Between September 1st and the 4th my student loan interest has accumulated $18.15 in interest. That’s about $4.53 a day, or about $135.00 month. I’m not sure if this is right since Monday was a holiday. It’s  ridiculous how the interest works on these loans, but here we are. 

I’m thankful for the three year freeze, and am thankful that I was able to pay off two loans, I can’t imagine much my loan would grow had I not done this. Not many people were able to take advantage of the freeze and pay towards their loan. 

I pray that I can get things under control. My goal is to pay the interest accrued at the end of each week, in attempt to make things manageable. I can’t think of any other way. 

Let me know if you have any ideas. 

Other non financial news, after three years I contracted COVID from an infected colleague who traveled while feeling not well. I feel much better but I'm still a little down. SMH

I had a few things come up so I couldn't make my semi-monthly payment of $160, towards the student loan. I paid only $100. 

This is one thing that freaks me out, what if I can't make the payment when things kick back up again. I pray all goes well. 

I am making a little less, but I like the new job. Sometimes it's not about the money but our peace. 

Inflation is definitely here, my grocery bill has skyrocketed. I use to budget $200 a month, now it's about $80 more s month. Thankfully me not driving into work helps, what I save in gas goes towards my food bill.

That's it for now.  

I’ve been sharing with others that the interest on student loans, and repayments are scheduled to start back up with interest accruing first in September, followed by the  first payment due in October. 

Though I can only worry about myself ( I haven’t stopped paying), I’m still anxious about this happening. I’m scared, anxious and  nervous and I don’t know why. Maybe because no one is talking about it. I’m in different financial groups, follow financial gurus and nothing.  It’s almost as if no one is expecting this to start, strange. 

 I recently paid $96 dollars to round things to an even number, I hate odd numbers on any of my debts, don’t  ask me why. 

In preparation for repayment , I signed up for auto pay which saves me a very small amount on interest. I have to remember not to make any payments next month (September).  The reason why is that my first payment of $318.68 is scheduled to hit on October 15th. Since I get paid bi-monthly, (for a while I would pay $160 a pay date for a total of $320 for the month), I want to make sure the funds are available when payments starts. 

 If I skip the September monthly payment that I normally make, the funds are surely to be available on the 15th of October. 

I can surely make extra payments, and I want to, I just need to figure out how much and when. I’ll be reviewing my budget. 

I bought my home a few years ago, and ever since I’ve started making payments, I always pay a little extra extra towards the principal. Sometimes it’s $10, $800, $60, it’s always something. I swear this was/is the best decision I’ve ever made financially. My goal is to have my mortgage paid off early, and I think it’s going to happen. 

When mortgage rates were low, I refinanced. I was nervous as hell to do so but I did. I did some research on why I should, spoke with two friends who are financially savvy, I think I also posted here. Either way I got some good advice, and understood why it would be beneficial to me yo do so. 

I ended up getting my rate down to 2.75% and reduced by $200 a month. The money saved from the refinance,  I used to help throw at my student loans. 

I’d shared with my sister to refinance her mortgage and shared why it would have been beneficial, she refused. Once before she’d done this and locked into a balloon mortgage and lost her home (2008). I told her she was wiser now and to ensure that the rate was fixed. She now regrets not doing so, especially with rate hikes in Florida’s homeowners insurance. That’s a different story. 

I can’t help but wonder how fear hold so many of us back, myself included. 

Once I get these student loans gone, I’m going to throw that amount at my mortgage. I can’t wait to do so. I honestly think I’ll be debt free including my mortgage in 10 years. I’ll see. 

today I'll make my September mortgage payment (I like to pay early), for now I’m going to continue to add extra to mortgage, I’m averaging about $60 a month. 

One of my goals for 2023 was to knock out 1/3 of my student loans. I am way benhind on this goal, I've paid just over $2,000. This really ticks me off. I've had so many expenses come up, I can only think that had I not had these this thing would be gone. 

Nothing like crunching the numbers for a reality check. Starting September I'll throw about $1000 a month to it, that's about $4,000 by the end of year. I'm estimating that it will take me two years to pay this thing off. 

Fingers crossed 

I’m slowly but surely getting my feet wet with investing. I’ve opened an IRA, not much, however, I contribute monthly so that I have funds to invest with. 

I only purchase stocks of those organizations that I’m loyal to, some pay dividends some don’t.  I can honestly say, that they’re (stocks) doing pretty good, even in these times. I am happy because I  feel like I made some good choices. I still have a lot to learn though. 

My best performing stocks is Walmart and Costco, my worst, Nike. Nike was also my first ever purchase. However, for the most part I’ve seen a positive gain over all. Sometimes I can kick myself because I hadn’t purchased more, especially of the Costco stock. 

I’m proud of myself for stepping out. I am way behind the eight ball and I’m looking forward to getting this student loan down, so that I’ll have more funds to invest. 

I’ve decided that for every $5k paid off on the student loan I’m going to increase my 401(k) contribution by 1%. I should have the loan at $30k by December. It sucks that the student loan interest is starting back up. For me it means I have to decrease my IRA contribution temporarily and throw the funds at the student loans. 

I’m not going to lie, it would have been a huge help had the loan forgiveness went through. I’m glad I kept paying when the interest rates were frozen. I wish I could get another year, lol but oh well. 

For me the ability to throw $2k or $5 at a time on my loan felt great. Now I have a payment of $319, I’m readjusting my budget so that I’m ready. I hope others are as well. 

Student loan payment kicks back up in October. I wish I was in a position to be much more aggressive with paying things off but hey, I got this thing down to just over $32,0000 when I was close to 90k, so I’m happy with that. I’ve been throwing extra when ever I can, sometimes the amount is as little as $8, by doing this for the month of July I paid $584 towards my student loans. 

My fence is falling apart so I had to get a replacement, HOA requires it. I was able to pay cash (half down) to get the job started. I also took the money out of my money market account and paid off my shutters and kitchen. It stung, to take $8k out but it’s better than paying interest on a CC, and I still have enough saved to cover my expenses for about 6-8 months. 

I feel like everything with the house is falling apart all at once. I had to replace my water heater, refrigerator, cabinets, and now the fence. 

I also decided to do something fun for myself once a quarter. I know I should throw at debt; however, I need these breaks. Good thing is, I’m able to pay cash. 

So basically I’m just bracing my self for the student loan payments to start back up. 

I'm so happy to hear that the Supreme Court has allowed the $6 billion student loan debt settlement. There's still another case pending but this is good news. 

I've been privileged enough to knock my debt down from $80k+ to just over $30k during the freeze on interest. I also consolidated my loan. I'll continue to pay and if I'm granted a forgiveness, I'll be thankful and if I don't I'll still be thankful because over the last two and a half years I accumulated no interest. 

I don't know why people have a problem with this loan forgiveness but hey. I still think that the student loan debt guarantee needs to done with. Lenders would be more cautious with lending if this wasn't the case. 

I haven't updated my sidebar but will do so over the weekend. 

The application to apply for relief finally opened and I applied. Fingers crossed that I get something. In the meantime, I'll keep paying 

I think I may have received partial student loan forgiveness. I had applied to consolidate the last two loans in hopes that I would receive the full $20k, my consolidation app is still in progress, but when I logged in to make a payment my new balance was $29,999.92; down from $35,500. I'm a little bummed but thankful. I'll take whatever. 

I'll follow up on Monday and continue to make payments. It's strange that the balance is low but no information is provided as to why.  My goal is to be done with this loan sometime next year.