Welcome to my debt payoff update for February 2018! In these updates, I detail how much we paid, tell you about any extra income we received during the month, and finally tally where we stand now.
I started this site to hold Mr. TMG and me accountable in our debt payoff journey. I also want to inspire and encourage others who are in debt—especially if you owe six figures like we do—by showing everyone that debt doesn’t have to be forever.
Whatever your numbers, I hope you find some inspiration in our story.
Let’s get to it!
Debt Payments
Here is a breakdown of all of our payments in February:
Navient 1-03 Direct Loan-Sub: $5,102.40
Navient 1-09 Direct Grad PLUS: $3,327.47
Navient 1-07 Direct Loan-Sub: $2,494.80
Navient 1-08 Direct Loan-Unsub: $201.46
FedLoan 1: $1.43
Navient 1-12 Direct Loan-Unsub: $264.18
Navient 1-10 Direct Loan-Unsub: $324.84
Mortgage: $1,368.26
FedLoan 2: $22.88
Our extra payment this month was more than enough to pay off our two lowest loans (1-03 and 1-09) and put a sizable dent in the next one. Woohoo! 🙂
Click the links below to see previous debt payoff updates:
- 2017 Debt Payoff Update: How We Paid Off $47,029.45 in One Year
- January 2018 Debt Payoff Update: $8,029.40 Paid
Ready to get out of debt?
I mentioned in this post that we were paying our minimum payments on the 1st of the month and then made a larger extra payment on the 16th.
This month, we decided to try zero-based budgeting. With a zero-based budget, you budget every single dollar of your income. Your budgeted income minus your budgeted expenses should equal zero.
With our new plan, we’re moving the minimum payment on my loans to the 16th and extra payment to the end of the month.
Our extra payment will now include not only the extra income we receive but any money we didn’t spend in our budget categories, as well. We should be able to pay more each month as a result.
We had already made the minimum payments on the 1st when we decided to switch. To make sure we didn’t fall behind in our billing cycle and get charged late fees, I thought we should make another minimum payment on February 16, so we did.
Turns out it was overkill, and Mr. TMG knew it but went along to appease me lol. The actual due date for my loans is the 16th, so our payment on the 1st covered it.
Extra Income
The extra payment this month consists of the amount we budgeted for debt payoff for the current month along with any extra income earned or received between January 16 and February 28.
The time period here includes the end of January because of the way we previously calculated our extra payment.
The extra income shown below was earned or received between January 16 and February 28.
- My FSA reimbursement: $1,250
- Mr. TMG’s side job: $3,100.24
- Refund from overpayment for wisdom tooth surgery (ouch!): $101
- State tax refund: $2,505
Related:
Remaining Balances
Now for the moment of truth. Here are the remaining balances on all of our debts.
Grand Total: $625,305.68 remaining
I’m really proud of our progress last month (even though FedLoan won’t let us be great…sigh).
Also, our federal tax refund hit overnight, so we’ll get another boost on our progress next month. Yay!! 🙂
How did you do with your financial goals last month? Did you make the kind of progress you wanted to?
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Ready to get out of debt?
Hi, I’m Rho! I’m a wife, mom, and Biglaw associate who believes that true wealth is having control of your time. I help busy lawyers like you take back control of your time by teaching you how to achieve lifestyle freedom through mindset shifts and financial independence. Read a little more about me here.
