Sharon and I graduated with our Master’s in 2021. There were a few months of delay in starting our careers due to the credentialing process. We filled that gap with working summer jobs which allowed us to stave off any further debt while getting some spending money. Now we are coming up on 1 year of being out of school, and have mostly settled into our careers. Our income and expenses have both increased dramatically, and we have decided to tackle our accrued student loans. Between the two of us, this is just short of $200,000. The student loan forbearance has provided us with a window of opportunity to really make significant progress in our debt.
While we are still managing our finances separately, we agreed that this debt needs to be a priority. Sharon is paying an impressive 4000/month into her loans and I myself have decided on a goal of 2500/month.
Each of us is maxing out our tax-deferred retirement accounts, and I have set the goal to max out my IRAs while I still can.
Our current model provides us with the ability to pay off our debt in a tangible timeframe (2-4 years). Is this sustainable? Probably not… But in 4 months when the loan forbearance ends, we will be nearly 25000 closer to being flat out broke.
Currently, Sharon and I are fortunate for many reasons. Sharon lives at home for the time being. Her car is paid for. Her only expense is gas and activities. I rent a single-family home in my home town… from my parents… Rent is affordable. I do pay for gas, electricity, and internet, but my parents gave me one of their cars. Sharon and I are both still on our parent’s health insurance for another 2 years. This makes budgeting all that easier.
At the beginning of each month, I’ll post my monthly snapshot with my data from my nerdy spreadsheets. I’ll defer Sharon’s for the time being, because she is in a unique situation with nearly no expenses.
We haven’t set any clear-cut financial goals yet, but with these automated loan payments and retirement contributions, we have noticed a modest improvement in our net worth. Maybe one day it won’t be negative.
