My final credit card payment should go through today leaving me with no credit card debt. I can’t get too excited about this since I still have about $57,000 in student loans but it is progress. One positive thing is that I now know that I won’t run my credit card debt back up with frivolous purchases. Another thing is that I won’t have a generic debt expense anymore, it will all be student loans. My credit card debt was a mixture of a student loan debt balance transfer and miscellaneous expenses such as food, clothing, gas, etc. so I wasn’t sure what I was paying off.
Now that I have my credit card paid off I have two new goals for my money. One is to pay off my private student loan that has an interest rate of 11.75% and a balance of just under $2000. The other goal is to fully fund my Roth IRA. The maximum contribution is $4000 for this year and I’ve only contributed $150 so far. I have until April of next year to get this funded. For now my plan is to split any extra money equally between the two goals although I’m considering just focusing on one goal and completing it than focusing on the other.
Wow, congrats. Keep up the great work!
Awesome – good for you. I am shocked by the interest rate on your student loan. Those people are robbing you. At least in my opinion.
Could you get a 0% opp card and rid yourself of the interest all together – so you can pay it off faster? Not that it would be that big of a deal – your balance is low.
It will be so good for you, having the credit cards gone. Enjoy your freedom from this burden.
Thanks. The reason the interest rate is so high is because it is a private student loan rather than a government student loan. I’ll be able to finance the rest of my education with government loans which currently have an interest rate of 6.8%.
I’ve thought about using a 0% balance transfer to get rid of the difference. The only offers I’m seeing right now though have a balance transfer fee that basically wipes out any savings.
Congratulations!