Done! 35K Paid Off!!!!
Like it says, I received notification last night that my final loan payment cleared and I’m now free!
I’m going to be very honest and say I do not agree with this system at all and do not understand why education isn’t free or at least extremely cheap, but that is a discussion for a different place.
I do want to share how I did it. I work a full time job which at certain times of the year is closer to 50 to 60 hours a week (if you work in academia you’ll understand). I also have a 15-20 hour a week side hustle in a grocery store. I was able to funnel all of my grocery store paychecks directly into my loans and pay these off with my side job in about 4 years. It would have taken less time if all the lawsuits hadn’t kept me from being able to pay. I also refinanced mine with a credit union when they got down to about 5K. This had been been the plan from before whatever is going on now started. It just happened to line up really well with everything. I chose that number because it was possible to get a ten year loan with a monthly payment low enough that if everything burned to the ground I could still make the payment. On flip side with a low payment I was able to put whatever amount I made that was extra in the month towards the principal and pay them off faster.
I realize that working a second job to pay off your loans won’t work for everyone, but I do believe that with some creative thinking (and a bit of drive) it is possible to pay these things off. If you are thinking of paying them down it is possible and you can do it. It honestly looked completely impossible when I started, but I’m here now and no longer have that debt. As someone much smarter than me (my wife, if you were wondering) once said, “if you owe someone money, they own part of you and have the ability to control you.”