ASK Musings

Tonight something magical happened. We thought it would happen in 2016, but after some discussion we made it happen now, in October 2014. We did it. We really did it.

We paid off our student loans.

Well, all but one, and that one is so small and has such a tiny interest rate that it actually makes more sense to keep making those little payments on it.

We’ve been making giant extra payments for almost two years now. Thanks to Austin’s undergrad studies and my desire to learn a little philosophy in London, we started our dating life with a combined outstanding loan total that was more than triple the average single person’s debt upon graduation from college these days. And because my loans were for graduate school, the interest rate was ridiculous – 8.25% for one loan, and 6.55% for another. Austin had ones for around 6.5%. Because he works in a lucrative field, and because I’ve been in my career long enough to have built up to a decent salary, we’ve been lucky enough to throw any extra income / bonuses / stock we have at the loans.

We should get the ‘your account is closed’ letters in the next week or two. In the meantime, though, I can’t even begin to describe how excited I am about not having this giant debt hanging over our heads. We know we’re lucky that we could do this, and that so many people are stuck with ridiculous interest rates, high outstanding loan balances, and untenable monthly payments. But for today, I’m going to celebrate because it feels so good to be free.