Back in July (2018), I wrote a post about getting motivated to pay off my student loan debt. In that post I did not set a specific date and simply noted that I wanted to pay a little extra per month. I had a great start last month in August paying an extra $9,600 towards my student loan debt. That is on top of the $2,000 monthly payment, which makes the total amount $11,600 in August.
September is looking to be another massive extra payment month and although not nearly as much as August, I am tracking towards paying the normal monthly payment of $2,000 plus an extra $5,000=$7,000 in September. I will post a student loan debt payoff progress at the end of each month.
I am aiming to pay off my entire student loan debt by March 2019. Why?
Here is the current debt payoff chart as of today. Based on the (rounded up) $21,000 I currently owe, I would need to increase my monthly payment from my originally planned $2,000 to $3,553 in order to pay off my student loan debt by March.
Once I pay the $7,000 I plan to pay in September, my monthly payment increases from my originally planned $2,000 to $2,369 in order to pay off my student loan debt by March.
I need some sort of meaningful target date. Knowing myself, setting an arbitrary month such as June 2019 does not get me motivated.
So, why March 2019?
The reason I am targeting March 2019 is because my annual work bonus is expected at the end of February 2019. I should be receiving a 5 figure bonus and I would love to use this bonus on something other than my student loan debt.
This gets me unbelievably super motivated to continue budgeting, saving, working on making extra income through my side hustles, and increasing my monthly payment.
March 2019, I will see you soon with $0 student loan debt!