Financial Freedom: The Journey

After high school, I started my schooling at a community college. This was great for the first year because most of it was paid for. After the first year, I decided to go to a university. If I'm being honest, I have no idea how much debt I was in when I graduated. I went straight to Law School, and I wasn't keeping track of how much debt I was actually accruing. I was warned that Law School would be expensive, but truthfully, since I wasn't paying attention and I didn't fully understand what it meant to be in debt, it didn't matter to me. 

After Law School, I finally realized how much debt I was in. I had to go on 'income-based' payments, and I could only pay the minimum at the time. I had a full-time job, but I didn't have much else - I didn't have benefits, and I wasn't making much money. I even picked up a retail job to work part-time for extra money. Then, I quit my full-time job and transferred my part-time gig to move to Colorado with my now-husband, Tyler. When I got to Colorado, I didn't really know what was next. I was working at the part-time retail job, full-time, I still wasn't able to pay much on my student loans, and I knew I needed to get out of that job to do something better. 

In July 2018, I quit my part-time job and was unemployed. I was lucky in the sense that I had Tyler because I wasn't able to save much in those two years after law school. He supported and actually encouraged me quitting that job; I was not going anywhere and it was draining me of my potential. I was also lucky in that about 3 weeks after I quit, I got an offer through Indeed for a temporary to potentially permanent attorney contract-review project. I started in August and was offered a full-time position right before my birthday in September. 

In February of 2019, I started keeping track of my student loan debt payoff. Again, I didn't really focus on it before then because I just never really had a great job to be able to pay off "aggressively." In fact, I was accruing more debt since I couldn't even pay off the interest at the time. I should note that I use the term 'aggressive' lightly because I know it may not seem like it when you see others paying off $10K+ a month. That just isn't in the cards for me right now. 

My current plan of paying off debt has been a lot of trial and error. I read Dave Ramsey, and although I appreciate where he is coming from, his ideas were just not for me. I completely understand, though, that some people need to use his method and if that's you, do it. A book I recently read called "I will teach you to be Rich" had a lot of great ideas. I haven't finished it yet, but I think that it is a great resource. 

My goal is to share with you some of my best practices on paying off debt, especially when it seems like there is no end in sight. I do want to reiterate that I am not as aggressive as some people, but part of that is because my husband and I like to take trips and go to breweries. Also, my family is a plane ride away. Trust me, I am aware of these costs. However, I do not have any credit card debt - at all (I'll get more into that in another post). But I do want to be clear from the beginning, I am careful with making sure that if I want something, I have the money in my bank account for it. 

When I started keeping track of my student loan debt I had $208,519.13. Yes, you read that right. I could have another house with that. As of today, about 8 months later, I am down to $194,676.56. Over these months I have paid an actual amount of $20,075.80, but as you may know, interest rates suck. That being said, I have paid $13,842.57 towards the principle balance and $6,233.23 towards the interest. Those numbers make me sick, and it motivates me because I do not want to be paying that every year for the rest of my life. 

My company matches 1/2 of up to 6% of my 401K, so I put the maximum in there because, I mean, when has free money ever been bad? Tyler and I have a set amount we put in our joint account for bills---our mortgage, groceries, loan payments, etc.---which I will break down a little more in another post for you. Then, we put whatever is left in our own accounts. We don't have kids, so this works for us. We each save separately, but we also share that savings for our emergency fund and our house fun. This year, we also have to save for a few trips we are taking. For the separate accounts, I will be sharing my side because I really don't hover over his accounts and question every one of his purchases, as he doesn't do that for me. We have a general idea where each other's money goes, but it's our "free" money. Note, we are not against sharing our accounts with each other, either. Since we got married, this has just what has worked for us so far and may change over time. For me, this free money means that I put $60 from each paycheck directly into my savings account. This is not a particular percentage, just an amount I am comfortable with. I also have a side business, and all of that money goes into my savings account. 

This is a general overview to help you get started. As I share my journey more with you, it'll start to make more sense and seem like a super simple plan. Feel free to comment below or message me if you have any topics you'd like to address!