Upon graduating nurse anesthesia school, this was my student loan profile (and yes, some of you may be cringing at the sight of this, so if you’d rather not hurl at what I’ve done to myself, I suggest you skip this portion of the site).
2015
Navient – $35,000
Discover – $65,000
Federal Student Loans – $40,000
Total = $140,000
Mind you, I took out about $10,000 right before I graduated because there was a 4 month gap between graduation and my first day of work. Why the long gap? Well, I wanted to take some time off because those 2 years in school were one of the hardest experiences I went through as an adult, which is another way of saying I’ve been living a privileged life and am a big crybaby. I thought it was hard, but I know when I take a meta perspective about life, it’s really not that hard when I think about how most other Americans bust their butt off too and, due to unfortunate circumstances, are unable to afford the same opportunity as me. Sincerest apologies to anyone if they’re offended by my complaining of reaching to the 10th percentile of income earners in the United States. Back to the primary purpose of this post: student loans. I ended up consolidating and refinancing my student loans through SoFi, whom I highly recommend.
Well, after a year of trying to figure things out, here is my 2016 loan profile:
2016
Navient – $15,000 @ 3.75%
SoFi Loan #1 – $51,000 @ 3.315%
SoFi Loan #2 – $60,000 @ 3.69%
Total = $126,000
I’m using ReadyForZero to help me track my loan profile. As it currently stands, I am making $1800 monthly payments and am scheduled to pay this debt off by late 2022 (a little over 6 years). Read my subsequent posts for a more detailed analysis on my current approach. Some of you may be thinking: “Hot damn, with the income you’re making, you’re going to take 6 years to pay it down? What’s the matter with you? You should be paying it down in 2-3 years!”
In a way, you’re probably right. This has been an ongoing internal debate and I am open to all forms of insults and critiques about my approach to my finances.
DATE I WILL BE DEBT FREE: OCTOBER 1, 2022
Life as a CRNA 