Hello r/PersonalFinance!
I've lurked for a long time, but this is my first post here. I'm finally getting my act together financially. I've started on the prime directive and I've got my emergency fund up to three months worth of living expenses. My wife and I started budgeting through YNAB in August and we've done very well! Not only did we fully fund Christmas this year, but I actually managed to pay a bit extra ($246) on my student loans this month! I actually know what my money is doing and it's one of the greatest changes I've made in my life!
I've recently consolidated my private student loans. I was able to get a lower average interest rate, and a fixed rate as well. It was a 20-year term, but there are no penalties for prepayment. I decided to create an amortization schedule in Microsoft Excel. I added a column to the spreadsheet where I could enter additional payments on the principal.
Once I factored in the AutoPay discount as well as the extra payment I made, I noticed that I chipped a year off of the repayment schedule! I was estatic! For the first time in my life, I feel like I can actually overcome my debt. I tried to explain what was happening to my wife, and she wasn't quite getting it. So I built a tracker:
It's a bit rough because I'm not great when it comes to making things look pretty but it works. Every time I make an additional payment, I enter it in the amortization schedule and see how many months of repayment I saved. I then fill those squares in on the tracker. I will also fill it in on the top as I make monthly payments. It's my goal to be on here in five years giving an update that the loan has been paid in full. I posted this on our cabinet so that we can both see the progress in a visual layout.
I wanted to share this in case this idea was useful to someone else.
Also, this wasn't an overnight thing. This has been a struggle since 2011 for me. I graduated and could not find a job in my field. The best I could do after graduating was to get a fast food job. I used the experience I got there to get a small raise moving to a call center job. I was later promoted to a Team Lead at this location. I was later promoted to a Trainer, and now I have a career in Instructional Design. My wife has a similar story. We've worked hard over the past seven years to get to where we are.
I have a net worth of -71,329.30 in student loans and a vehicle. That number used to terrify me. It's still unsettling, and it's not something I'm proud of. But, for the first time in my life I feel like I'm actually making progress towards being debt free and that feels good.
Hopefully someone finds this post helpful or encouraging. I enjoy reading this sub and I'm glad I finally have something to share. This subreddit has been a Godsend for my wife and I.
One last thing in case you're wondering... I started reading you after getting in debt, not before, just in case somesone reads my post and think "Umm... you're doing it wrong..."
Edit: Phrasing and formatting
Submitted December 14, 2017 at 11:26PM by P-Train22 http://ift.tt/2BpvTg9
