Happy New Year!
To celebrate the new year, I am excited to announce that…
We’re not six figures under anymore!
You’ll have to wait a few days for our official monthly debt repayment progress report for December with all the details of our earning and spending, but I thought the milestone of getting our student loan debt under $100,000 deserved its own celebratory post.
For those who are new around here, this is what our debt repayment timeline looks like:
May 2012— Mr. SixFiguresUnder graduates with a JD and MBA with debt totaling somewhere over $130,000. I don’t know the exact figure because I was afraid to look at the actual number back then.
Nov 2012— We are on an income-based repayment plan so we don’t have any payments due, but we decided to pay off the smallest loan of $4,000 with money from a CD that had just come up for renewal and happened to be about the same amount as the loan. At this point we are still planning to save for a house before paying off student loan debt.
May 2013— We decided to make paying off student loans our financial priority. We proved it by putting over $17,000, all the money we had earmarked for a down payment on a house, toward our loans. In the comments on this post, I explain in more detail where all of that money came from.
Jun 2013— We paid nearly $8,000 toward our loans after gathering together all the money we had sitting in different accounts.
July 2013— We paid $2,500 on the loans.
Aug 2013— We paid of another $1,000 toward the loans.
Sept 2013— I started Six Figures Under to document our debt repayment progress. We set a big, fat goal and decide to be totally transparent with our finances on the blog. During September we paid $2,800. At the end of September our “debt paid” total is $35,726 and we have $102,866 of debt remaining. My etsy income hit a record high in September
Oct 2013— During October we put $2,300 toward student loans. At the end of October our total of debt repaid is $38,026 and we have $101,375 remaining.
Nov 2013— In November we paid off $1,200. By the end of November we have paid $39,266 toward debt, leaving $100,644 of debt remaining.
Dec 2013— In December we paid $852 toward debt, which puts our totals at $40,087 paid toward debt and $99,989 remaining. Stay tuned for the complete disclosure of December’s details. After blogging about disclosing debt a few weeks back, I finally told my family and a few friends about SixFiguresUnder.com.
Don’t worry though. Even though our debt is officially under six figures we’ll still continue blogging right here at SixFiguresUnder.com.
Good for you Stephanie! Great progress. Congratulations!! Wishing you an even more amazing debt repayment year in 2014!!!
Margaret @ Live Like No One Else
Thanks Margaret! We’ll be doing what we can to make 2014 great!
That is awesome! Congratulations to you and your family–you have all worked so hard.
Thanks Kristia!
Oh wow, this is so exciting!!! Congratulations, what an accomplishment. 🙂 Keep up the hard work! I look forward to seeing what 2014 holds!!
Thanks! Success is a great motivator. We’re looking forward to a great year!
That’s GREAT!! I imagine its a relief to see one number permanently disappear! Thanks for your transparency on this blog, it helps motivate the rest of us!
Yes, one digit less is a big deal 🙂 I’m glad the transparency is motivating!
I have never been that much in debt so it is hard to understand that level of debt because it does seem overwhelming. My husband and I are both a little frugal at heart so we have always been savers but that is a huge milestone to get that much paid off so quickly. What an inspiration!!!
It is hard to comprehend this much debt! I guess I am used to (but not comfortable with) this caliber of debt. We have always been super frugal as well. Law school is expensive 🙁
That’s super awesome!
Milestones help give fuel to the fire.
It’s so true Celeste!
I am SO excited for you!!! And of course, relieved you are continuing your blog. 😛 Will keep your family in our prayers this year as we also pray for God to lessen our career-debt at the same time. 😛
Thanks Liz 🙂 I’ll be blogging until we’re at least Six Figures OVER! I like the idea of calling it career debt 🙂
That is awesome!!! Congratulations!!! 🙂
Thanks Stephanie!
Congrats on your huge accomplishment! We have a ton of debt to pay down too- and are really hoping that this year is a huge year for us. We still have family and friends that have no idea how bad our debt is (though some can imagine) or that we’ve started a blog or that I sometimes tweet! It’s a secret life that we’re none to proud of– but stay pretty positive most days because life otherwise would be so tough!
When I told my family over Christmas, they were so excited to check out my blog that they kind of glossed over the actual numbers or maybe it just seemed like that because no one passed out like I was afraid they might 🙂 Good luck in 2014!!
Congratulations!!! That is so great! We also hit the under $100K this year on our mortgage… like you said such a great accomplishment, but so far yet to go! 🙂
Thanks Nichole. That’s great that you are that close on your mortgage!
Congratulations! I remember a feeling of immense relief when I passed that threshold. Of course, there is still a long way to go, but getting under six figures is a major milestone. Well done.
Thanks! Yeah, there is definitely still a long road ahead. $99K is still a LOT of debt, but we are enthusiastically welcoming every milestone!