When I graduated college in 2014 with my undergraduate degree, I had racked up $30,000 in student loan debt. During my four years of college, I didn’t think much of taking out a loan here and there.
After all, I needed a way to pay for tuition.
Once the excitement and celebrations of graduation ended, I felt a mound of debt on my shoulders.
It was then that I decided to focus all my attention on paying off my debt as fast as I could. And by fast, I meant that I wanted to have all $30,000 paid off in exactly 2 years after receiving my first bill.
Setting my goal of 2 years felt entirely achievable to me, but to everyone else
it was crazy and impossible. I don’t believe a single person thought it could be done. So many people tried to convince me that student loan debt is “good debt” and that it’s “normal” to have debt.
While this might be true, I hated the specialized photo editing thought of owing that much money to anyone and I
wanted to get rid of that burden immediately. So, I developed “Operation Debt Payoff” and gave myself a 2-year time frame.
Many people questioned me as to why I decided on only 2 years. The truth is, I wanted the financial freedom to travel, plan my dream wedding, get a master’s degree, start a business, and live comfortably without the burden of debt. Since I was able to pay my debt off at such a young age, I’ve been able to succeed at all the things on my list.
Within 2 years after receiving my student loan bill, I made my final payment and became debt free by the age of 23.
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Loan Audit and Professional Help
The truth is I set my goal of 2 years before I even knew much about my loans. All I knew was that they totaled $30,000. That meant the first thing I needed to do competitor analysis was conduct a loan audit to figure out all the nitty, gritty, logistics.
I learned that there are two types of student loans: federal and private. During my four years, I took out 8 federal loans. That meant that my monthly payment was over betting email list $500 and my interest rates varied from 3.4% to over 6% per loan.
He then told me that everyone needs a little debt in their lives because the payments help with your credit score. Maybe this is true, but I still had no interest in paying $500 a month for the next 10 years, even if that meant a tiny bump on my credit score. And besides, debt is debt and I hate owing anyone anything.
