Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Goodbye Student Loans!

Today is a big day.

This morning I woke up very excited to sit down at the computer and log into my bank account. Let’s be honest, I love doing that everyday, but today was more special because I knew that today I would have enough money to completely pay off my last remaining student loan!


I no longer have student loans.

My education is paid for.

I literally could not sit still enough to click that “Make Payment” button.


Making the decision to go into debt for my education was a no-brainer for my 19 year old self. I sat there in the financial aid office filling out a lot of paperwork and picturing myself 5 years in future. I was going to graduate as a pharmacist making a six figure salary and swimming in hundred dollar bills. These few thousand dollars of student loans here and there would be nothing to me in 5 years.

Oh 19 year-old-Racheal, you were so naive. (So naive, in fact, that my user name to my student loan account was actually my name, “Racheal.”) 

The same pattern continued every year during enrollment. My parents helped me out when they could, and gave me a leg up compared to my a lot of my peers, but pharmacy school is expensive people. I graduated in 2009 with 65K in debt and ten years to pay it off.

Today, I don’t regret going into debt for my education-it was the best investment decision I have made to date. However, I do wish I would have lived more thriftily during those five years. Although I worked during college, I never put any of that money towards my education. Instead, I went on trips and enjoyed many nights out to eat. In fact, I lived much more financially free in college making a lot less money than I have since taking FPU and deciding to make becoming debt free a priority.

Either way, those decisions are behind me now and our debt snowball is a rollin’. We have ONE more loan left until we can officially be (non-mortgage) debt free!

Of course, I will keep you updated.

Have a great day! <3



  1. Congratulations!! We went through FPU too and spent the first 6 months of our marriage paying off debt. Every single sacrifice is SO worth it for that feeling at the end... way to go, you're so close to the finish line!!


    1. Thanks Elle! I totally wish we would have started when we were first married, but better late than never! <3

  2. Yay!! I'm so excited for you guys! Way to go

    1. Thanks Michele - always love having your support and encouragement. <3

  3. Congratulations!! That is so awesome!! What are you going to do with that loan payment? Not prying at all. I paid of a lot of debt and put that same payment amount into a savings account and into an investment account.

    1. Thanks Suzanne! Our plan for the loan payment - roll it into our last remaining loan to pay it off as quickly as possible. Then, when that loan is over we will put all of it into savings until we have 6 months of expenses saved. Then we will invest. Ha! The baby steps are very specific, but they work! <3


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