Huge Progress! First Post-Marriage Debt Payoff Update – August 2013

If you’re new to Money Manifesto, in December 2012 we decided it was time to open up to you, my readers, and shared our very first debt update.

Student Loan Debt Update – August 2013

We’re married! This is huge for what is now our student loan debt payoff. Prior to being married I had saved up some money that I would use toward the student loan debt once we got married. This update shows a big move and one that we’re both very proud off. Enough jibber jabber. On to the debt destruction update! Ok… so one more thing, just as a reminder… Tori is still on disability and not making her full wage, but she’s getting better and better every day! After she goes back to work we’ll have even more money at our disposal to destroy her debt.

Private Student Loan 1 – 8.0% Variable  DESTROYED!

The current balance on this student loan is $0.00. That’s right! We paid it off in full! WOOHOO! This is a decrease of $3,241.15 since the last debt update. We can’t believe that this loan was originally was well over $20,000 when my wife began paying this down after college in 2011. It feels great to have it gone! Unfortunately there are more loans left with large balances. Sad day.

Federal Student Loan 3 – 6.8% Fixed DESTROYED!

The current balance on this student loan is $0.00 as well. That means that yes, we didn’t only pay off one horrible student loan this month. We paid off TWO HORRIBLE STUDENT LOANS this month! This is a decrease of $3,869.62 since the last debt update. It feels wonderful, but we know we still have a lot of work left to do… speaking of a lot of work left to do, it is time to get to the student loans that still have balances…

Private Student Loan 2 – 5.75% Variable

The current balance on this student loan is $21,861.88… ouch! This is a decrease of $415.99 since the last debt update. This is the highest balance loan but it has a lower interest rate for now. After running the numbers, we decided paying the variable interest rate loans off first would only cost us minimum amount of extra interest. To us, the piece of mind of getting rid of a variable rate loan is worth it.

Private Student Loan 3 – 4.75% Variable

The current balance on this student loan is $8,158.69. This is a decrease of $25.94 since the last debt update. This is likely the second loan we’ll be getting rid of due to it’s variable rate nature.

Federal Student Loan 1 – 6.55% Fixed

The current balance on this student loan is $7,495.94. This is a decrease of $55.23 since the last debt update. This will likely be the last student loan we pay off.

Federal Student Loan 2 – 6.55% Fixed

The current balance on this student loan is $7,042.81. This is a decrease of $52.16 since the last debt update. This will probably be the 3rd student loan we pay off.

Total Balance – $44,559.32 (-$7,660.09)

Our realistic goal is to have the student loans completely dead by the end of 2016. However, if things continue to go well with my side business and Tori doesn’t have to continue having more foot surgeries, we may be able to get this debt paid off much sooner than anticipated… more news on that in the coming months.

Lance Cothern, CPA

Lance Cothern, CPA holds a CPA license in Indiana. He’s a personal finance, debt and credit expert that writes professionally for top-tier publications including U.S. News & World Report, Forbes, Investopedia, Credit Karma, Business Insider and more.

Additionally, his expertise has been featured on Yahoo, MSN, USA Today, Reader’s Digest, The Huffington Post, Fast Company, Kiplinger, Reuters, CNBC and more.

Lance is the founder of Money Manifesto. He started writing about money and helping people solve their financial problems in 2012. You can read more about him and find links to his other work and media mentions here.