Life and Debt Update: August 2015

Sorry for the disappearing act folks. That was completely unintentional on my part. About two weeks ago, I got slammed with work — I edited a short book, had several rad coaching sessions with awesome students, and kept writing and writing, except it was all for clients. On top of all that, I’m planning A LOT behind-the-scenes for FinCon and an upcoming blog tour.

It’s all fun and good stuff and it still feels weird that this is my life. I’m really bummed though that I neglected my baby, Dear Debt. I do feel the most at “home” here and want to give it the love it deserves.

I want to make sure I’m staying true to the point here and keeping myself accountable to paying off debt and inspiring others to do the same. The irony is that the money that pays off that debt comes from clients and not this site — but I still need to treat this as my number one client and keep it all in perspective.

Anyway, I wanted to share a little about what’s going on and also share my new debt repayment numbers!

This month was not as impressive as last month, but still more than my original goal. As I mentioned before though, I got some one-off payments that hit last month, which I knew weren’t coming in this month. But after all is said and done, I was still able to put $2,500 to debt! I’m particularly excited about this update as I got rid of my last 7.9 percent interest PLUS loan!

That interest rate was killer and now I’m dealing with those pesky 6.8 percent loans and a few thousand at 2.3 percent for my undergraduate loans.

Undergraduate loans: $5,043.27
Graduate loans: $15,979.91
Total: $21,023.18

I’ve paid off $36,000 in debt since January 2013 when I started this blog. I am so freaking close to being under 20k! I am so ready for this to be done. For the first time in my life, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Debt is no longer something that I will have “forever” but something that I will say, sooner rather than later, that I’ve overcome. It will be such a sweet payoff. I know some people say getting out of debt is anti-climactic, but I really don’t think that will be the case for me. I think I will cry and scream — and my dream is to host a debt payoff party. Hey, I can dream and plan 🙂

What’s new with you? What are you looking forward to?

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Melanie

Melanie Lockert is the founder of the blog and author of the book, Dear Debt. Through her blog, she chronicled her journey out of $81,000 in student loan debt. She is also the co-founder of the Lola Retreat, which helps bold women face their fears, own their dreams and figure out a plan to be in control of their finances. She is passionate about empowering women, helping others get out of debt, and focuses on the intersection of debt and mental health. Every September she organizes a Suicide Prevention Awareness Blog Tour, to help share resources for those struggling with debt and suicide. In addition to her love of personal finance, art and music, she is also a karaoke master and a cat mom to Miles and Thelonious.

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