Only about a week ago I uploaded an entry talking about how my outstanding student loan debt fell from $98 thousand to $97 thousand. Well, one week later I’m glad to report that my debt has fallen from $97 thousand to $96 thousand. Last week I said that I have a plan to pay off this student loan debt quickly and efficiently. As you can tell from this entry, I’m working that plan to the best of my ability.

I have two student loans left: an NJHESAA consolidation loan and a Direct Loans consolidation loan. The Direct Loans consolidation loan is operated out of the United States Department of Education and carries a 4.75% interest rate on it, so it’s not the worst piece of debt in the world. The NJHESAA loan, on the other hand, sits at 7.33% interest which is to high for my long-term financial planning. Paying about $8.50 per day in interest expenses is ridiculous. As such, the plan to pay off of my student loans quickly focuses mostly around the NJHESAA loan where I have about $41 thousand outstanding.

My plan for the coming year is to send as much excess money as I can to pay down the NJHESAA loan. Once I get it down to a manageable level (unfortunately, $41 thousand is not manageable) my plan calls for me to revisit my savings and investment accounts to see whether my aggregated funds can finish off this loan and still leave me with some playing money.

I imagine that once I can get the NJHESAA loan down to $20 thousand or so, I’ll be able to give some serious consideration to wiping it out with one payment. And, if I continue to stick to my plan, then I might be hitting that number right around this time next year…

Stay tuned as the $96 thousand left on my student loans continues to shrink!