How I paid off 100K out of my 287K student loans in 12 months

If you’ve been reading my posts, you’d already know that I graduated from CRNA school with a large amount of student debt: $287,345 to be exact. Most CRNAs in my class graduated with an average of 175-200K in student debt. If you haven’t been reading my post, you should know that the loan amount include some undergraduate loans, nurse practitioner school tuition, CRNA school tuition/ living expenses. My first payment on my loans was made on August 11th, 2021 and today, as of August 6th, 2022 , I have paid a total of $101,666 bringing my balance down to $185,678.33. If you want to read my initial blog about my post click here

https://wordpress.com/post/srnatips.blog/95

How did I manage to pay that much in exactly 12 months, here’s how:

Current balance snapshot

1. CREATE A SPREADSHEET (preferably before you first paycheck)

I first created a one-page 36-month spreadsheet to see if the goal was feasible first. I created the spreadsheet before my first paycheck arrived in the bank account. The spreadsheet kept me organized and excited because you get to see the loan amount go down every two weeks. I look at the spreadsheet almost every other day to maintain a laser vision of how much I wanted to pay down for that particular month.

2. MAKE A PAYMENT EVERY PAYCHECK

I get paid biweekly so I make payments every two weeks. I schedule the payments the day before the paycheck arrives in my bank account. For example, I get paid every other Friday but I scheduled the loan payment for every other Thursday. By Friday morning the payment is already deducted from my account right after my paycheck is deposited. The purpose is to not spend the money on other things. So, I don’t give myself the options of lowering the scheduled monthly payment amount to pay other stuff, like bills. I paid on average $8500 a month making two $4000 payments every month. I make about 10K a month (net income after pre and post tax 401, insurance etc), leaving 2K /month for other expenses like school (getting my DNAP)

3. PAY DOWN HIGH INTEREST LOAN FIRST- Held off refinancing (Biden’s interest pause)

All my loans are federal loans. I paid down one out of the 10-12 loans with the highest interest rate of 7%. All my other loans were about 6%, 6.1% 6.3% etc. I did not refinance my loans because once you refinance with a private lender, you will not qualify for any federal loan forgiveness or interest rate pause. As we are still awaiting on Biden to make a decision on the student loan repayment pause, I will not be refinancing my loans at this time.

4. GET A SECOND JOB/ WORK EXTRA SHIFTS

This one is tough. You have to be highly motivated with a high desire to get out of debt quick and live your best life. At my job I get six paid vacation weeks. I scheduled my six vacation weeks during winter time and boring weeks of the year, basically when most people do not take their vacation. When more people are working, there are less chance of overtime because we are well-staffed. But in prime time, where the hospital is very busy, I work every day they would let me. This past spring and summer, I worked about 64 hours a week, almost every week, that’s 24 hours of overtime which is paid time and a half.

I did get a second job too. I know, crazy right. I work per diem at another hospital. The pay is great because they pay you to be on call at home and even if you don’t get called in you still get paid 1K, but if you do get called in, it’s 1K + whatever hours you work * 140. That’s pretty awesome right.

5. LIVE OFF YOUR BOYFRIEND/SPOUSE/ FIANCE / PARENTS
90% of my paycheck goes to my loans. I didn’t buy a fancy car, house, etc. because I knew I wanted to get rid of my student loans first. My fiance pays for literally everything: rent, food, utilities, gas, vacation, etc. I pay for a few things here and there but he is mainly the person spending. He is happy to help me get the debt down but I am grateful that he does and I make sure I make him feel appreciated every time I make a payment. I promised him I will pay the first two years of our mortgage alone as my pay back.

In conclusion, if paying down your loans doesn’t feel dumb, annoying, painful sometimes, you are not doing it right. It requires a lot of sacrifices, from you and your family. I am hoping to be down to 130K by the end of this year. I will keep you all posted.