pay off my student loans

I finally consolidated my federal student loans under the Direct Loan program. As a teacher I will be able to cancel the rest of them after 10 years. If you are a teacher or other public servant (police, firefighter, librarian, etc) you should be eligible for this program too. I think it might also apply to people working for non-profit organizations, but I am not entirely sure so you might want to check on that first. 2022 is going to be a good year!

I used my tax refund to pay off my two AES loans that had the high 9% interest rate! Yay! And I had enough left over that I paid off the few hundred dollars I had left on my other 2 credit cards. I have now had the high credit limit one long enough that I don’t really care too much if Capital One closes my oldest card.

I am going to consolidate my federal loans through the Direct Loan program, probably over the summer when I’ll have the time do deal with all the paperwork and such.

GLHEC (Key Bank)
Original: $13,545.
Paid to date: $14,038
Still to go: $9,465 @ 3.17%
Monthly due $175 Paying $200
Currently paid ahead $920
I probably have about 4 years left on this loan.

AES (Gate)
Original: $10,050
Current: $8,125
Interest varies on the 5 loans here, 2 are fixed at 9%, 3 are variable at around 3-3.5
Monthly Due: Not sure, possibly gone up to $195. I’m paid ahead so I can’t find out, it’s not giving me an amount due.
Paying: $175, will likely bump this up to at least $195
Projected final payment date: 9/2014

SAF (Federal)
Current: $59,751 @ 6.25% fixed
Monthly due: $367
Paying: $375
I think I’ll be paying this the rest of my life. Or for another 15 years at least.

Federal – $59,751
Gate – $8,125
Key Bank – $9,465

Current total: $77,341
Total 9/10: $78,718 (-1377)
Total 11/09: $82,523 (difference -5182)
Total 8/08: $87,337 (difference -9996)

Somehow the Gate and Key ones seem less daunting now that they are under 10K each. I found out that AES will let me pay on a single loan right on the website, so I may go in there every month or so and just throw an extra couple hundred bucks at the high interest ones and see how that brings it down. Now that the holidays are over, am hoping to use whatever extra money I can get from my extra jobs to pay off these.

My goals of updating this every 6 months and paying $1000/month towards my loans have both fallen to the wayside. I also didn’t get my raise I should have had coming (thanks budget cuts!) but at least I still have a job so I am not complaining. Much.

Am making some progress though! My rewards Visa balance transfer was paid off quickly, and I now use it for all my regular purchases, and pay it off every month, earning about 600-800 points/month towards free cruises! I am slowly paying my other credit card off (the one with the 5.9% apr) because I worry if I do not use it they will cancel it – they told me they would – and it will affect my credit since I’ve had that card so long. But there is only about $400 on it. Even at the rate I’m paying it(way above the minimum), it should be paid off within a year.

Am also making some student loan progress:

Federal – $59,892 (I broke the 60K mark! um, yay?)
Gate – $8,676
Key Bank – $10,150

Total: $78,718
Total Nov 09: $82,523 (difference -3805)
Total Aug 08: $87,337 (difference -8619)

Progress but not enough. In 2 years I feel like I should have made more than a dent of $8600. If I’ve made 24 payments of $725, that’s $17,400. In just 2 years! No wonder I can’t buy a house. I’m paying more than 50% of my payments towards interest. I’m so glad they are telling students now to rethink taking out so many loans. I wish they had told OUR generation that.

I can’t believe it’s been a year+ since I wrote that entry. I still haven’t paid off my credit cards, but am taking steps to hopefully pay them off within 6 months. One is on an ongoing 5.99% APR as long as I pay the bill on time, and I recently got a rewards Visa and transfered my other balance onto that card, where I have 0% APR for 6 months.

Here is where I stand on my 3 loans-
SAF (Federal): $60,511
Gate: $10,028
Key Bank: $11,848

Total: $82,523

Total in Aug 08: $87,337

Difference: -$4,817

Well..not as much as I’d hoped but not too bad. It means that roughly only half of what I pay on my loans actually brings down the balance, the rest must pay interest. sigh

Ok, so I’ve been avoiding this for a while. Time to do some math.

I have 3 student loans. My federal loans from undergrad and grad are consolidated. I have 2 private loans from undergrad.

SAF (Federal): $61,478. @6.25% Due/month: 342.77 I currently pay: 350.00
Key Bank: $14,089. @ 5.67% Due/month: 175.18 I currently pay: 200.00
Gate: $11,770.12 @various Due/month: 152.18 I currently pay: 175.00

I’d like to pay at least 2 of my gate loans off as they have high interest rates (9.25%). I need about $3400 to do that. I should have my credit cards paid off in the next few months I hope, and then I will start throwing money at these. It’s scary to think that even if I paid them 1K a month, it would still take over 8 years. Right now I’m forking over about 725 so that’s not too impossible to do. I will make that my goal, to pay $1000 a month towards my student loans, once my credit card is paid off.

I don’t think I can accomplish my goal of moving back to Maine until my loans are paid off, because my salary would really go down there, more than the cost of living would decrease, so it’s important to me to pay these off quickly.

I’m going to use 43 things to track my debt payoffs. I want to post an update monthly on both the credit cards and student loans.