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Archive for the ‘Student Loans’ Category
My Recent Trip to the United States Department of Education
March 24th, 2012 | Added to College & Fraternity Life, Money, Jobs, & Finances, Student Loans | No Comments »
Last month, I had a chance to visit a place that I’ve contributed quite a bit of money to over the last few years – the United States Department of Education (USED) in Washington, DC! Okay, so while most people would find no humor or excitement in going to the USED, I found some great sense of fulfillment by actually visiting their headquarters building in our nation’s capital.
The one thing that struck me the most about the headquarters building is that it’s pretty much a fortress. I mean, it’s built like it could withstand any major natural disaster or attack. I honestly think that if a foreign country attacked the capitol, the USED building would be left standing – mocking the foreigners and their wimpy weapons. But that’s just the impression you get from the outside. Once you’re inside you see that it’s really just functional office space. I liked the mission statement of the USED, which was put up right on the wall for everyone to see when you entered the building. Take a look:
 The USED's mission statement - give it a read Pretty good mission statement for the USED, huh? I was down in Washington, DC for a conference on charter schools which I won’t get into in this blog entry. However, I couldn’t help but think that I actually helped build the impressive structure in which the charter school conference was being held in thanks to all of my student loan payments. It was a weird feeling – not necessarily a bad feeling, but one that made me take a step back and think, “Well, here’s the place where my checks have been going for the past few years.” It was just an interesting feeling.
What was not a good or interesting feeling, though, was the physical pain that I endured as I rode Amtrak’s Acela down to Washington, DC. Believe it or not, these asshats actually sold more tickets for the Acela than there were seats for the passengers. Sure, you’ll never get any official response from the Acela people saying that it was standard practice to do that or that they were sorry (apologizing is an acknowledgement of guilt). However, the conductor on the train – who was a very nice guy, by the way – told me and the fifteen other seatless passengers that this was common practice. It was outrageous. So, I rode down to the nation’s capitol sitting on this:
 Imagine sitting on this for two and a half hours Yeah… not comfortable at all. Anyway, I visited one of my two major student loan lenders last month. And while I don’t think that I’ll ever willingly or happily visit the headquarters building of the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (NJHESAA), I’m actually going to be really close to some of their associates starting tomorrow. Turns out that NJHESAA and my company will both be exhibitors at the New Jersey Charter Schools Association conference in Atlantic City this week. I don’t know if we’ll be anywhere near each other, but I feel like being in the same room as those people is going to drive me nuts. Frankly, I have half a mind to walk up to their booth and ask them why they felt the need to treat a highly intelligent, good-natured person (me) like a dumb, moronic piece of garbage every time I called them. And that same half of my mind wants me to ask them why they wouldn’t contact the credit agencies to report their mistaken even after admitting that they made a blunder when they reported that I made a late payment when no payment was actually due. Those idiots lowered my credit score for a few months until I had to go out of my way to get that stupid mistake wiped clean from my record. Idiots.
Anyway, enough of that tangent. The point of this entry is that I visited the USED headquarters building in Washington, DC and I was pleasantly pleased with the visit. I hope that they do their customers well as they continue to ramp up their student loan production.
More Than A Student Loan Update – Ideas on Blog Writing After This Repayment Is Over
March 1st, 2012 | Added to Student Loans | No Comments »
By this point I’m sure you understand this already, but these updates are mostly my way to publicize that even the worst student loan debt can be repaid – and quickly. And I think my story proves that student loan debt can even be repaid when the borrower/former student is working at a nonprofit organization, donates approximately 10% of his income to charity each year, and has to find a way to afford to exist in an economy where prices inflate, but wages largely stagnate.
 $29 thousand and dropping... That’s been the general gist of these updates.
However, perhaps a more primary reason for me posting these regular updates is to keep myself on track with the very repayment plan that I’m talking about. Most studies show that when a person commits to completing a big, audacious goal (starting a company, losing weight, repaying a high amount of debt), they are usually much more successful if they publicize those goals and their on-going attempts, accomplishments, failures, and trials along the way.
That’s part of what I’m trying to do with these updates – keep myself honest and totally focused on the ultimate goal of living a debt-free life. In fact, once this aggressive repayment plan is completed (since purchasing the new car, the deadline has extended six months from Christmas 2012 to Summer 2013) I fully plan to continue to utilize JerseySmarts.com to hold myself accountable for other goals that I’m trying to achieve. For example, in the past I’ve noted on this blog that I managed to get myself type 2 diabetes from eating too much and not working out enough. I’ve achieved some remarkable success in reducing the impact of that disease in my daily life and I think I could certainly write more about that on the blog.
Related to the diabetes… many years before I used this blog to publicize how I’m destroying my student loan debt, I wrote about how I was losing a tremendous amount of weight. Well, like most dieters and gym rats my life pushed me in a direction where I couldn’t workout as much (thanks full-time job and awful, awful commute!). And – as you might imagine – I gained back a bunch of weight. No, I didn’t gain back all of the weight (thank God), but I did gain back a lot of it (I went from 385 down to 260 then back up to 365 and now I’m down at 325).
With my weight loss and healthy activities I think there’s clearly both a good story to tell and an opportunity to hold myself accountable for greater levels of success. What type of greater success might that be? Well, I see my total weight loss and healthy journey as more than an attempt to fit into a certain size pair of jeans or a certain t-shirt. I see the journey as a way to a more active lifestyle and as a way to be able to do more “fun” things that I really can’t do right now. One of the folks that I work with is always telling me how she and her husband go hiking and how New Jersey has a lot of great hiking trails. Hiking is something that I could certainly do right now, but I wouldn’t enjoy it because I’m just not in good enough shape. The same goes for bike riding. I would like to ride a bike around town or even to ride a bike up and down the boardwalk on early mornings. However, if I did that activity now I definitely wouldn’t enjoy it because I’d be huffing and puffing when I should be enjoying the activity.
And have you seen these tough mudders and other crazy types of obstacle course races? That looks like a whole lot of fun… just not a whole lot of fun yet for me. Plus, I feel like I can get some people to do those events with me (I’m referring to my roommates who read this blog as well as my cousin and brother who both read this blog).
And there’s more to it, too. I don’t often write about the fact that I stopped eating fast food back in 2002 and stopped drinking soda around the same time (though I never really drank a lot of soda). In fact, there was a point in high school (late 1990′s) where I stopped drinking soda for over a year! Over the last 5 – 6 years I’ve done a lot of reading and some minor research on healthy foods, primal/paleo eating, and organic food versus non-organic food. I’d like to share a lot of that information and my thoughts on it on JerseySmarts.com, too.
Don’t think that the future of these accountability updates will deviate too far from the financial world. Once Summer 2013 has come and gone and I’m student loan free for the first time since 1999, I’ll have quite a bit to write about as I build up a significant reserve fund, housing fund, and continue to work to pay off this new car loan – and ultimately a mortgage for a house. In other words, these periodic updates aren’t going away after Summer 2013, but they might change a bit.
At this point, I guess it’s worth mentioning that my student loan debt has dropped again. This time it fell from $32 thousand outstanding down to $29 thousand outstanding. This represents the achievement of two major goals in one, fell swoop. First, I’ve now repaid over $91 thousand in student loan principal (and about $30 thousand in student loan interest). Second, I broke through the $30 thousand barrier! Believe it or not, the last time I only owed this much in student loans was after the first semester of my Junior year of college (that would be way back at the end of December 2001!).
In other words (working backwards), so far I’ve successfully repaid the academic and housing/living student loan debt that I incurred in (1) graduate school, (2) in the year before I entered graduate school when I was sort of in between schools, (3) during my senior year of college, and (4) during the second half of my junior year of college.
Pretty amazing, huh?
In May 2006, I graduated from Rutgers University with a Masters Degree and $120,720 in student loan debt. Since I started repaying my student loans in July 2006, I’ve repaid a total of $91 thousand in principal to various lenders including the federal Perkins loan program, the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority, and CitiBank. I currently owe $29 thousand in principal to the United States Department of Education’s Direct Loans program. To date, I’ve repaid well over $30 thousand in interest to these lenders. Follow my student loan repayment story on JerseySmarts.com.
Should Achieve Two Separate Student Loan Repayment Milestones Any Day Now
January 15th, 2012 | Added to Student Loans | No Comments »
Any day now I should be achieving two separate student loan milestones. As you might imagine from the opening of this entry – yes, I’ve reduced my student loan debt once again. This time around my total outstanding debt has dropped another $2 thousand to go from $34 thousand down to $32 thousand. Again, considering that I began my repayment during the summer of 2006, I think that this much of a drop is pretty damn impressive – but I would think that about my own accomplishment, right? 
Big news coming soon! The real stories here, though, are the two big repayment milestones that I’m closing in on: repaying a total of $90 thousand in principal and breaking through the $30 thousand threshold. Both of these milestones are incredibly close to being a reality. For example, after my next thousand dollar payment I’ll have repaid $90 thousand in total principal and over $30 thousand in interest. Shortly thereafter (or possibly at the same time), I’ll break through the $30 thousand threshold and my student loan debt will be sitting in the $20 thousands for the first time since the end of my Sophomore year in college (that would be way back at the end of the Spring 2001 semester).
Pretty amazing.
Much like my last few student loan entries – there’s no major words of wisdom for me to impart right now. Like I wrote a few months ago – I’ve reached this point because I put the brain that the good Lord gave me to work in figuring out a solution to my student loan debt versus crying about how much debt I accumulated while in school.
Like Morgan Freeman says in the Shawshank Redemption – either you get busy living or you get busy dying. In this case, I could have gotten busy bitching about my debt or gotten busy working my ass off so I could repay it. After a few years of making the minimum payments, at the beginning of 2010 I chose to get busy working my tail off so I could repay the debt. And I’m clearly in a better financial place because of that decision.
If you’ve got a ton of student loan debt, then you need to make the decision that works best for you and don’t wait. Hopefully, my experience proves that getting busy repaying your student loan debt is the best choice.
In May 2006, I graduated from Rutgers University with a Masters Degree and $120,720 in student loan debt. Since I started repaying my student loans in July 2006, I’ve repaid a total of $89 thousand in principal to various lenders including the federal Perkins loan program, the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority, and CitiBank. I currently owe $32 thousand in principal to the United States Department of Education’s Direct Loans program – a loan which started repayment in July 2006 with a balance of $59 thousand. To date, I’ve repaid well over $30 thousand in interest to these lenders. Follow my student loan repayment story on JerseySmarts.com.
Summing Up 2011 in Terms of Student Loan Repayments
January 2nd, 2012 | Added to Student Loans | No Comments »
Some people with seemingly insurmountable student loan debt spent a good portion of 2011 crying about their debt burden and whining that their dream job wasn’t waiting for them when they graduated. They are in the same “nowhere land” that they were when 2011 started. Other people saddled with insane amounts of student loan debt occupied areas around the nation and accomplished absolutely nothing of significance in the process unless you count spending taxpayer dollars on excessive cleanup and security measures as significant. I opted to spend 2011 focusing on dramatically reducing my remaining student loan debt to a manageable level that would perfectly position me to eliminate the debt in 2012.
Where the student loan burdened crybabies and occupiers failed, I succeeded.
When 2011 began I had $54,385.85 in total student loan debt remaining payable to the United States Department of Education. When 2011 ended I had $34,911.14 in total student loan debt remaining (still payable to the USED). The reason why I share these numbers is because I want people out there with incredible amounts of student loan debt to know that you can defeat your debt and you can do it without the dream job or the six figure salary. You can defeat the debt by working hard and giving up many of the luxuries of life until you can afford them.
I’m not going to recount my point of view on these topics because I’ve done so over and over again in 2011 (and prior years). However, what I thought would be helpful is if I put together a brief list of links to other student loan entries from 2011 that focus on certain topics related to repaying student loan debt.
Personally, I think that the last entry linked above is a really good one. If you have a few minutes and you haven’t read that one yet, then I recommend giving it a go. Here are some other interesting tidbits regarding the repayment of my student loans in 2011…
- Daily Interest. When 2011 began I was accruing $6.71 every day in interest alone. Today, my student loans accrue $4.30 in interest on a daily basis. It’s not great, but I’ll take a $2.41 reduction in interest accruing everyday! Over the course of a year, that’s $879.65 saved in interest alone. Still think that it’s not worth it to drastically overpay your monthly bills?
- Principal Repaid. In 2011, I repaid a total of $19,474.71 in principal.
- Interest Repaid. In 2011, I paid a total of $2,133.68 in interest. Also, because the tax code is written to reward lazy people with a redistribution of wealth from those of us who work their asses off (i.e. people who aren’t rich, but still work like crazy to earn enough money to repay their debts), I won’t be able to count the full $2,133.68 as a tax deduction. Why? Simple – I worked too hard in 2011 and earned too much money so my eligibility to count the $2,133.68 as a tax deduction is nullified. Think about that – I worked extra hard to earn extra money that I did NOT keep or stick into an account somewhere. Instead, sent that money to the government to repay this loan and that same government is going to penalize me for that hard work in repaying their loan by not allowing me to count the $2,133.68 as a tax deduction. Now tell me how this government is working in the best interests of the hardworking middle class again???
Look folks – either you get busy repaying your debts or you get busy occupying public space and/or crying and whining about something that only you can really change. Getting busy repaying your debts works – my experience proves that time and time again. Bitching and moaning about how your debt is someone else’s problem isn’t going to get you anywhere – the public displays of childishness proved that throughout the latter half of 2011.
Here’s to pushing harder than ever to have my student loans totally repaid by the end of 2012!
Another Very Brief Student Loan Update – Down Another $3 Thousand
December 16th, 2011 | Added to Student Loans | No Comments »
Earlier this month, I posted an entry talking about how focus, research, and action helped me figure out how to reduce my student loans quickly and efficiently. In that update, I noted that my United States Department of Education student loan sat comfortably at $37 thousand. Well, here we are just a short ten days later and I’m pleased to say that my student loans have dropped yet another $3 thousand and are now sitting very comfortably at $34 thousand.
Down to $34 thousand Unlike the entry from earlier this month, I don’t really have a lot of discussion or proselytizing to write about regarding this $3 thousand drop. A few of the comments that are buzzing around my head as I write this include: I’m happy about this drop; I’m pleased that my student loans are heading in the right direction; the light at the end of the repayment tunnel is getting brighter; I’m proud of the discipline that I’ve been able to display in making this happen; etc.
Sometime later this month (after Christmas) I intend to write a longer entry on the blog about some of the differences between my USED student loan as it stands at the end of 2011 versus on January 1st of 2011. There are a lot of significant differences including daily interest costing me much less today versus twelve months ago. Lots of fun data to look at – so be sure to stick around the blog through the end of the month to check out some of those fun facts!
In May 2006, I graduated from Rutgers University with a Masters Degree and $120,720 in student loan debt. Since I started repaying my student loans in July 2006, I’ve repaid a total of $61 thousand in principal to various lenders including the federal Perkins loan program, the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority, and CitiBank. I currently owe $34 thousand in principal to the United States Department of Education’s Direct Loans program – a loan which started repayment in July 2006 with a balance of $59 thousand. To date, I’ve repaid well over $30 thousand in interest to these lenders. Follow my student loan repayment story on JerseySmarts.com.
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