New Year New Me

Quick update on where I am after my announcement of being debt-free in late November. I have been debt-free for a little over a month now. In that time, I have purchased long-term disability insurance through my employer, upped my 401k contribution to our company’s match of 6%, and am 3 months away from having my $10k emergency fund fully stocked.

I jumped the gun a little by upping my 401k contribution before having my emergency fund fully stocked, but due to recent deduction changes at my work, my paychecks are exactly the same in 2017 at 6% as they were last year when I was only contributing 1-2%. That being said, there was no harm inflicted on my saving schedule by jumping on the increase a few months early.

As for my emergency fund placement, I have decided on Capital One’s 360 Money Market Account. The runner up was Synchrony Bank’s MMA. Although Synchrony bank gives you the debit card access that Capital One does not, they both allow you to access your money fairly quickly should you need it. And if I remember correctly in my research, the both allow you to tie the MMA to your personal bank’s savings account where you can make the transfer if need be; Capital One’s processing time being a day or two quicker than Synchrony’s. What the decision ultimately came down to? Interest rates. For a sum of $10k or more, Synchrony offers 0.85% and Capital One offers 1.00%.

After my emergency fund is fully stocked (hopefully March/April), I will open a Roth IRA. Since my goal is to allocate 15% of my gross income into retirement accounts, I need to contribute the remaining 9% (after my 6% 401k contribution) to this Roth IRA. Why not just 3% into Roth since my company is matching my 6% giving me an overall of 12%? Glad you asked. Because I have learned that you do not count matches as a part of your 15% contribution; I will be thinking of the 6% match as simply gravy.

So this is where I am. I feel behind in comparison to some friends my age, but I feel ahead in comparison to others. At the end of the day, I am 29, and am thinking I’m right where I need to be in order to set up the rest of my financial life for success. Should I have picked another college where I needed very little to no loans? Maybe. Should I have started a Roth IRA at 16 when I got my first job? Maybe. Should I beat myself up for what I did/didn’t do in the past, and succumb to a life full of minimum payments in addition to paycheck to paycheck living? No. 29 might not be the ideal age to finally be debt-free and start building a net worth, but it beats the pants off of 39 or 49 or 59. That is what I have to remind myself when I start comparing to those around me. This is not to say there is anything wrong with becoming debt-free and building a net worth at 39, 49 or 59, because that also beats the pants off of never doing it. I am merely allowing myself the grace to be okay with where I am.

In my studying, I have read that a lot of folks state the time in-between debt pay-off and wealth building is where the momentum starts to die. The two main scenarios around losing momentum are:

1. People fall into the “normal” trap of buying the things they couldn’t afford while in debt. They tend to get excited about becoming debt-free from student loans, medical bills, and credit cards all to have the “money” for a new car, new wardrobe, or new home, and the debt slowly but surely begins to exist again.

2. People continue to live a debt-free lifestyle (yay), but never invest which leaves them with absolutely no wealth (boo).

I still have SO much to learn about the financial world, and am so excited for you all to be on this journey with me! Cheers to not losing momentum in 2017!!

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 :)

About.com/The Balance Hosted Me in NYC!

How'd she do it? Grab a cup of coffee and join us for a Facebook
Live chat with college debt success story, Jessica Elberfeld
 moderated by Jean Chatzky!

I just got back from having an amazing time in NYC! The folks at About.com reached out to me in hopes of having me participate in a Facebook Live Session at their NYC office in the middle of Times Square. The interview was to aid in the launch of their new financial site, The Balance, where the financial editor of The TODAY Show, Jean Chatzky, would be moderating. How could I say no to that, right?!

My friend Scarlett went to the interview with me, and everyone there was so kind towards both of us. Security checked her in as my 'representation' so she got a real kick out of that :) I wasn't sure what to expect as the live conversation was set up to be pretty candid. But whenever you live this debt stuff day in and day out for many years, you can talk to it just fine; I didn't get too nervous about not knowing what questions were going to come my way.

Before we started the live interview, we were all standing around chatting and introducing ourselves. I have to say, being in a room with like-minded people who were there to applaud my debt pay-off accomplishments instead of question them, was very surreal. These people study money. They live and breathe it. Their studio (which was in the same building as Good Morning America!) felt like the ultimate safe-zone to completely nerd out in with zero judgement. I am telling you, it is rare to find a person, let alone a group of people, that can talk about finances for hours on end without falling asleep mid sentence.

In summary, the trip was awesome and the interview went well! Here is the live video if you want to give it a watch:

Here are some pictures from the trip!

Me & Jean!

Hanging out on Wall Street

The BULL!

Night out in Times Square!

Plane fun - I heart NY!

I was in The Wall Street Journal!

Does It Pay to Start at Community College? Maybe

"Does It Pay to Start at Community College? Maybe"

A reporter reached out to me back in June about interviewing for a piece she was writing on transfer students for the Wall Street Journal. Of course I agreed, and I am glad I did! Although the interview process was quite lengthy, the portion of my story in the whole piece is quite small. I am in no way complaining about that though; it's just an FYI!

Late last night my mom wondered if my article made it to the actual printed Wall Street Journal. I hadn't even thought about that and wondered myself, so I emailed the reporter, and sure enough! The article I was in, as well as my picture, was printed in the wealth management section of every Wall Street Journal nationwide. So naturally, I drove to Nashville's Barnes and Nobel as well as a Starbucks and picked up the few remaining papers for my family :)

That was a very cool feeling and a very humbling day. Big thank you to Jillian Berman for reaching out to me!

Click here to view the article!

Spotlighted on IonTuition!

Thank you to the sweet people over at IonTuition for featuring me on their Q&A Spotlight Series!

It is amazing to see a site/blog dedicated to all things finance and helping people win with money by using other people's journeys as an example!

You can click here to read my interview with them :)