MY STUDENT LOANS ARE PAID OFF!

Can you believe it?! I did it!! It feels surreal. It feels great.

Total borrowed: $68,545.
Total paid back: $113,019.24

I started repayment December of 2009. I made my last payment November of 2016.

Thank you, sweet sweet baby Jesus that I am FINALLY DEBT FREE!

Almost Out of Debt: The Fear

Sounds backwards, right? But fear is oh so present. Here are 3 examples:

• Fear that I am 1 week away from completing a journey I have been on for years and something could go wrong. Something catastrophic could happen and trip me up mere moments before crossing the heavily anticipated finish line adding possible years to the debt fight.

• Fear that I will be debt free then end back up in it down the road. Although I have taken the necessary behavioral steps to ensure this doesn’t happen, you never know what could shift.

• Fear that even if I do not end up back in debt, I will not win with money in the long run because I will misplace money along the way. Not choose the right options in stocks, a Roth IRA, investments, etc.

These may seem a little silly, and I haven’t put much thought into those 3 things over the years; however, now that I am about to step into the bright light at the end of my dark tunnel, these are my present fears. I’ll keep you posted as always, but for now, I’m simply keeping it real J

A bite of food to chew on:

“If you live in fear of the future because of what happened in your past, you’ll end up losing what you have in the present.”

I Spoke at My Alma Mater!

One of my close friends has been such a great cheerleader for me during my debt pay-off process. She encourages me and lets me pick her brain a little bit on how her and her husband run some of their household budget. She works at a well known bank and was appointed to take charge in their ‘Women in Wealth’ initiative. She felt a great starting place to get the message out would be at the college level. SO, since we were both Phi Mus at Belmont University (she was our chapter’s president), she decided to start there by speaking to the current Phi Mu Theta chapter, and invited me to speak alongside of her.

 

It was great to be back on campus talking about all things finance and student loan related to those who are quite literally in the exact same place I was a cool 7 years ago. I hope my story resonated with them, and if anything, I can be a resource to someone who might feel a bit like she is starting to drown here in a couple of months after graduation. I know from memory, and from reading back on this very blog, that I was completely lost and had no one to turn to for guidance. It might have taken me 7 years to get back to these girls, but at least I am here now and can be a lighthouse for this wave of Belmont graduates to find their way back to shore.

 

I snapped this photo of the renovated music business building entrance as I'd like to think I AT LEAST paid for the gold that now lines the stair railings OR the glitter that now covers every inch of the floor :)