Welcome to my June 2019 student loan debt progress!

If you are new here, every month, I post the progress I’ve made on paying off my student loans. I’ve done this since I first started paying down my loans in July 2017 and it has been so worth it.

I do this to hold myself accountable and to share my debt progress with others who are also facing debt payments of their own.

Debt paid this month: $2,650.80

Debt remaining: $77,763.02

I house every month’s debt progress from the very beginning here if you want to check out the progress so far.

Debt Updates for This Month

Yes! Another loan bites the dust! I finished maxing out my HSA contribution so I am getting a little bit more take-home pay each month which allowed for this extra payment this month.

I cut it really close this time, with having less than $500 in my main checking account after paying off this loan until my next pay. That’s a far cry from my goal of $3,000 emergency fund.

But I didn’t want to wait another month to pay off my $2452 balance on one of the loans that I’ve been working on since the beginning of this year. 

And to add to the celebration, I finally got out of the $80k debt zone into the $70k’s this month!

I am now headed towards the biggest fish in the water, one of my two twin towers of terror of $20k+ debt. My next highest loan rate which has a balance of $23,556 is going to be a grind to get through.

My stretch goal is to finish this loan off by the end of the year which means I’d have to contribute ~$4,000 per month for the remaining 6 months of this year.

Honestly that’s a far stretch… and very very unlikely to happen but who knows. 

I did get a new 0% APR credit card, my Capital One Venture One card which is my first “travel” credit card. The extra perk is I get my 0% APR for the year so as I’ve done since starting my debt payoff journey, I plan to charge everything to the credit card and use up as much spare change to my loans as possible. Then I’ll pay it off prior to the end of the 0% APR.

So hopefully other than my rent and my monthly bills, I can put the rest of my take home pay to my student loans.

Realistically, I plan on putting down at least $2500/month (my step up goal since last month)  for these next 6 months and get into the $60k’s by the end of the year.

June Budget

Fixed Spending

Nothing much here, just the usual expenses. I live at home but pay rent to my parents and am also paying back my personal loan to them at $500/month.

Other than that, my cell phone bill and Netflix make up the rest of my fixed spending.

Variable Spending

Overall I went over-budget on my dining out/entertainment which was expected. This had a lot to do with what I talked about in my last 2 posts Is Lifestyle Inflation Getting to Me? and more recently Summertime Sadness about going out more to combat my recent bout of low energy.

Other

Man, did I spend a lot on my car this month. My 6-month car insurance premium was due and I pay for both my and my mom’s car together. She makes me delicious home cooked meals all the time at home so I think it’s more than an even trade off that I don’t charge her for her car insurance.

I also tinted my car in June after 2 years(!) of debating whether to get it every summer. At first I thought it wouldn’t be worth it since my car is already 7 years old but honestly my car is in great shape and I definitely see myself driving it around for at least 3-5 more years. 

I got my car when I was 20 and this baby has been through all my 20s with me that even if I had the money to get a new car I’d be sad to let her go. So my plan is to at least keep her till I turn 30!

Investment

No Roth IRA contribution this month as I put all money to paying off one of my loans this month.

My plan for 2019 is still to max my Roth IRA so I plan to contribute $1,000/month and get to the $6,000 limit ASAP at which point I can switch my attention to putting extra payments for my student loans.

Goals for Next Month

I successfully completed both of my goals from last month. I paid off my credit card that was running out of the 0% APR promo period and paid off one of my student loans.

So for July, my goal is to go back to basics.

1. Continue $2500 payment to student loans on top of minimum payments. 

2. Resume Roth IRA contribution of $500-$1000.

Net Worth: 2019 Quarter 2 Update

Quick update on my net worth after finishing up the 2nd quarter of 2019. As I mentioned on my 1st quarter net worth report, I use Personal Capital to track my net worth. It’s a free financial tool where I can view all my accounts including investments and loans in one place and it calculates my net worth (my #1 reason for using it) for me.

Unfortunately, Personal Capital was glitching on me and basically showed that I had $6k more in net worth than I actually do so I won’t take a screenshot of my net worth from Personal Capital and will instead just type the correct number out.

July 2019 Net worth: -$25,269

In comparison to 1st quarter net worth:

Overall my net worth increased by $20,713 in the past 3 months which was less than the increase from quarter 1 but I’ll take it.

Still in negative net worth but maybe with a strong market and a higher saving rate, I may break into $0 net worth and eventually positive net worth in the 3rd quarter of this year. That would make the most amazing 3rd quarter ever!