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Quick Student Loan Update – At the Brink of Another Big Break

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Hey everyone – just a quick update today on my student loan repayment progress. Can you believe that it has been three months since my last student loan update? Good grief! Sure, we had the interaction with USA Today in between, but the truth is that my student loan debt drops haven’t been coming as quickly as I had originally intended.

Sitting at $50 thousand

You might ask what the reason is for the slow down in my plans (especially considering that when I plan on eliminating a debt, I can’t be stopped). The reason is actually somewhat simple to understand. Last year, I exhausted my savings and investment accounts to eliminate my NJHESAA debt. That was a good feeling and a great accomplishment and even though I ultimately wound up losing potential earnings on those investments (friggin’ Sirius XM stocks have to keep going up after I sell thousands of shares – GAH!), it was worth it to eliminate that lending relationship. With that in mind, I’ve spent the last few months rebuilding my savings and investment accounts to a place where I feel comfortable enough to start beginning a more aggressive repayment of my remaining student loan debt.

You know, once upon a time I had envisioned being done with all of this student loan garbage by the time that I turned 30 years old. Well, that didn’t quite happen! However, I think that I can come really close to blasting out the rest of this debt by the time I reach 32 – and that’s pretty good when you consider all of the various factors involved in repaying student loans.

But the reason for ultimately posting this entry is to announce that my student loan debt has dropped once again. This time, I’ve gone from $51 thousand down to $50 thousand and I’m sitting on the precipice of something great. According to my repayment plan, after my next payment (later this month) I should finally break through that barrier. After that, hopefully I’ll be able to really ramp up the repayments and send this debt downhill quick.

Could I reach $40,000 by the end of 2011? If so, then I would be strikingly close to the same position I was in at the beginning of 2010 – when I decided that 2010 was going to be the year that I eliminated the NJHESAA debt. Better yet, could I be down as low as $35,000 by the end of 2011? I guess you’re all going to have to stay tuned and find out!

In May 2006, I graduated from Rutgers University with a Masters Degree and $120,720 in student loan debt. After completely repaying over $61 thousand in student loans from the federal Perkins loan program, the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority, and CitiBank, I currently owe $50 thousand to the United States Department of Education’s Direct Loans program. Follow my student loan repayment story on JerseySmarts.com.

Here We Go Again… Student Loan Update – Down Another Grand

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Before I even begin this entry let me reiterate what I wrote last month about my student loan repayment plans – I don’t plan on increasing my focus on the USDOE student loan until the end of this coming summer. And even at that, I’m still not entirely convinced that I’m going to engage in the same type of extreme repayment like I did with the NJHESAA student loan. More on that in the coming months…

Down to $53 thousand

The purpose of this entry is to report that my student loan debt is down another thousand bucks as of Monday when I used the USDOE’s online payment system to send in some extra cash to pay down this loan’s balance. I’m a big fan of the USDOE’s online payment system primarily because it’s free, but also because it’s very simple and easy to use. In fact, when I wrote that great entry about repaying my NJHESAA student loan, I talked about why I liked the USDOE online payment system. Here is the blurb that I wrote at the time:

And the other part about the USDOE Direct Loans Program that I love is how their online payment system doesn’t charge any additional fees to make a payment! A borrower logs online, makes a payment, only pays the amount of the payment, and that’s it! No additional fees. Period. Much different from the online payment system over at NJHESAA. For almost a year I’ve been on the USDOE’s automatic debit plan where they take an ACH transfer from my checking account each month to make the monthly payment that is due. I’m going to stay on that plan and then make some additional payments here and there to bring down the total amount of principal outstanding on this loan.

In any event, there is no further update on my remaining student loan at this time. Clearly, the next big “goal” to reach in repaying this loan is to break $50 thousand left outstanding in principal. Ideally, I’ll be able to get down to that level soon, but – again – I’m not putting a date on when that will happen just yet. Soon enough, I’m sure. Soon enough…

In May 2006, I graduated from Rutgers University with a Masters Degree and $120,720 in student loan debt. After completely repaying over $61 thousand in student loans from the federal Perkins loan program, the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority, and CitiBank, I currently owe $53 thousand to the United States Department of Education’s Direct Loans program. Follow my student loan repayment story on JerseySmarts.com.

Additional Student Loan Repayment Information Now Available on JerseySmarts.com

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Hey folks. A little bit earlier tonight I uploaded some additional information on the repayment of my New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (NJHESAA) student loan. In fact, if you head over to the “major announcement” page where you can find all difference pieces of information about the repayment of my NJCLASS loan, you can now scroll down to the bottom of the page and download a copy of the spreadsheet that I created to track my student loan repayments as well as a copy of my official “paid in full” letter and amortization/repayment schedule from the NJHESAA. The repayment schedule, by the way, shows the full breakout of the $14,645.33 that I paid in interest. Absolutely disgusting. Scroll down to the bottom of the “major announcement” entry (after the italicized portion) and you’ll find the update with the links to these documents.

I’m only sharing this information with the readers of this site and/or the folks who find us from Bing or Google because I want to show you that there is hope – even in the face of seemingly insurmountable student loan debt. However, success doesn’t just happen; you need a plan. The Excel spreadsheet that I uploaded on the other page was the primary tool I used to track and amend my plan.

I uploaded the “paid in full” letter just to show the world that there is an end of the rainbow that you can reach if you just plan it out. Set goals and meet them, folks. Make it your plan for 2011 to repay a significant portion of your student loan debt or consumer debt and then use whatever tools are at your disposal (maybe the spreadsheet that I uploaded) to keep a check on your plan and – more importantly – yourself. Enjoy!

Feeling Financially Content After the Big Push to Repay the Student Loan

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Things certainly have changed since I repaid my New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (NJHESAA) NJCLASS loan earlier this month. For example, I’ve spent the last twelve months checking, rechecking, assessing, and reassessing my personal finance spreadsheets two or three times each day. However, since I repaid that NJCLASS loan I’ve probably checked my spreadsheets once or twice every other day. Sure, that’s still more than the vast majority of Americans and yes, I have a tighter control of my finances than other folks in my position – but it still feels weird.

It feels weird not having to decide whether or not I should drop my checking account down to $20, $30, or $50 so I can make that much bigger of a payment to NJHESAA. It feels weird checking my personal financial spreadsheets and seeing that I have a few thousand dollars sitting there instead of less than $100. It feels weird to think about reaching other financial goals that involve me paying myself first before paying some outside loan company (i.e. saving money instead of paying down high interest debt).

It all just feels weird.

None of these feels unknown, though, and that’s a strong distinction to make. You see, I’ve lived life as someone who didn’t worry about the money he was spending. When I was in college I had a troubling mixture of credit cards and semesterly student loan surplus payments that I used to wreak havoc on my personal financial situation. Hey – young people do stupid things, right?

But the big difference this time around is that while I am a little taken aback at the financial freedom that I’m now able to work within, I’m not overwhelmed by it. In other words, I’m not spending my money like a drunken sailor on shore leave. Instead, I’m eagerly awaiting this Saturday to get here so we’re officially in 2011 and I can start attacking my new financial goals. Some of you might ask, “Why not start hitting those financial goals now, Joe?” And I would respond by saying that there is a clear method to my madness.

Each year I set out some 15 or so financial goals. These goals include how much I want to donate to certain charities (and, specifically, to which funds within those charities), how much money I want to save, how much money I want to invest, how much of each of my debts I want to repay, etc. Well, I never actually hit all of those goals each year… until 2010. Not only did I hit all of my financial goals in the past year, but I shattered them good.

So I’ve opted to let the few dollars that have come in from my various paychecks over the last two weeks just sit in my checking account so that on January 1, 2011 I can start aggressively pursuing my 2011 financial goals. Hey, maybe I’ll post those goals on here for you folks to read – that might make an interesting entry!

Major Student Loan Announcement: My NJHESAA Loan is Fully Repaid!

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That’s right, folks, you read the headline of this entry correctly. After 52 months of repayment – beginning way back in July 2006 – my New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (NJHESAA) student loan is now fully repaid. And now it’s time to celebrate! Well, before the celebration begins, let’s take a look at some of the facts and figures around this student loan. Starting with the screenshot of my account balance being listed at $0!

After graduating from Monmouth University in May 2003 and the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University back in May 2006, I earned two powerful degrees: a Bachelor of the Arts Degree in English and a Master of the Arts Degree in Public Policy. However, I also obligated myself to an overwhelming financial anchor in the form of $120,720.46 worth of student loan debt. NJHESAA’s share of that anchor was $51,595.27. Believe it or not, I actually tracked how all of that student loan debt was assumed and here’s the breakout (the financial figures include both the amount of the loan and the capitalized interest; also, these are my figures and may be a few pennies or a dollar or two off from what the loan company keeps on file).

Freshman Year of College (1999 – 2000): $7,604.23
Sophomore Year of College (2000 – 2001): $9,233.47
Junior Year of College (2001 – 2002): $12,611.89
Summer Session (2002): $8,693.78
Senior Year of College (2002 – 2003): $12,941.06
Total NJHESAA Debt at Consolidation (Plus $510.84 Refinancing Fee): $51,595.27

Total Principal Paid During the Life of the Loan: $40,095.00
Total Interest Paid During the Life of the Loan (Includes Capitalized Interest): $24,251.61
Total Fees Paid During the Life of the Loan: $1,893.69

Total Amount Repaid: $66,240.30

I’m compelled to note that the total repayment amount is 165% of the original loan amount. I don’t know about your point of view, but the fact that hardworking students and graduates are put in a position to pay 65% over their original loan amount is revolting. What aggravates me the most is that I paid 165% of the original loan amount even though I engaged in an extremely aggressive repayment schedule.

Imagine the folks who can’t manage to engage in that type of aggressive repayment schedule. How much is their total repayment as a percentage of the original loan? I shudder to think of it…

Really – you should see this spreadsheet that I put together with all of my student loan debt broken out from each of my loan sources. I sit back and look at the spreadsheet these days and I can’t help but comment that the amount of debt I took out to attend both college and graduate school is absolutely remarkable. However (and let me say this again), I’m not some victim nor was I duped into signing these promissory notes. I fully understood that by taking on these student loans I would be fully responsible for repaying them. This is what I wanted and this rapid repayment is what I always planned to accomplish.

But what’s even more remarkable is that as of today, that $51,595.27 student loan (plus $14,645.33 in other interest and fees) sits at $0.00. It’s amazing. But where does that leave this whole repayment plan that I’ve been talking about for the better part of the last year? Well, actually… it’s over. I specifically created and designed the repayment plan to aggressively repay my NJHESAA student loan and as of today that goal has been achieved.

But there’s a new plan in place…

Only $54 thousand left!

This past summer I began envisioning this very day and thinking about what the next step in the overall repayment of my student loan debt might look like once this day arrived. So yes – I do have another repayment plan that will address my remaining student loan debt to the United States Department of Education (USDOE). However, my relationship with the USDOE has always been excellent. Their customer service folks are friendly and helpful and I’m not charged an interest rate that is borderline criminal. I think that I have a great borrower/lender relationship with the USDOE Direct Loans program and I’m looking forward to continuing to work within that relationship (which, by the way, carries into my professional life as I manage a large USDOE grant for my company).

And the other part about the USDOE Direct Loans Program that I love is how their online payment system doesn’t charge any additional fees to make a payment! A borrower logs online, makes a payment, only pays the amount of the payment, and that’s it! No additional fees. Period. Much different from the online payment system over at NJHESAA. For almost a year I’ve been on the USDOE’s automatic debit plan where they take an ACH transfer from my checking account each month to make the monthly payment that is due. I’m going to stay on that plan and then make some additional payments here and there to bring down the total amount of principal outstanding on this loan. By the way, if you were wondering how these additional principal pay downs impacted the repayment of the NJHESAA student loan, take a look at this breakout, which covers the entire time during which I engaged in this overpayment – starting from last December through today:

I’m not sure if I’ll wind up attacking the USDOE loan – which sits at about $54 thousand outstanding right now (down from a high of $59 thousand) – with the same vigor and hyper-focus that I put into repaying the NJHESAA loan. Over the summer, I drafted my financial goals for 2011 (yes, I draft my financial goals half a year in advance and then I revise them during the months leading into New Year’s Day) and among my financial goals for 2011 is to pay $10 thousand in excess of the minimum monthly payment due to the USDOE. And when you consider that I paid more than that to NJHESAA this week alone, it shouldn’t be too hard to accomplish that goal!

However, I don’t plan on increasing my focus on the USDOE student loan until the end of this coming summer. This doesn’t mean that my financial vigilance ends today, though. My mindset today remains the same as it has for years: less spending + reducing debt + more saving + more investments = stronger financial health. In fact, I look at today’s victory through the words of the late Senator Ted Kennedy at the Democratic National Convention in August 2008: “The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on.”

It feels weird to quote a Senator that I wasn’t crazy about from a political party that I’m ambivalent towards, but his words really fit the day.

For those of you who have been following my student loan repayment story on JerseySmarts.com, I thank you for your patronage. If you’re coming to this page or to JerseySmarts.com for the first time through a Bing or Google search, then I welcome you to the blog and I hope that you stick around to hear the story of how I repay the remaining $54 thousand that I have outstanding in student loans to the USDOE.

The work begins anew… right now!

In May 2006, I graduated from Rutgers University with a Masters Degree and $120,720 in student loan debt. After completely repaying over $61 thousand in student loans from the federal Perkins loan program, the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority, and CitiBank, I currently owe $54 thousand to the United States Department of Education’s Direct Loans program. Follow my student loan repayment story on JerseySmarts.com.

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Update – December 26, 2010: Hey everyone! I’ve added some downloadable content to this page. Now you can download a version of the spreadsheet that I used to track my repayment of this NJHESAA student loan. Incidentally, I’m going to use this same spreadsheet to track the repayment of my USDOE loan, too. In addition, I’ve uploaded a PDF of my official paid-in-full letter from NJHESAA. Oh, and this letter includes the amortization/repayment schedule, too… including a breakout of the $14,645.33 that I paid in interest alone! Feel free to look through this stuff and let me know if you have any questions. Enjoy!

Update – July 30, 2012: Sometimes, I get the urge to revisit some of these older posts. After reviewing this one, I noticed that the student loan breakout was not as clearly attributed as it could have been. So, I revised some of the numbers up above to show the true cost of the loan during its lifetime. The numbers above all “foot” (i.e. equal) the same amount paid to the NJHESAA – $66,240.30. However, with the revisions above I’ve better described how much of that $66,240.30 was actually principal, how much was capitalized interest or regular interest, and how much was different fees. For those of you who are learning about student loans and financing – capitalized interest is interest that is added to the principal amount of a loan. The interest due on my NJHESAA loan was added to the principal balance at the end of each semester. Anyway, the numbers above are more reflective of what I actually paid to this private loan company.

As They Say, The Check is in the Mail…

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Have you ever written a check that actually hurt to write? No? Good for you. A few days ago I wrote the check that you’ll see below. Don’t do a double take when you see the check because I will pre-confirm what your eyes will see. Yes, that is a check written in the amount of $10,877.33.

Ahem… that’s ten thousand, eight hundred and seventy-seven dollars and thirty three friggin’ cents!!! Go ahead, take a look at the damn check for yourself:

A Hard Check to Write...

Pretty revolting, huh? Look, I’ve written until my fingers hurt about how much I hate sending this much money to the student loan companies. But this is a good moment and it signals a much better moment that is coming up in the next few days. In the next few days I’m going to log-on to the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority’s website and check my online balance. And when I log-on I’m going to see that the very check you see above was received and processed. And then I’ll see that my NJCLASS loan, which initially started at some $51,595.27 in July 2006, is fully repaid.

And then I’ll breathe a sigh of relief and be able to relax for the first time since I started this crazy, extreme repayment plan some twelve months ago.

Waiting… Patiently and Silently Waiting…

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There are a few reasons why you haven’t seen any updates on JerseySmarts.com for the last few days. One of the biggest reasons is that I’ve been waiting on a few different financial transactions to settle so that I can make the final payment for my New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority student loan. I expect that all of the various transactions that I need to settle will settle in the next few days and that, once everything is where it needs to be, I’ll be writing a check to eliminate my NJCLASS student loan.

And, unfortunately, this has completely consumed me to the point where I’ve not really been able to focus on writing consistent entries on the blog. In addition, I’ve spending a lot of time preparing a major final report for my Public Relations Specialist Certification program. That report will be submitted for approval in about ten days so between juggling the financial transactions, my day job, both of my teaching jobs, and the final certification project – I’ve been a little preoccupied!

However, I have some fun, exciting entries coming up on JerseySmarts.com in the next two weeks or so. Keep an eye on this place, because that student loan is going to bite the dust before anyone even knows it!

Absolutely Shredding My Student Loans – Another Four Thousand Gone

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This is pretty amazing, huh? Here we are some eleven months after I began focusing all of my financial efforts on reducing my New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (NJHESAA) student loan and the penultimate payment was just processed. That’s right, folks. The most recent reduction in my NJHESAA loan dropped the total amount owed on this student loan from about $14 thousand down to about $10 thousand.

Down to $65 thousand overall

And I expect that my next payment will be my last for this student loan.

As of today, I’ve sold off all but one of my holdings from my stock portfolio. I’m still holding on to Sirius XM’s stock because I hate to sell thousands of shares of a stock that will only go up I think the stock will go up a few more pennies in the next week or so. And since I own so many shares, those pennies can translate into big dollars (hence the name “penny stocks”). However, at this point I’m all sold out of my Ford, Barnes & Noble, and other stocks.

It sort of sucks, actually. I spent two years building up a pretty powerful portfolio and here I am two years after my very first investment was made and it’s pretty much all gone. What’s more – it’s all gone in an effort to eliminate this NJHESAA student loan! So while I’m a little annoyed that my portfolio is all but eliminated in an almost-completed successful effort to repay a single student loan, I’m glad that the loan will be gone before the end of 2010 and that I can focus on rebuilding my savings and investment accounts in 2011.

Be on the lookout here at JerseySmarts.com. When that final payment is made in the next few weeks, there’s going to be a celebration!

In May 2006, I graduated from Rutgers University with a Masters Degree and $120,720 in student loan debt. I currently owe $65 thousand, which breaks down to $10.8 thousand owed to the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority and $54.5 thousand owed to the United States Department of Education. Follow my student loan repayment story on JerseySmarts.com.

Giving Credit Where it is Due – I Finally Received a Response from NJHESAA

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Look, whether I come off as one or not – I’m a fair guy. Sure, some of the entries on this blog are more vicious towards the companies that I deal with than others, but I speak with the voice of a consumer (or write with the hand of a consumer, since this is a blog). When I feel that a customer service agent or a company has done me wrong, I make the situation known to as many people as I can reach as quickly as I can reach them. JerseySmarts.com allows me to reach hundreds and sometimes thousands of people each day so that’s why I used this platform to lambaste the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (NJHESAA) over the last week. However, I think that credit ought to be given where and when it is due – even to companies that I wholeheartedly disagree with most of the time.

At some point yesterday afternoon I finally received a response from NJHESAA regarding an e-mail I sent them a few days ago. In fact, I received a response from an Assistant Director over there, so I was pleased that my problem was handled by someone in the leadership structure. And, to this gentleman’s credit, he wrote a real response instead of sending me something generated by a computer. Here, take a read of what I received and then I’ll pick up the story afterward the text of the e-mail.

Your check in the amount of $4,300 was received by our lockbox on October 25th. The lockbox processes all payments received and then notifies HESAA on a daily basis what payments were posted to what accounts. I do not know why, but your check was rejected from the normal process and was required to be posted manually to your account. Unfortunately, the bank did not notify HESAA of this issue until late this past Monday. Due to election day on Tuesday, HESAA’s offices were closed. When we received your email on Wednesday, we contacted our Accounting Department and they advised us your payment had been posted. Please be aware that it was posted as of the received date, October 25th. Please accept my apologies in the delay caused by our bank with processing your payment.

If you feel more comfortable mailing your payments directly to HESAA at the below address, please feel free to do so. These payments will go directly to our Accounting Department for processing. When you are ready to pay your loan in full, you may use the same address and please email me directly at XXXXXX@hesaa.org and I will be happy to supply you with a payoff figure.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me directly

As I read through this message yesterday, I admit that I was impressed how the response directly answered my concern about no longer trusting the standard payment processing system and wanting to, instead, send my checks directly to NJHESAA’s administrative building. Most of the time when you complain to a company, they send you an automated response that doesn’t even come close to answering your question. This guy actually answered my question and concern directly.

I have to say that this response was impressive and clearly the best customer service experience that I ever had with NJHESAA. Usually when I call in to the help line I’m either told how I don’t know what I’m talking about or treated as though I’m ignorant of how finances work (meanwhile, my job is to manage multimillion dollar loans on a daily basis – I think I know a little something about this industry). But this e-mail was good and I applaud the gentleman that wrote it.

If only my experience with this lending institution was that thoughtful and impressive since the beginning… What a shame.

Another FOUR Thousand Down and $69 Thousand Left to Go

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Seems like we’ve had nothing but student loan updates lately on JerseySmarts.com, huh? Well, as I did yesterday, let me apologize again for the abundance of student loan reporting this week. However, even though you might be fooled at how professional JerseySmarts.com looks, this is still my personal blog and I’ll talk about one topic all week if I want to! So meh!

Only $69 thousand left!

Anyway…

The big news this week is that my student loan repayment plan broke through the $70 thousand barrier. That’s great! Seems like only yesterday that 2009 was coming to a close and I still owed $97 thousand in total student loan debt.

It would appear that I’ve come a long way since last December, huh? But the journey isn’t over yet. In fact, after going through my finances last night, I’m still on track to deliver the final repayment check to NJHESAA this December… only weeks away!

Sure, my savings and investments will be completely depleted, but that’s okay. The day after I make that final student loan payment, the work begins again to rebuild a savings and investment safety net as well as begin attacking the United States Department of Education (USDOE) student loan that I still have outstanding. But first things first – this NJCLASS loan must be repaid before I worry about rebuilding the safety net or attacking the USDOE loan.

Stay tuned – it’s about to get fun around JerseySmarts.com…

In May 2006, I graduated from Rutgers University with a Masters Degree and $120,720 in student loan debt. I currently owe $69 thousand, which breaks down to $14.6 thousand owed to the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority and $54.5 thousand owed to the United States Department of Education. Follow my student loan repayment story on JerseySmarts.com.