Welcome to my May 2021 updates!

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

Student debt paid this month: $880.77

Student debt remaining: $42,327.50

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

Updates for This Month

May flew by like a blur. As the U.S. started opening up a bit more, I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to go on some trips, namely my best friend’s awaited bachelorette trip which turned out to be more expensive than I had anticipated. But I had a lot of fun especially after being cooped up for so long during the pandemic so no regrets.

I hinted in my April update that there was an exciting development in the house-buying process and I meant that literally, as in I’m purchasing a new construction home that is still in development! And as typical of new construction homes, I won’t see the finished product or be able to move in for a couple months down the road.

I debated if I should break the news on the blog as soon as I put down my deposit or wait until the entire process is complete for fear of jinxing everything. But I just don’t think I’ll be able to contain myself for what I anticipate to be a 6-month building process before I can officially close on the home and be able to move in.

So far I’ve put down my deposit on the unit and have received my conditional approval for the mortgage so I’m just crossing my fingers that no major changes happen especially in my employment that would jeopardize this approval in the next 6 months.

As for the rest of May, I’ve been busy catching up with friends who I haven’t seen since COVID-19 hit now that most of us have been vaccinated. Plus with the nicer spring weather around, I’ve just been spending more time out and about.

Student Debt

Woot! I’m officially 75% done with my student loans as reflected in my Debt Progress page! I know it’s been a slow burn this year as I’m continuing to only make the $880.77 minimum payments to my private student loan thanks to a very low 2.2% interest rate. But I’m still excited to see that I’m making progress even with making only minimum payments.

I’m also continuing to take advantage of the COVID-19 forbearance on my federal loans so I have not made any payments there since March of 2020.

May Budget

Fixed Spending

As noted since February, my parents and I agreed that I would postpone any monthly payments to them while I am in the midst of the home-buying process. I will instead continue to save up and resume payments once the home-buying process is complete.

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

Variable Spending

Gas – Definitely starting to creep back up from a combination of increased gas prices and going out more.

Entertainment/dining out – The damage from the Bachelorette getaway is reflected in this amount. I also did some day trips and dined out more this month than I’ve been the past couple of months.

Groceries – Minimal grocery spending as I dined out quite a bit.

Shopping – I returned some of the shoes I bought last month that I ended up not liking, so that balanced out some of my personal care expenses for this month.

Miscellaneous

I owed taxes this year which I paid in May thanks to the tax filing extension. I still prefer it over getting a tax return so I’m not making drastic changes to my withholdings for this year.

Savings

I’m still automatically allocating $1,000 to my savings account each paycheck. 

I finished saving up for the 20% down payment on the home so I plan to focus on maxing out my 401k and Roth IRA that I’ve neglected over the first half of this year. So far, I’ve increased my contribution rate on my 401k to make sure that I’m on target to max it by the end of the year. 

As for Roth IRA, historically I’ve front-loaded my Roth IRA, usually maxing out by mid year. That, of course, didn’t happen this year. I am probably going to do a bit of dollar-cost averaging over the next 3 months to max it out.

I hope to finish maxing out my Roth IRA by the last quarter of this year to free up some money for anticipated home improvement purchases/furniture when I get to move into my new home at the end of the year.

Goals for Next Month

To be honest, I’ve started losing some motivation in the running and blogging department. I’m still doing my once weekly run with my friends but I’ve just been doing it for the sake of keeping our streak and have been making every excuse not to run during the week. 

I didn’t want running to become a chore so I decided to take it easy during May in hopes that I’ll gain some motivation back after a month break. 

The same is true for blogging. I was busy picking up my social life with dating and hanging out with friends plus enjoying the nicer weather so I haven’t felt particularly motivated to write any updates.

I’m definitely more motivated to get back into running in June. As for the blog, we’ll see. I definitely plan to keep the blog going (just received an email to renew my domain) and will keep up with at least monthly updates but anything more frequent than that will be up in the air.