Today is a monumental day for me. I paid off one of my student loans! I set up an automatic payment to have it paid off last week. Apparently, I still had $2.14 due, which I just paid right before I started writing this blog. Yay me!!
If you’ve been following my journey, I have over $100k in debt. This included my student loans. Now that I’ve been able to pay off this chunk of debt, it has brought me closer to paying down debt. I’m not out of the clear just yet. I still have another student loan with a balance of $51k, which I’m paying off slowly. I’m hoping to get it forgiven in December 2025. I know there are opposing opinions about getting student loans forgiven. I respect the opposing opinions.
Currently, I work for a not-for-profit company as a nurse case manager. As a nurse case manager, I’ve worked with the underrepresented community for almost a decade now. Because of this, I am eligible to get my loans forgiven after making 120 payments in 10 years. The student loan I just paid off was for $39k.
Yes, that’s nearly $90k total in student loan debt. I’m not proud of this fact. I’m not proud that I’m in so much debt. But I am taking it one step at a time to pay down debt. And trying to learn financial literacy so it doesn’t happen again. I wanted to go back to school and get a higher degree in nursing, but getting into more student loan debt has stopped me.
The Debt
Let’s do a breakdown of my current debt situation and where I’m at with paying down debt:
Personal Loans: $69k
Credit Cards: $ 15K
Student Loans: $51k
In total, I have about $135k, which I am planning on paying down debt. The student loan I recently paid off brought my debt down from being over $150k in debt to less than.
I don’t have a car since I gave mine to my oldest. Now, I just borrow my kids’ cars if I need to go somewhere. I also have the option to either Uber or Lyft to places, but haven’t needed to yet. I say this because I’m lucky not to have a car loan right now, which would entail paying for insurance, registration, etc.
If you notice in my other blog posts, I was being pretty vague with how much I still owed, saying things like over $100k but less than $200k of debt. I was too ashamed to share the numbers. Now, I feel a bit more confident as I am taking actionable steps in paying down debt.
Originally, I wasn’t planning on paying one of my student loans off first. The interest rate was lower than all the other debt I accrued. I figured I would tackle all the higher-interest debt first. I’ve been reading a lot of finance books again. One I’m currently reading is Add A Zero by Rose Han. In it, she breaks down a step-by-step guide on how to become a millionaire.
I know this isn’t new news, but she writes about how we should save an emergency fund of $2000 and then start paying down debt. I say this isn’t new news because some financial influencers say to put as much as you can towards paying off debt instead of towards savings.
The Paying Down Debt Plan
However, I didn’t heed this advice initially and allocated $1160 into my retirement (not including the 20% automatically deducted from my pay and deposited into my 457B) and savings. Now, I’ve stopped depositing $460 into my high-yield savings account and plan on using that towards paying off debt.
I still invest in my retirement. I have a Roth IRA and my retirement plan at work, where I was depositing 20% of my paycheck. A few months ago, these deposits into my 457B stopped as well because I maxed out my contribution for the year. This was a nice surprise because my paychecks have been a lot larger. In addition, my work has still been offering overtime again (6 hours max per week). Although I do get super tired after work, I am putting in as much OT as I can for now.
Okay, back to the student loan I recently paid off.
As mentioned, I was planning on paying down debt with the highest interest first. However, when I noticed I only had $3300 left on this particular student loan, I decided to withdraw from my high-yield savings account and use that money towards paying it off.
I saved $7300 in my high-yield savings account and withdrew $3300 to pay off my student loan. Now, I have a total $4000 in my high-yield savings account I plan on keeping for emergencies. My high-yield savings account is housed in an online bank, Betterment. I also plan on saving $2000 in my Bank of America savings account, as it’s more fluid and easier to access. It’s not a high-yield savings account, but in the past, I usually kept $1000 for overdraft protection.
It made more logical sense to pay off a debt that was accruing 8% (Yes, that’s how much this student loan was charging me. High, I know) versus keeping it in a savings account that was accruing 4+%. I was making $200 payments per month. Now, I plan on using that extra $200 towards my credit card debt. I have one that has a balance of $4500 (beginning balance was $8230 in April 2025). I’m hoping to pay off very soon. This particular credit card has a 0% interest rate right now because I did a balance transfer with a credit union. The interest rate of 0% will expire in October 2026. I have time, but I don’t want to risk not paying it off by then.
I’ve been trying to pay this off aggressively. I’ve been paying down debt by $500 to $1000 per month on it. I can now add the extra $200 towards those payments a month. Once that’s paid off, I’ll take the extra payments from that credit card and use them towards paying down debt on another credit card that has a balance of $10,400. This one is still accruing a lot of interest. I haven’t done a balance transfer on this just yet because I want to be sure I’m ready to pay it down aggressively.
I’ve done a lot of balance transfers before, hence the personal loans. It doesn’t really help unless you have a real plan and action in place. Without that, you’re just moving your debt around, I’ve learned. A part of this plan I’ve slowly been working on is also having my children take on more of their financial responsibilities. My youngest and oldest (she’s married now) both live with me.
I now split the grocery bills and rent with them. They are now both taking over their own car insurance. The oldest recently also started taking over her phone bill. Once my oldest’s husband gets a more stable job, I will also be splitting the electricity and water bill with everyone. This will free up more money for me to put towards paying off debt.
The Goal
I’m hoping I can pay off my debt in at least two years. That’s the amount of time I’m reaching for. Because again, I want to attain financial freedom for a couple of reasons. One is for my children. I love that we are all able to hang out and enjoy each other’s company. It would be great to travel again with them and not worry about expenses. Second, I want to live bi-coastal as I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts.
I recently came back from New York after watching my girlfriend’s cat for her for almost two weeks. I’m supposed to go back in November to hopefully watch another girlfriend’s cat in Brooklyn. It’s my goal to be able to live between New York and the Bay Area.
My girlfriend in Brooklyn recently shared with me that she has her dividends pay for her rent. She makes it through options trading, which I’m eager to learn as it has piqued my interest before. I didn’t think it was a legit way to earn money until I spoke to her. She also shared with me that she considers herself to be “frugal”. My brother said this before. However, although both consider themselves to be “frugal”, they both have the mentality that when they’re out on vacation or having a good time with friends or family, they don’t want to think about how much things cost. They want to be able to spend freely without worry.
My brother started a successful tech start-up with his college friends, and my friend from Brooklyn is a successful Nurse Practitioner. My friend further explained that she’s frugal with certain areas of her life (like my brother). She met me for happy hour at a bar she suggested in Manhattan, where drinks were $5. We both had two, and she paid.
She rents a room from someone who has another home in Pennsylvania, so she is hardly ever at the Brooklyn flat. My girlfriend pays $1400 per month. She doesn’t buy excess clothes, makeup, or skincare products like I once did. Instead, she puts her income towards investments and budgets for things she wants. Currently, she’s on a solo all-inclusive trip for 2 weeks in Egypt. She also just shared with me that she only works when she wants. She’s able to live off of her residual income if she wants to.
I’m glad she shared this with me because it inspires me so much. I never grew up around someone like her. My brother and I didn’t grow up in the same household either. My life path was totally different than what it is now at 46 years old. A part of this financial journey is wanting to manifest people who excelled in financial literacy. I’m glad to have attracted her when I did. I hope to manifest more abundant doers and experiences into my life.
The Final Paying Down Debt Recap
- Continue to contribute to ROTH IRA
- Stopped all other savings deposits until current debt is paid off or is extremely low
- Use extra payments from debt that’s paid off towards outstanding debt (snowball method)
- Work overtime to use extra pay towards paying off debt
- Continue to educate myself on financial literacy (debt payoff, budgeting, and investments, like options trading, ETFs, and indexes)
- Generate other avenues of income (at least 7 as suggested by some financial influencers)
- Continue to remind myself of goals
- Continue to manifest abundance and freedom
- Continue to do monthly (if possible, weekly) financial check-ins (I’ve really dropped the ball on this the past few months)
I hope this blog post inspires you to take it one step at a time towards financial freedom. Don’t let your debt overwhelm you into paralysis. If, like me, you don’t have others around you that can teach or inspire you, read books on finances, follow financial influencers on your socials, and watch financial videos to help you along your journey. That’s what I’ve been doing and will continue to do. As always, thanks for reading!
Love, Sutivi.