My last student loan – for my doctorate – showing a zero balance

There you go, folks. That is what it looks like to no longer owe anything in student loans. Not only does it look pretty good, but it feels pretty good, too. Also, here is another screenshot from another part of the student loan website showing the zero balance. Check it out:

My student loans are fully repaid – all of them

As I mentioned the other day, I plan on writing more about student loans from time to time, but I just do not have much more to write about my own repayment journey because it is now, completely, over.

I repaid $244,826.91 in undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral student loans. The debt was comprised of $193,430.16 in loan principal, $14,313.42 in capitalized interest, $2,146.59 in closing and refinancing fees, and $34,936.74 in interest. My lenders included the United States Department of Education’s (USED) Perkins loan program, their subsidized and unsubsidized Direct Loan programs, the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority’s NJCLASS program, CitiBank, and SoFi. You can read my entire student loan repayment story on JerseySmarts.com.

A screenshot of my last student loan payment, which went out this morning

Then two years later in August 2015, I started on a new academic journey to earn a doctorate. That quest ended in May 2018 when I earned my doctorate from the University of Southern California at a grand total cost of $89,286.86. I also financed my doctoral program through student loan debt. Repayment on those student loans began in December 2018 and now, just about two years later, I am happy to announce that I have fully repaid the doctoral student loans as of this morning. When I have a screenshot available of that student loan balance coming in at $0, then I will share it here for everyone to see.

The final count for the doctoral student loans is as follows:

$87,360.16 in loan principal
$1,878.84 in capitalized interest
$47.86 in closing and refinancing fees
$6,084.93 in interest

Total Amount Repaid: $95,371.79

When you add up the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral student loans, the total amount I repaid is $244,826.91. I never missed a payment, never incurred a late fee, and never asked for a deferment for any reason. I took out this debt knowing that it meant I would have to repay the obligations I was incurring. I never asked for my loans to be forgiven. I never contemplated a world where I would want them to be forgiven. I never believed that other people should be forced to pay for my student loans. The discipline needed to pay off these loans gave me a near perfect credit score.

While I am thankful that my student loan repayment journey is at an end (for good, this time), I am even more thankful of the financial discipline and education that I was able to garner over the last 14 years. Stay tuned to my blog for more student loan entries in the future… they just will not be covering my own student loan repayment because it’s finally over!

I repaid $244,826.91 in undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral student loans. The debt was comprised of $193,430.16 in loan principal, $14,313.42 in capitalized interest, $2,146.59 in closing and refinancing fees, and $34,936.74 in interest. My lenders included the United States Department of Education’s (USED) Perkins loan program, their subsidized and unsubsidized Direct Loan programs, the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority’s NJCLASS program, CitiBank, and SoFi. You can read my entire student loan repayment story on JerseySmarts.com.

Just in terms of raw numbers, when I started repaying my doctoral student loan in December 2018, I owed $89,286.86. Today, I owe $49,301.17, though I just made a $17,000 payment so my loan balance will drop after that payment is applied. And there you have it – that is the big difference between me paying back a student loan in the year 2020 and me working like a madman to pay back my student loans 10+ years ago. Today, with a lot of experience and seasoning under my belt, I am a highly educated professional who earns a respectable living and who has curated several sources of income. It was easy to set up a strategy to pay back the new student loan at this point in my life because I have worked diligently to be a position to not have major financial obligations like this become life-defining. In fact, I plan to have the rest of this student loan paid in full by early December of this year. That would not have been possible during my first time around paying back my loans.

Is it easy to make these big payments to eliminate this loan? No, of course not. Sending any entity a $17,000 check is frustrating for so many reasons. I can certainly put that money to better use in the stock market, in improving my home, as a charitable donation, or any other number of potential uses. However, I am a big believer that you repay the debts that you owe and then you move on with life, so I am going to repay this final student loan and then focus on those other things. Besides, my investment portfolio is doing pretty well as it is with the markets (for which I am thankful, given the pandemic) and my charitable causes are all weathering the storm as best as can be expected. Even my 401k is not that bad at the moment, which is remarkable given the instability in the larger economy.

I have been thinking about putting together a new footer for these student loan posts. You may recall that I had a standard footer in my old student loan entries and it looked like this:

Here is the update that I am going to begin using on posts like this one, though I will change it in the future to highlight the total amount of principal, interest, and fees that I repaid over the course of all of these loans.

Through my undergraduate, masters, and doctoral programs, I incurred $209,890.17 in student loan debt. The debt was comprised of $193,430.16 in loan principal, $14,313.42 in capitalized interest, and $2,146.59 in closing and refinancing fees. My lenders included the United States Department of Education’s (USED) Perkins loan program, the USED’s subsidized and unsubsidized Direct Loan programs, the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority’s NJCLASS program, CitiBank, and SoFi. Both the USED and SoFi used the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (commonly known as MOHELA) to service my loans. I repaid my undergraduate and masters loans in August 2013. In total, I paid $149,455.12 on those loans including $120,603.31 in consolidated principal and $28,851.81 in interest. I continue to repay my doctoral loan and, to date, I have paid $62,652.35 including $56,944.27 in consolidated principal and $5,708.05 in interest. You can read my entire student loan repayment story on JerseySmarts.com.

Greek State of Mind is growing!

With the start of the USC program at the end of last summer, I opted to stop all of my activities in whatever was left of Usable Web Solutions, LLC. Those activities included keeping several websites updated on a semi-regular basis and working to promote those websites via social media. Before completely stopping my activities with UWS, I was keeping at least one website regularly updated (“regularly” = almost daily) for about 20 years. Stopping those updates and moving away from my online business was a big change for me, though not an entirely bad one. The best part of relieving myself of my UWS duties was freeing up more of my time to focus on my other small business – a small, niche apparel company.

The apparel company that I co-own with another alumnus from my fraternity is doing very well, too. Our company – Greek State of Mind – had its biggest sales year in 2015. However, we are about 10 weeks into 2016 and we have generated more revenue this year than we did during the first 40 or so weeks of 2015. In the world of small business entrepreneurship, this is the type of growth that most companies dream of achieving. We are very happy with GSOM and are excited about expanding our product lines including a shirt celebrating the Monmouth University men’s basketball team and their Bench Mob.

And speaking of the Monmouth Bench Mob, I know that I speak for all Monmouth University basketball fans when I write that we are hopeful the NCAA selection committee will make the right decision and send the Hawks to the big dance this Sunday! #FlyHawks!

Several years ago I wrote about how I was preparing to start a Post-Master’s Certificate program in Curriculum Studies. I remember writing that entry and at the time the only phrase I kept hearing go through my head was Chris Rock on the Howard Stern Show saying, “You’re going back to Shawshank!?” after Stern announced he was getting married again. I had that same thought going through my head when I started the Post-Master’s Certificate a few years ago and, in some respects, I have the same thought now as I prepare for this doctoral program.

There is a slight difference between now and then, though. When I started the Post-Master’s Certificate I had that, “Here we go again,” feeling because I was putting myself back in the classroom setting as a student. This time around I don’t have that feeling because I’m going back to the classroom setting as a student, rather I have that feeling because I’m going back to using student loans to finance my education. If you haven’t read my student loan story, then you can get a full rundown of my life with student loans by clicking here. If you scroll through those posts, you’ll find the one where I announce that I’ve fully repaid my student loans.

Though I need to take out student loans to finance my doctoral education, I am in a much different personal and financial place than I was when I finished my Master’s Degree in 2006. For example, after I graduated in 2006 I began working at a company in an entry level-type position making an entry level-type salary. Now, almost 10 years later, I still work at the same company and I’ve obviously progressed in my career. Granted, I don’t have the regular financial capacity to make $2,500 per month payments like I was making at the end of the aggressive, self-imposed repayment plan for my previous student loans. However, I do have the capacity to make payments on my new student loans while I’m still enrolled as a student.

And that’s probably the biggest difference between me being a student in 2015 versus me being a college student from 1999 to 2003 or a graduate student from 2004 to 2006. Today, I can afford to pay down my student loans during the actual semesters when I take them out in the first place. Will I be able to pay down the entirety of each loan during the semester when I’m taking the classes that the loan paid for? Probably not, but I’m in a much better position to try to do that now than I was 10+ years ago.

There are two other differences that I think are worth mentioning outside of the student loan issue. First, this is the first time that I’ll be taking fully online classes. In the past, I’ve successfully completed hybrid courses that are partially online and partially in the classroom. And for the last several years I’ve actually instructed many fully online classes. However, this will be the first time that I am a student in such a class. Second, this is the first time since I completed my Master’s Degree in 2006 where I’ll be taking more than one class per semester. After I graduated with the Master’s Degree, I completed two additional graduate programs by taking one class each semester (outside of textbooks, I didn’t pay to take these classes or to earn these degrees as I was provided with tuition remission at the local college where I work as an Adjunct Professor). The last time I was enrolled in more than one class as a student was during the spring semester of 2006.

All of these comments aside, I’m really looking forward to being engaged in the classroom as a student again. I’m particularly interested in engaging with my new classmates in an all-online setting. And, of course, I’m excited at the prospects of completing the doctoral program and finishing up a lifetime of classroom activity.

The full repayment of my student loan debt should be coming up in the next few weeks. And if it’s not in the next few weeks, then it will certainly occur at some point this summer – and hopefully sooner rather than later. Those of you who have been along for the ride via this blog, my twitter feed, and through our personal discussions know that I’ve spent the last few years hyperfocused on repaying my student loan debt. There is a lot of discipline and new skills that come along with successfully hyperfocusing on one aspect of your life. With my student loans, for example, I’ve crafted some exceptionally useful spreadsheets using Microsoft Excel to track my income and expenses. These aren’t your run of the mill spreadsheets that one can find for download off of any financial website. Instead, these are highly customized spreadsheets that I built from the ground up and that I’ve been using day in and day out for years to track my income and expenses, short and long-term financial goals, and debt repayment.

Honestly, I’m not sure if I would have been able to quickly and successfully decimate my student loan debt without the organizational help and long-term planning provided by using these spreadsheets on a daily basis.

The big decision – which direction do I go in next?

When you set your mind to completing a long-term goal, your mind will use your innate abilities to adapt your environment to help you achieve that goal. For me that innate readjustment was spending more time doing long-term financial planning through the use of highly customized spreadsheets and highly customized budgeting. And I couldn’t be happier with the end result (no student loan debt!) of this hyperfocusing.

Now, when it comes to hyperfocusing I have a decision that I need to make. When I sit and think about what my next big hyperfocus might be there are two items that come zooming to the front of my mind. The first is improving my health and the second is completing a doctorate. I don’t list these as first and second because that is how I rank them; either of these two items could be the next big thing that I hyperfocus on. Below are some of my ideas on each of these items and since I listed health first and a doctorate second above, I’ll give my thoughts on the doctorate first and my health second.

First, completing a doctorate would allow me to accomplish my long-term academic goal. As a high school student, I thought that I would eventually go on to become a lawyer. During that process, I would have obviously needed to earn a juris doctorate and thus would have obtained a doctoral degree in that manner. As we already know, though, I ultimately didn’t go in the direction of being a lawyer. Instead, I earned a master’s degree and I’m in the process of completing a post-master’s certificate. Frankly, you can’t get many more education credentials than what I have right now… except for a doctorate.

And even with these various certificates and commendations, obtaining a doctorate is still a very real goal of mine and one that I think about somewhat frequently. Not only does a doctorate open up the possibility of becoming a full-time professor, but there is a unique air of certainty that comes from someone speaking as a doctor versus speaking as an “expert” in a field. And since most “experts” have doctorates anyway, enrolling in a program to obtain one wouldn’t be out of bounds for what I do in my work.

Second, I could hyperfocus on improving my health. Whether we like it or not, our health is that one thing that we can’t get away from in our lives. Of course when we do get away from it our lives typically aren’t as robust as they could be or they just downright don’t last as long as they should. For each of us, our health is that thing we see in the mirror each morning and that thing we are somewhat consumed with when engaging in and interacting with the outside world. Let’s be honest, folks. We live in a very superficial society where a person’s appearance matters. You can be a brilliant scientist on the verge of curing cancer, but if you’re fat or generally out of shape, the superficial American public doesn’t give a damn about you. That is, they don’t give a damn about you until you can do them some good by providing a cure for their sicknesses!

I am confident that once I am no longer hyperfocused on repaying my student loans, I’m absolutely going to focus on one of the two items above. It’s either going to be the full completion of a doctoral program or a sincere focus on improving my health. Stick around the blog for this Wednesday’s entry where I’ll let you know which of the two I’ve selected. See you then!

Apparently, I want more of this in my life...

During my very pleasant, upbeat conversation with the Director of the program, I was pleased to hear how the topic of Curriculum Studies includes how spaces and places impact a student’s ability to learn. In other words, this program will allow me to do some research on the link between what a classroom looks and feels like and student achievement. There are already a lot of folks looking at this issue, so I expect that I will have a lot of trouble finding research on the topic. Ideally, I’ll be able to research how charter schools create learning spaces that positively impact their students. Part of that research would also have to show how failing charter schools design their classrooms and facility culture – which could be an interesting study on its own.

Sometimes I know that I’m huge nerd at heart because when I think about researching these types of issues, I’m excited about the possibilities. I mean come on! Who thinks about charter school classroom design and its relationship to student achievement and thinks, “Oh my God! What an awesome subject!?”

Hey – I just like reading and researching in a way that many people do not. And that’s not a judgment call on anyone and their academic abilities. Instead, it’s just a public confession that I like going to school and learning new things.

And that’s about it, folks. As I work to figure out if/when I want to apply to this program, I’ll keep everyone updated. There are five classes in the program so I’d probably just take one this spring, two over the summer, one next fall, and one the following spring. No big deal. I’ve got some existing travel, professional, and social commitments that would impact my ability to attend some classes this coming spring, so that’s something that I’m trying to think through right now. One thing that I’m not thinking too much about is the cost of the program. Why? Well, as an alumnus of the local college who already holds a Masters Degree, I get a 25% discount. Plus, I’m going to try to get my company to pay for a small portion of the program costs, too.

Anyway, we’ll see how it goes. Could be a lot of fun!

However, I think that the doctor will probably not be pleased that I’m weighing in at about 350 pounds. During my last quarterly blood test I went in there and weighed 347 (might have been 348, I don’t remember clearly). Since I graduated from Rutgers University’s Bloustein School back in May 2006, I’ve had a harder than usual time keeping my weight down in the mid to high 200’s (where I feel most comfortable). As I’ve said on this blog before, I attribute this problem to the fact that I spend at least two hours each day in a car commuting into Trenton and then back to Tinton Falls. It’s annoying and something that I think students should be told about in their life skills courses in college (they teach that stuff now, right? I don’t know).

Some people think that the way out of this problem is to get a different job. Frankly, that’s a dumb choice given the fact that my job is great and I’m building a stellar professional resume at my current company. At 29 years old I’m doing the same work (with ease) that folks in the middle of their careers struggle to understand. Plus, my current job has allowed me to take on teaching gigs at the local college and the state’s online college that really help me out in terms of incoming cash. Who doesn’t want extra money coming in, right?

Other folks might suggest that I absolutely have to make working out a part of my daily schedule. Well, I’ve been doing that to some degree and I think it’s helping. Though it’s just the Wii Fit, I’ve managed to work out on it for at least 30 minutes each day for over a month now (I missed working out on those days that I was in Boston, obviously). The Wii Fit has helped me drop about 15 – 20 pounds from my recent peak of 365 – 370 (that was a few months ago). The Wii Fit is a great tool for those of us that are generally running around like crazy people and just don’t have the time to work out.

Anyway, according to my bathroom scale, this morning I’m weighing in at 349.6 so I’m not really that far off from my last quarterly visit to the doctor. However, the truth is that I need to be going DOWN in weight during each visit – not up! If anything crazy happens during today’s doctor’s visit, I’ll let you know!

I’ve been running around like a crazy person since last weekend. In fact, when I look back at my schedule, I’m amazed at how fast the week flew away. I spent last Sunday at my Grandmother’s husband’s wake, last Monday at home in Tinton Falls where I researched and wrote a twelve page paper before heading to the class that I’m taking at night, Tuesday and Wednesday catching up on a variety of work building up at my office, Thursday and Friday at the New Jersey Charter Schools Association’s annual conference (which was AWESOME – stay tuned for more posts about the conference), and yesterday up in New Brunswick having dinner and good times with my coworkers.

I would be remiss if I didn’t briefly mention an odd coincidence during dinner last night. I was in the middle of telling a story to my coworkers when I noticed a familiar face out of the corner of my eye. Turns out that my doctor was at the same bar/restaurant – Old Man Rafferty’s – that my coworkers and I were at! And what’s even weirder is that of the six of us who went out for dinner, two of us use this doctor as our general practitioner! We didn’t draw the doctor’s attention because I was eating fettuccine alfredo and my coworker was drinking a beer – both of which our doctor told us we shouldn’t be doing (we each have different health issues – long story). But it was definitely weird to see our doctor hanging out with his buddies when we were all about 40 minutes from our home area.

Maybe it was God trying to send us both a message about doing what our doctor tells us to do!

Anyway, my happy announcement today is that my latest student loan payment check has been processed by the people at the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority. Thus, my overall student loan debt has fallen from $90 thousand to $89 thousand. If you ask me, that’s a pretty happy announcement – especially since it means that I’m getting closer to the next milestone in my student loan repayment plan.

In May 2006, I graduated from Rutgers University with a Masters Degree and $120,720 in student loan debt. I currently owe $89 thousand, which breaks down to $34 thousand owed to the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority and $55 thousand owed to the United States Department of Education. Follow my student loan repayment story on JerseySmarts.com.

For example, aside from throwing out a lot of garbage that was accumulating in the car, I was able to take some t-shirts that I had been piling up in the trunk. The t-shirts were piling up there because I honestly had no where else to put them! Anyway, as I write this post the t-shirts are all out of the dryer after having been washed earlier today. Some of them are on the “charity” pile and some other ones are on the “keep these” pile. By the way, the “charity” pile of clothes is getting bigger and bigger!

Professionally, I’ve advanced nearly every deal that I’m working on which is definitely a function of the fact that this week is spring break for my undergraduate students and thus they aren’t around for me to have to teach.

I’ve been moving a bunch of my online projects forward, which I’m always happy about. As a part of this process, I’ve been able to detach some folks from Usable Web Solutions, LLC (i.e. let them know that they need to find a new “web guy”) and I’ve been able to send payment letters to other clients.

On a more personal level, I ran out of one of my prescriptions the other day and I managed to get it refilled (even though there were no more refills left) through the services offered by my pharmacy. This was a much easier process than I imagined it would be and I’m extremely happy that this worked out so easily. You know how much of a pain in the ass it can be to work around the pharmacy and the doctor’s office beating each other up… No thank you.

Oh, and after my car had the windshield replaced earlier today, I took it over to the inspection station and it passed inspection. So… I won’t be going back there for at least two more years, thankfully!

I also spent some time today doing some short-term (two month) financial planning to address some upcoming expenses that I have to deal with. Among these expenses are paying for the windshield replacement, paying for a flight to Nashville in April, and paying for my 2010 membership to the local CSA farm. By my calculations, I’ll be able to continue my $1,000+ biweekly payments on my one student loan and pay for all of these other items in full by April 15th.

And speaking of April 15th, I spent a few minutes today finalizing my taxes so I think that they’re ready to finally send into the IRS. I should be getting a decent return back this year, although still below what H&R Block suggests are the averages for people of my age and income level (not fair!).

As you can see, I’ve been pretty busy. However, before this coming Monday hits, I have to complete a grant application for a client that I’m working with on the side; begin, write, edit, and finalize a 10 page paper and presentation package for the class that I’m taking; prepare lesson plans for my class for the coming week; go to Pennsylvania for a wake this weekend; and review some material for the foundation where I serve as a Trustee.

All in a weekend’s work!

The biggest pain in the ass in the next few days will be going to the doctor this Friday. The doctor is going to be upset with me because I was supposed to lose ten pounds since the last time I saw him (early November 2009) and, instead, I think that I’ll either break even or maybe gain 3 – 5 pounds. Not good. However, I don’t have too much time to worry about that until after next Monday – which is good since that’s probably when my blood test results will be coming in.

Lots to do in the next few days. Don’t be surprised if I miss a day here and there updating the blog. Thanks!