After a decade of being vaguely broke and more than vaguely pissed off about it, I have finally paid off my student loan.
Before the July payment was set to draw, I shut off the automatic draft, transferred an extra $1,000 from my savings to my checking, and paid that bad boy off. I just received the “paid in full, no promissory note†letter, all nice and official, yesterday.
For the past 10+ years (except for two, three-month hardship deferments) I have been paying Sallie Mae slightly more than I could comfortably afford as penance for pursuing an ill-advised MA in Medieval Studies.
For a long time, I thought that when I got my student loan paid off, I’d throw a big-assed party, or have a shopping spree to the tune of a monthly payment, or do something extravagant, but now, I’m just kind of over it. I threw double birdies 
in the general direction of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania as I clicked “make payment†and felt a profound sense of relief. I’ve no longer got a $500-a-month reminder of the indiscretions of my youth poking me in the ribs every month. I can bung more money into savings, or invest in fixing up the house. Or maybe buy a new pair of boots without agonizing over it for a month beforehand. Whatever.
It’s done, it’s behind me, and I say never, EVER again. No more loans. Not negotiable. If I can’t afford something straight out, I don’t need it.
That is AWESOME!
What a relief! We have about 4 years left on our home loan.
Kick ass! That’s good stuff, Jeffro. We have like 15 years. But for a house in KCKS, the payments aren’t too bad, so it’s not a big strain.
Yup – paying off the student loan for my second and also ill-advised degree really taught me how bad debt and loans are. Congrats! Here’s to freer living!
Landagotion!, as my grandmother would have said (not sure why, but it seems appropriate): Congratulations!
Thank you! There have been times when I thought, “this is never going to end,” but thanks be finally it has!