pay off my student loans

Holy cow! Five months just slipped by without me updating! Here’s where I’m at:

In April I made $635.28 total in payments. $558.75 applied to principal, $76.53 applied to interest. $12,660.44 remaining principal to pay off.

In May I made $635.28 total in payments. $571.12 applied to principal, $64.08 applied to interest. $12,089.24 remaining principal to pay off.

In June I made $635.28 total in payments. $558.85 applied to principal, $76.43 applied to interest. $11,530.39 remaining principal to pay off.

In July I made $635.28 total in payments. $579.18 applied to principal, $56.10 applied to interest. $10,951.21 remaining principal to pay off.

In August I made $635.28 total in payments. $572.05 applied to principal, $63.23 applied to interest. $10,379.16 remaining principal to pay off.

I’m going to double my current monthly payment starting this month (September) to $1,270. If I can sustain that payment I can pay off this particular student loan in nine months!

I made a $350 payment on Mar 11 & a $350 payment on Mar 26

$634.93 applied to principal
$65.07 applied to interest

$13,219.19 remaining principal to pay off

Pushed myself to make a $700 payment this month.

I made a $350 payment on Feb 11 & a $1,387.28 payment on Feb 29

$1,337.23 applied to principal
$50.05 applied to interest

$13,854.12 remaining principal to pay off

This was a bigger payment for me than usual due to my $1,102 tax refund – this cuts two whole months off of my current repayment plan! If I can keep this up, I can pay this off by January 2014.

I made a $350 payment on Jan. 11 & a $285.28 payment on Jan. 26

$501.12 applied to principal
$134.16 applied to interest

$15,495.97 remaining principal to pay off

Once I get all my W-2s from 2011, I’m going to get my taxes done right away and put my full refund toward this loan!

I made a $350 payment on Dec. 11

$269.38 applied to principal
$80.62 applied to interest

$15,997.09 remaining principal to pay off

I start my new job tomorrow so I’m hoping to double my monthly payment and if I can sustain the doubled payment, I can pay this baby off by April 2014.

I have two student loans, one federal, one not. I’ve been fortunate to defer payment on the federal student loans due to my low income but I’ve exhausted the deferment period on the non-federal loan. I’ve been paying faithfully for several years. My intention is to pay off the non-federal loan first because it has a higher interest rate. Then work on the federal loan – the trouble is the federal loan keeps getting bigger. Despite its low interest rate, the principal balance is scary big. But we’re not going to talk about that right now. Right now, we’re just going to focus on the non-federal loan.

So here’s the deal: I currently owe $16,302.29 at 6.7%. The minimum payment is $317.64 a month; I’d be paid off by January 2017. I recently bumped up my monthly payment to $350; if I can maintain this, I’d be paid off by June 2016. I would really love to find a way to double the minimum – if I could pay $635.28/month, I’d be paid off by March 2014. That’s hard though because I never have that much left over at the end of the month so I need to find a way to increase my income.