How has it been 3 years since graduation? After graduating in 2019, I was already overwhelmed with the idea of student loan debt looming over my head and my budget, so I set a goal to pay off my student loans before my 30th birthday. If you aren’t familiar, you can read more about my goal here: My Plan to Pay Off Over $30K of Student Loans By My 30th Birthday. That meant I had approximately 6.5 years to pay off my student loans on top of all my other foreseeable expenses and be free of student loans by the end of 2025. What I didn’t expect was a worldwide pandemic and national forbearance on federal student loans.  This is an update on my student loan journey, what happened, and what is to come. 

My Current Student Loan Status

It’s been a little under 2 years since the other article has been posted, so how have I been doing with my student loan payments? Well, I would say I've been doing great and have tried my best to aggressively tackle them. As of April 2022, I have paid off 64% of my student loans - that’s over $21,000!  The forbearance has helped me tremendously in that I’ve been able to tackle my loan(s) with higher interest rates that weren’t put on hold (aka my private student loans). Paying off this much this quickly wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for the national forbearance as well as my own financial situation. I had the financial means to pay more than the minimum, while still affording rent and the lifestyle I wanted to maintain.

What’s Next?

As of December 2021, the US Department of Education had once again extended the COVID-19 emergency relief for students through May 1st of 2022. This means a suspension of federal student loan payments, a 0% interest, and stopped collections on defaulted loans. However, the National Forbearance is finally coming to an end, to the dismay of millions. I know people that have stopped making student loan payments altogether so they could pay for other things. I know people that just continued with minimum payments to slowly chip away at their total. I also know people that were in the same boat as me, trying to pay more than their previous minimums, especially if they had private loans that weren’t affected by the forbearance.

While I have always been paying hundreds of dollars to my student loans during the entire pandemic, I was only focusing on my private loan because of its high-interest rate. That means when the forbearance ends, I’ll have to go back to managing all my student loans and not just focusing on one. This is a bit of a bummer to me because I can no longer dedicate my energy and money in to one pesky loan. Surely, I’ll be chipping away at all my loans, but not at the rate I would want. 

During the pandemic, my federal student loans have also transferred over from the infamous Navient to Aidvantage – another federal student loan servicer. Personally, the transition wasn’t as annoying as all the emails made it out to be. However, if you haven’t been paying anything towards your federal student loans or if your servicer has changed within the past two years, I would make sure to login before the National Emergency Forbearance ends. Make sure all your accounts are reflected correctly and don’t forget to opt into automatic payments this way you won’t forget when May 1st comes around.

Expectations for the Rest of the Year

After the forbearance ends, I will be chipping away at my remaining 4 student loans. I have a few larger expenses that may interrupt how aggressively I’ll be paying each month, including moving and a week-long vacation in September. It’s important to be flexible because life happens. By the time it’s my 27th birthday at the end of the year, I will be on track to

• Have paid all my private student loans in full! (my higher interest rates)

• Have paid over 74% of my student loans

Lessons Thus Far

I think one of the big lessons during this journey has been to have that clear goal in mind. A lot happened these past few years, but I knew I wanted to chip away at these loans as quickly as possible.

The second lesson was about flexibility. Every few months, I did have to review my debt payoff plan to see if it still made sense. I had to keep an eye on news about the forbearance as ultimately any new legislation would change my debt payoff strategy.

And lastly, I’d like to share some tips with you if your goal is to pay off student loan debt in the near future:

1. Know who your student loan servicers are. This video can help. And don’t ignore emails from them as missing a payment will affect your credit history and score and cost you more money in the end.

2. Get a plan in place - you can watch this video to help you list, prioritize, and create a payoff plan

3. Read up on the news. Find out what kind of legislation is being considered regarding YOUR student loans. Reach out to your Congressional representatives and let them know your thoughts.

4. Share your journey. Sometimes, people want to know that they are not alone in managing their student loans. And maybe you can share a tip or two to help others.