Happy New Year everyone, let’s hope it is a happy and healthy one! The end of 2013 is upon us, and although I can’t say the same thing about my student loans I can report that I am making some progress. You may remember that last month I accidently put money into my smallest private student loan instead of the one I had been targeting as my next goal the past few months. I decided to turn this into a positive and figured I could just use this an opportunity to completely eliminate that loan before the end of 2013. It was a bit of a stretch goal, but I figured if I could keep my spending down it would be a great way to end the year completely eliminating a second loan and re-focusing for 2014.So without any further interuption, you can see my December 2013 results right below:
| Loan | Loan Amount | Change | Interest Rate |
| Private 1 | $ 15,867.19 | $ (164.15) | 7.92% |
| Private 2 | $ 19,591.45 | $ (63.16) | 7.92% |
| Private 3 | $ – | $ – | 7.92% |
| Private 4 | $ – | $ (1,907.05) | 7.35% |
| Gov 1 | $ 3,630.06 | $ (32.97) | 3.40% |
| Gov 2 | $ 3,167.21 | $ (24.11) | 6.80% |
| Gov 3 | $ 5,022.65 | $ (40.85) | 4.50% |
| Gov 4 | $ 1,901.19 | $ (14.76) | 6.80% |
| Gov 5 | $ 5,067.23 | $ (39.03) | 5.60% |
| Gov 6 | $ 2,013.78 | $ (15.64) | 6.80% |
| Gov 7 | $ 4,143.61 | $ (31.52) | 6.00% |
| Gov 8 | $ 3,171.79 | $ (24.17) | 6.80% |
| Total | $ 63,576.16 | $ (2,357.41) |
I was able to completely pay off Private Loan 4 in just two quick months! 2 loans down, 10 to go. I probably lost a few dollars to interest with this loan being 7.3% and the other two being 7.9%, but with it only being 2 months I’m not worried at all. I’m actually really happy how this turned out, and I’m pumped that I was able to take another loan completely off the table. If anything in my situation was to change, that would be one less minimum payment that I would have to worry about.
In total I ended up putting a little over $2600 (with interest included) towards my loans this month, with wanting to pay off Private Loan 4 completely and still having to put the minimum payments towards the rest of my loans. I don’t think it’s going to break the budget, and I still have some breathing room with my emergency fund as long as I don’t inflate my other spending categories on top of that.
I’ve got to say I was feeling pretty down about my loans, and this was the little confidence booster that I really needed. Maybe it wasn’t so much of an accident at all and more of my subconscious telling me that I really needed this small victory. Either way, I will be re-evaluating where I stand with my loans next month based on my original report when I started this blog. I think it will end up with me going back to re-targeting Private Loan 1 and making slow and steady progress on the highest interest loans – hopefully finishing that loan somewhere in the middle of the year. Stay tuned for that update!
photo credit: blavandmaster via photopin cc
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