Making Sense Of Cents

Learn how to make extra money, how to save money, how to start a blog, and more.

JOIN OVER 300,000
MONTHLY READERS!
  • HOME
  • BLOG
  • About
  • Categories
    • SAVE MONEY
    • Side Job Ideas
    • Blogging Tips
    • Budget Tips
    • Career Advice
    • College
    • Pay Off Debt
    • Extra Income
    • My Life
    • Minimalism
    • Pet-Related
    • Real Estate Help
    • Retirement
    • Product Reviews
    • Self-Employment Tips
    • Travel
      • RV Life
    • Wedding
  • How To Start a Blog
  • FREE FB GROUP
  • Recommendations
  • Contact
    • Contact
    • Advertise
  • How To Save Money
  • Make Extra Money
  • Blogging Courses
    • Affiliate Marketing Course
    • Making Sense of Sponsored Posts
  • Travel

My Student Loans Are Fully Paid Off!

Last Updated: December 30, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 273 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

107027shares
  • Facebook 1594
  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • LinkedIn
  • Email

I paid off $40,000 in student loans by the age of 24, just within 7 months of me starting my payoff plan. Yes, it is possibly to pay off your loans quickly!Yes, you just read the title of this blog post correctly. My student loans are gone and fully paid off!

Donezo. Eliminated. Demolished.

It seems like just a couple of months ago I published my post about my $38,000 in student loans (scroll down to the bottom of this post if you are interested in how I paid off my student loans) and how badly I wanted them gone.

I have made a decent amount of recent payments and have watched our savings account dwindle down to a very low and uncomfortable number (still livable though).

Our monthly income keeps increasing and without it, none of this would have been possible. I am very grateful for everything in life.

Also, many have asked about why I made some small payments of less than $1 (see the picture below). It is because whenever I would pay the full amount of the loan off, they would still charge interest on the loan for the day until the actual payment was received. So, I had some small payments of less than $1.

Related blog posts on how to pay off student loans quickly:

  • 30+ Ways To Save Thousands of Dollars Each Month
  • How To Work From Home By Selling on Amazon
  • 75+ Ways To Make Extra Money
  • Consolidating And Refinancing Student Loans – What You Should Know
  • How Do Student Loans Work?

 

My Student Loans

I worked full-time all throughout my undergraduate and graduate degrees, and still managed to have student loans. I’m going to blame it on the fact that I had to move out when I was 17/18 and I had to pay for myself to live, but honestly, I wasted a lot of the money I made as well.

I spent tons of money on clothes and food. Wes and I were not the smartest with money when we were younger and first moved in together. I will be honest and say that.

The total amount of student loans that I accumulated was around $40,000 after I received both my undergraduate and graduate degrees. You can read more about my degrees in the post How I Graduated From College In 2.5 Years With 2 Degrees AND Saved $37,500.

We have had some of the money saved in our emergency fund for quite some time, but I had a hard time parting with it. That is the main reason for why I was able to throw such large payments at my loans every week, and especially the last couple of weeks when I had student loan debt.

Some people ask me if I regret my degrees now that I will be switching to being a full-time blogger. No, I still don’t regret going to school even now that I plan on switching to 100% freelancing. I don’t think I would be where I am today without my degrees, and I do think that they will continue to help me into the future.

My original goal was to finish paying off my student loans in March of April of this year, but I fell a few months behind.

We definitely did some unnecessary (but fun spending), which caused us to be a little behind schedule. However, I’m not going to complain, I’m super proud of myself! I thought that my goal seemed a little hard, and it was, but I only fell a couple of months behind, so it definitely wasn’t impossible.

I also wish I knew that you could consolidate student loans. You can save a lot of money through student loan consolidation such as with Credible, especially if you have high interest federal or private loans. Plus, Credible is giving Making Sense of Cents readers a $100 bonus when they refinance with Credible. 

 

My Student Loans are GONE and eliminated

Here are some of my recent payments.

My Financial Future

What will we do with the additional income that we make every month now that $5,000 to $10,000 isn’t going towards student loans? We’re still not sure! Having this kind of cash flow will be very different from what we are used to because for such a long time everything has been going to my student loan debt.

We definitely want to save as much as we can in order to build a large enough emergency fund to prepare us for the freelancing life that I will be entering.

We also want to start investing more aggressively starting this month. We’ve always invested a little, but not enough as to where it’s a meaningful accomplishment relative to me paying off my students loans.

We still don’t know when we will be buying our next house, and lately we have been talking about putting it off for a couple more  years. We haven’t lived in our current home for very long (4 years), and it still fits us for now. So we will be saving for our next house down payment fund, but at the moment it’s not at the very top of our list.

Now, I do realize that in a couple of months that we won’t still have this huge savings amount every month since I will be eliminating an income source. Our income and, therefore, our amount of savings per month will decrease significantly, and that is something that will take getting used to. It’s all relative, though. Just one year ago, I could have never dreamed of being anywhere near half of what we make today.  It’s only normal that I can’t work 2 full-time jobs forever.

Anyway, I am so excited that my student loans are gone! And yes, this is a bragging post 🙂

I paid off $40,000 in student loans by the age of 24, just within 7 months of me starting my payoff plan. Yes, it is possibly to pay off your loans quickly!Here are my tips to pay off your student loans quickly:

 

Do you know how much student loan debt you have?

The first thing that made me jumpstart my student loan repayment plan was the fact that I took the time to add up how much student loan debt I had.

It shocked me so much that I wanted to throw up. That’s good though because it can be a good source of motivation for most people.

I know it was for me!

When you add up your student loans, do not just take a guess. Actually pull up each student loan and tally everything down to the exact penny.

Related tip: I highly recommend Credible for student loan refinancing (they are the top student loan refinancing company and have great customer service!). You can lower the interest rate on your student loans significantly by using Credible which may help you shave thousands off your student loan bill over time. Through Credible, you may be able to refinance your student loans to a rate as low as 2.14%! Plus, it’s free to apply. Related: Consolidating And Refinancing Student Loans – What You Should Know.

 

Understand your student loans.

There are many people out there who do not fully understand their student loans. There are many things you should do your research on so that you can create the best student loan repayment plan.

This mainly includes:

  • Your interest rate. Some student loans have fixed interest rates, whereas others might have variable rates. You’ll want to figure out what the interest rate on your loans are because that may impact the student loan repayment plan you decide on. For example, you might choose to pay off your student loans that have the highest interest rates first so that you can pay less money over time.
  • Student loan reimbursements. Some employers will give you money to put towards your student loans, but you should always do your research when it comes to this area. Some employers will require that you work for them for a certain amount of time, you have great grades, good attendance, and they might have other requirements as well. There are many employers out there who will pay your student loans back (fully or partially), so definitely look into this option.
  • Auto-payments. For most student loans, you can probably auto-pay them and receive a discount. Always look into this as you may be able to lower your interest rate by 0.25% on each of your student loans.

I recommend that you check out Personal Capital (a free service) if you are interested in gaining control of your financial situation. Personal Capital is very similar to Mint.com, but 100 times better as it allows you to gain control of your investment and retirement accounts, whereas Mint.com does not. Personal Capital allows you to aggregate your financial accounts so that you can easily see your financial situation, your cash flow, detailed graphs, and more. You can connect accounts such as your mortgage, bank accounts, credit card accounts, investment accounts, retirement accounts, and more, and it’s FREE.

 

Create a budget.

If you don’t have one already, then you should create a budget immediately.

First, include your actual income and expenses for each month. This will help show you how much money you have left over each month and how much money should be going towards your student loan debt each month.

 

Earn more money.

The month I paid off my student loans was a month where I earned over $11,000 in extra income. While this does sound crazy, I did start off by making just $0 in extra income. Everyone has to start somewhere.

Even if $11,000 a month isn’t possible for you, I’m sure something is. If you can make an extra $1,000 a month in extra income, that can help you knock out your student loans in no time.

Some ways to make extra money are below, but check out the related articles below to see many, many more:

  • Start a blog. Blogging is how I make a living and just a few years ago I never thought it would be possible. As of December of 2016, I am now earning around $100,000 a month blogging and I never thought this would be possible. You can create your own blog here with my easy-to-use tutorial. You can start your blog for as low as $2.95 per month plus you get a free domain if you sign-up through my tutorial.
  • Sell your stuff. There are many things you can do to make money by selling items. We all have extra things laying around that can be sold, or you can even search for items that can be bought and resold for a profit.
  • Answer surveys. Survey companies I recommend include Swagbucks, American Consumer Opinion, Survey Junkie, Pinecone Research, Opinion Outpost, Prize Rebel, and Harris Poll Online. They’re free to join and free to use! You get paid to answer surveys and to test products. It’s best to sign up for as many as you can as that way you can receive the most surveys and make the most money.
  • Rent an extra room in your home. If you have extra space in your home, then you may want to rent it out. Read A Complete Guide To Renting A Room For Extra Money.
  • Become an Uber or Lyft driver – Spending your spare time by driving others around can be a great money maker. Read more about this in my post – How To Become An Uber Or Lyft Driver. Click here to join Uber and start making money ASAP.
  • Try InboxDollars. InboxDollars is an online rewards website I recommend. You can earn cash by taking surveys, playing games, shopping online, searching the web, redeeming grocery coupons, and more. Also, by signing up through my link, you will receive $5.00 for free just for signing up!
  • Find a part-time job. There are many part-time jobs that you may be able to find. You can find a job on sites such as Snagajob, Craigslist (yes, I’ve found a legitimate job through there before), Monster, and so on.

Related articles:

  • 75+ Ways To Make Extra Money
  • 8 Things To Sell To Make Money
  • 10 Ways To Make Money Online From The Comfort of Your Home
  • 10 Things I’ve Done To Make Extra Money
  • Ways To Make An Extra $1,000 A Month

 

Cut your expenses.

The next step is to cut your budget so that you can have a better student loan repayment plan. Even though you may have just created a budget, you should go through it line by line and see what you really do not need to be spending money on.

There’s probably SOMETHING that can be cut.

You might not have even realized it until after you wrote down exactly how much money you were shoveling towards nonsense until now. However, now is better than never!

We worked towards cutting our budget as much as we could. I can’t remember exactly how much we cut it by, but I know that it was enough to where I felt like I was putting a dent in my student loans.

Even if all you can cut is $100 each month, that is much better than nothing. That’s $1,200 a year right there!

Some expenses you can lower or ways to save money include the below:

  • Earn free cash back. Sign up for a website like Ebates where you can earn CASH BACK for just spending like how you normally would online. The service is free too! Plus, when you sign up through my link, you also receive a free $10!
  • Lower your cell phone bill. Instead of paying the $150 or more that you spend on your cell phone bill, there are companies out there like Republic Wireless that offer cell phone service starting at $10. YES, I SAID $10! If you use my Republic Wireless affiliate link, you can change your life and start saving thousands of dollars a year on your cell phone service. I created a full review on Republic Wireless as well if you are interested in hearing more. I’ve been using them for over a year and they are great.
  • ATM fees. Why do people do this to themselves?
  • Pay bills on time. This way you can avoid late fees.
  • Shop around for insurance. This includes health insurance, car insurance, life insurance, home insurance and so on. Insurance pricing can vary significantly from one company to the next. When we were shopping for car insurance last, we found that our old company wanted something like $205 to insure one car for one month, whereas the new company we have now charges $50 a month for the same exact coverage. INSANE!
  • Save money on food. I recently joined $5 Meal Plan in order to help me eat at home more and cut my food spending. It’s only $5 a month (the first four weeks are free too) and you get meal plans sent straight to you along with the exact shopping list you need in order to create the meals. Each meal costs around $2 per person or less. This allows you to save time because you won’t have to meal plan anymore, and it will save you money as well!
  • Fuel savings. Combine your car trips, drive more efficiently, get a fuel efficient car, etc.
  • Trade in your car for a cheaper one. For us, we are car people. Cars are one of our splurges. However, if you only have a nice car to keep up with the Joneses, then you might want to get rid of it and get something that makes more sense.
  • Live in a cheaper home. I’m not saying you need to go live in a box, but if you live in a McMansion then you may want to think about a smaller home. This way you can save money on utility bills and your mortgage payment.
  • Learn to have more frugal fun. We don’t spend anywhere near the same amount of money on entertainment as we used to. There are plenty of ways to have frugal fun.

 

Pay more than the minimum.

The point of all of the above is to help you pay off your student loans. However, you can always go a little bit further and pay off your student loans more quickly. The key to this is that you will need to pay more than the minimum each month for you to speed up your student loan repayment plan process.

It may sound hard, but it really doesn’t have to be. Whatever extra you can afford, you should think about putting it towards your student loans. You may be able to shave years off your student loans!

How much student loan debt do you have? What’s your student loan repayment plan?

Related Posts

  • How To Save 50% Or More Of Your IncomeHow To Save 50% Or More Of Your Income
  • What I Would Change About My College ExperienceWhat I Would Change About My College Experience
  • Money Advice I Would Tell My Younger SelfMoney Advice I Would Tell My Younger Self
  • Ways to Earn Extra Income Part 1Ways to Earn Extra Income Part 1
  • How to Pay Off Student Loans FastHow to Pay Off Student Loans Fast
  • The Benefits of Paying Off Student Loan Debt EarlyThe Benefits of Paying Off Student Loan Debt Early
107027shares
  • Facebook 1594
  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • LinkedIn
  • Email

273 Comments
Filed Under: Budget, Debt, School Tagged With: Budget, Debt, Student Loans

About Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Michelle is the founder of Making Sense of Cents, a blog about personal finance and traveling. She discusses how her business has evolved in her side income series. She paid off $40,000 in student loans by the age of 24 mainly due to her freelancing side hustles. Click here to learn more about starting a blog!

Comments

  1. Sarah | I Heart Frugal says

    July 1, 2017 at 10:54 am

    What an awesome feeling to be debt free! It took me years to pay off my student loans, but as I earned more, it became easier! Congrats on your success!

    Reply
  2. MyEarlyRetirementJourney says

    February 25, 2018 at 8:03 pm

    Another hardship turned headline! Who regrets degrees? Silly, humans.

    Reply
  3. Dana says

    May 28, 2018 at 1:39 pm

    Thank you for inspiring me to start my blog (again)! I love reading your posts and always look forward to the next one.

    Reply
  4. DNN says

    August 17, 2018 at 5:41 pm

    Congrats on nailing your students loans off 2 years after you started your side hustle millionaire blogging career Michelle. Hats off to you! 🙂

    Reply
  5. Tammy says

    September 29, 2018 at 9:02 am

    I stumbled onto your blog not long after I started my own. I love your blog and your inspiration. Thanks a million for all you do! 🙂

    My husband and I paid off $65,000 in 2010 in just 17 months by FOCUS, a written plan, side hustles and sheer grit! Getting out of debt is NOT for the pansies!!! Although anyone can do it, it will only belong to those who are seriously determined.

    Thanks again Michelle. You are a rock star! 🙂

    Reply
    • Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says

      September 29, 2018 at 1:34 pm

      Great job!

      Reply
  6. LM says

    October 22, 2018 at 1:24 pm

    College is a privilege and not a right, at least in this country. I offered to pay (towards) the first 2 years of my kid’s college. I gave them a budget of $10K a year. That only left state universities and community college. I also told them that they had to do the 1st 2 years in Community College and finish to get an AA degree for transfer and whatever was left over, would go to paying for the 3rd year at a 4 year school. I walked them through accessing their major, seeing what jobs that major would get them, setting a budget for AFTER COLLEGE and see if what they invested in their education > how many years it would take to pay off their college investment. This was an eye opener for my kids.

    Reply
  7. Jay Green says

    March 11, 2019 at 9:32 pm

    I’m currently going to through the struggle of paying off debt and I found this post VERY motivating, especially since I’m starting my own blog. Thank you SO MUCH for sharing!

    Reply
  8. Edward says

    September 23, 2019 at 11:10 pm

    Congratulations on paying your loan.

    Reply
  9. David Adegbenga Ogunlana says

    January 17, 2021 at 11:07 pm

    Yes I need cash

    Reply
« Older Comments

Trackbacks

  1. Student Discounts You May Be Missing Out On | FITnancials says:
    July 23, 2016 at 9:42 pm

    […] How I Paid Off $40,000 In Student Loans In 7 Months […]

    Reply
  2. 9 Easy Ways To Lose A Pound A Week | FITnancials says:
    July 23, 2016 at 9:42 pm

    […] How I Paid Off $40,000 In Student Loans In 7 Months […]

    Reply
  3. Do What You Love interview - Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - Do What You Love Do What You Love says:
    August 18, 2016 at 2:56 am

    […] write a blog post that said “I failed” so I tried my hardest. In the end I was able to pay off my $40,000 student loan debt in just seven months. Mainly I did this by finding ways to make extra money. I did pretty much […]

    Reply
  4. How to Rock Affiliate Marketing - Kids, Cash and Chaos says:
    August 22, 2016 at 6:48 am

    […] I have been reading Michelle Schroeder-Gardner’s blog Making Sense of Cents off and on for the past few years. I first found her on Pinterest when I was looking for information on paying down debt. Her income reports always seemed so relatable as she worked her side hustles to pay off her student loan debt. […]

    Reply
  5. 4 Craigslist Rental Scams To Avoid says:
    September 30, 2016 at 1:48 pm

    […] How I Paid Off $40,000 In Student Loan Debt in 7 Months […]

    Reply
  6. 31 Birthday Freebies You Should Sign Up For says:
    October 6, 2016 at 11:30 pm

    […] How I Paid Off $40,000 in Debt in 7 Months […]

    Reply
  7. The Ultimate Guide To Starting A Side Business - Making Sense Of Cents says:
    October 12, 2016 at 2:54 am

    […] side business ideas. After all, my side business (this blog) changed my life, it allowed me to pay off $40,000 in student loan debt, eventually became my full-time business, and it now allows me to travel full-time with my […]

    Reply
  8. 7 Free Things You Can Get On Your Birthday | FITnancials says:
    October 25, 2016 at 2:27 pm

    […] How I Paid Off $40,000 In Student Loans In 7 Months […]

    Reply
  9. Refinancing Student Loans - Plus A SoFi Review says:
    November 26, 2016 at 3:48 pm

    […] Related: How I Paid Off $40,000 In Student Loan Debt In 7 Months […]

    Reply
  10. Should Parents Pay For College? Do Parents Have To Pay For College? says:
    November 30, 2016 at 2:09 am

    […] These kinds of questions are also really relevant to my blog, as I began it extremely focused on paying off my $40,000 student loan debt (you can read about how I paid off my student loans in just 7 months). […]

    Reply
  11. From Hobby to Job-Free with Michelle of MakingSenseofCents.com - 7 Figure Dad says:
    August 18, 2017 at 12:30 pm

    […] I started my online business on the side, and I had a full-time job as a financial analyst that paid very well, so I used my online earnings towards something else. After setting aside money for taxes, I put the majority of the rest of my online earnings towards paying off my $40,000 student loan debt in 7 months. […]

    Reply
  12. Make Money Traveling: How to Make $25,000 a Month Blogging says:
    September 8, 2017 at 8:59 am

    […] How I Paid Off $40,000 of Student Debt by the Age of 24 […]

    Reply
  13. Make Money RVing: How to Make $100,000 a Month Blogging says:
    September 8, 2017 at 9:15 am

    […] How I Paid Off $40,000 of Student Debt by the Age of 24 […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Making Sense of Cents welcome page photo
Hello and welcome!
My name is Michelle and I'm the author/owner of Making Sense of Cents. Learning how to save money and make more money changed my life. It allowed me to pay off $40,000 in student loans, start my own business, and I now travel full-time.
Follow on Bloglovin

Subscribe Via Email

As Seen On

as seen on
How To Start A Blog
making sense of affiliate marketing for bloggers
My Monthly Online Income Reports
My Student Loans Are Gone - How I Paid Off $38,000 In Student Loans
Buying a House at 20 (How I did it)
How To Make Money Blogging Picture
How To Save 50% Or More Of Your Income Picture
How I Graduated From College In 2.5 Years With 2 Degrees AND Saved $37,500
75+ Ways To Make Extra Money

Subscribe Via Email

HOME
CONTACT

POPULAR POSTS
How To Make Money Blogging
How To Start A Blog Tutorial
I Paid $40K In Student Loans By 24
75 Ways To Make Extra Money

PRIVACY POLICY
TERMS OF USE
DISCLAIMER / EARNINGS DISCLAIMER

Copyright © 2011 - 2021. All Rights Reserved.

© 2021 Making Sense of Cents
Design by Swoon & Co. Creative