We paid off our debt beginning in 2017 finished in 2022. This was a mish mash of mortgage, car loans, parent plus (student loan) personal and credit card. The parent plus went into forbearance in March 2020 like all federal student loans. At that point we had snowballed the mortgage, credit cards and most of the personal. But when the forbearance kicked in we took advantage of the interest free aspect and paid it off, $24K in 18 months. A lot of my friends thought us crazy but that took care of it and now no debt. We think that somehow our debt will disappear on it's own, it will not.
Thank you for this Justine! Definetly going to be trying to look for more freebie activities to add to my fun time so I am also getting contentment whilst paying off my debt :)
FYI Federal student loan servicers won't let you make principal-only payments automatically. So, unless you have saved or paid down more than the interest, you won't be touching principal. Unless you ask real nicely over the phone or you concentrate on paying down the principal and interest of _one_ loan at a time. That's what I did instead of making extra payments blindly and trusting them to apply it right. I'm using the debt avalanche method and I've already paid off one third of the loans I had.
So you advise if you have the money to pay off your entire student debt? I owe with my wife 24k in total and we have close to double that as we have been saving living with at home with her parents and paying them rent. We have no other debts. We make 100 dollars a month off interest in a hysa like you recommended. I was given advise to just pay the minimum payment for 10 years because cash in the bank is better so I'm not sure what to do.
Inflation will influence the rate you’re getting on your HYSA, but it’s not the exact metric you need to know, although you can easily google inflation for your area. If you’re considering math only and no other factors: HYSA interest rate > student loan interest rate, pay the minimum and save the rest in your HYSA to earn interest; HYSA interest rate < student loan interest rate, pay a lump sum payment of everything you’ve saved for the loans that have the higher interest rate than your HYSA. In your case, it seems like you might pay off the 5% loan, save for a while until your HYSA interest rate is below 4%, then make a lump sum payment on that loan. Then repeat for the other two loans at 3%. As inflation falls, your HYSA rates will also fall, so this will need to be reevaluated. Again, this is based on math only to maximize HYSA interest and minimize the loan interest paid. There are likely a lot of factors to consider for your situation.
I unfortunately have a car loan right now. I had started a savings fund specifically for a new car a few months ago. I thought it would be okay timing wise because my car should have still been in great condition for many more years. Then my car was totaled in a hit and run. I never thought I would get a new car ever in my life, but somehow as I was looking around the used cars were almost or just as much as the new ones. I couldn’t find anything comparable to what I had before without extremely overpaying so I decided to go new. I put all the money from the insurance payout into the new car but am still left with the difference. Currently accelerating payment on this loan and also slowly building the car fund again. Hopefully I actually get enough time to save this time before needing another car 😢
Ugh, I understand how you feel. A car loan is probably second to credit card debt. I'm pretty fortunate in the fact I'm pretty handy and can keep things running. Out of 40 years of car ownership, I only had 10 years worth of car payments. I currently drive a 2017 Toyota and I expect to keep that auto running for another 15 years.
@@striperkid Yes, that was my plan too, unfortunately my car was not fixable regardless once I was hit 😓 Really hoping that never happens again for multiple reasons. All other cars I owned were paid in cash. Glad my loan wasn’t so big I was ever going to be upside down on this new one. Fingers crossed this car gets to last me 20+ years like I intended. And that car prices/interests rates calm down for everyone soon.
Credit card interest is compound interest, usually at double digit percentages and car loans are simple interest, usually with much lower interest rates. Car loans aren't anything like credit card debt, so consider yourself lucky enough to have some savings towards a new car! Give yourself some credit
@@vulpixelfulI am puzzled by one thing. People mention that credit cards use compound interest. I understand that, but when do they ever accept less than all of the interest you owe them each month in their minimum payment? Are there credit cards that don't require you to pay at least enough in the minimum payments to bring your current balance to zero eventually?
@@AndyBHome The minimum payment only takes your statement balance into account. They can show you a pay off date on your statement as long as you don't charge anything else past your statement balance. But, that's not how the statement balance works. By the time you get your statement you probably have pending charges that won't be accounted for until your next statement term. This is how people never get to their payoff date. If you use the card just once, get a statement for that balance, and never use it again, you will pay it off eventually. But the minimum balance is set to get as much interest from you as possible. You end up paying hundreds or thousands more for things you may not even be using anymore...I think the pay off date is more than a decade away. Idk, I just pay them off in full each month so I rarely notice the date they give me.
We paid off our debt beginning in 2017 finished in 2022. This was a mish mash of mortgage, car loans, parent plus (student loan) personal and credit card. The parent plus went into forbearance in March 2020 like all federal student loans. At that point we had snowballed the mortgage, credit cards and most of the personal. But when the forbearance kicked in we took advantage of the interest free aspect and paid it off, $24K in 18 months. A lot of my friends thought us crazy but that took care of it and now no debt. We think that somehow our debt will disappear on it's own, it will not.
Thank you for this Justine! Definetly going to be trying to look for more freebie activities to add to my fun time so I am also getting contentment whilst paying off my debt :)
Such good advice. New subscriber. Thanks for your content.
FYI Federal student loan servicers won't let you make principal-only payments automatically. So, unless you have saved or paid down more than the interest, you won't be touching principal. Unless you ask real nicely over the phone or you concentrate on paying down the principal and interest of _one_ loan at a time. That's what I did instead of making extra payments blindly and trusting them to apply it right. I'm using the debt avalanche method and I've already paid off one third of the loans I had.
I may be your oldest millennial subscriber at 66 😊
Happy Friday & great debt pay off video!
Great video
This is a great video idea!
For those students who don't want to pay back, who's going to pay? The taxpayers are not going to help out. If they have money don't go to school.
So you advise if you have the money to pay off your entire student debt? I owe with my wife 24k in total and we have close to double that as we have been saving living with at home with her parents and paying them rent. We have no other debts. We make 100 dollars a month off interest in a hysa like you recommended. I was given advise to just pay the minimum payment for 10 years because cash in the bank is better so I'm not sure what to do.
If interest rate on them is higher than inflation, than yes, you’re loosing money
I’d pay it off if you can. It frees up that monthly payment. There’s a sense of calm that comes with that that is hard to quantify.
@@1xlinaI have two loans at 5% 1 at 4% percent and 2 at 3% to add up to that total. How do I know what rates inflation is at ?
@@scotth4613true I'm excited to feel that calm with no debts at all
Inflation will influence the rate you’re getting on your HYSA, but it’s not the exact metric you need to know, although you can easily google inflation for your area. If you’re considering math only and no other factors: HYSA interest rate > student loan interest rate, pay the minimum and save the rest in your HYSA to earn interest; HYSA interest rate < student loan interest rate, pay a lump sum payment of everything you’ve saved for the loans that have the higher interest rate than your HYSA. In your case, it seems like you might pay off the 5% loan, save for a while until your HYSA interest rate is below 4%, then make a lump sum payment on that loan. Then repeat for the other two loans at 3%. As inflation falls, your HYSA rates will also fall, so this will need to be reevaluated. Again, this is based on math only to maximize HYSA interest and minimize the loan interest paid. There are likely a lot of factors to consider for your situation.
Discover bank savings is paying 4%+
I unfortunately have a car loan right now. I had started a savings fund specifically for a new car a few months ago. I thought it would be okay timing wise because my car should have still been in great condition for many more years. Then my car was totaled in a hit and run. I never thought I would get a new car ever in my life, but somehow as I was looking around the used cars were almost or just as much as the new ones. I couldn’t find anything comparable to what I had before without extremely overpaying so I decided to go new. I put all the money from the insurance payout into the new car but am still left with the difference. Currently accelerating payment on this loan and also slowly building the car fund again. Hopefully I actually get enough time to save this time before needing another car 😢
Ugh, I understand how you feel. A car loan is probably second to credit card debt. I'm pretty fortunate in the fact I'm pretty handy and can keep things running. Out of 40 years of car ownership, I only had 10 years worth of car payments. I currently drive a 2017 Toyota and I expect to keep that auto running for another 15 years.
@@striperkid Yes, that was my plan too, unfortunately my car was not fixable regardless once I was hit 😓 Really hoping that never happens again for multiple reasons. All other cars I owned were paid in cash. Glad my loan wasn’t so big I was ever going to be upside down on this new one. Fingers crossed this car gets to last me 20+ years like I intended. And that car prices/interests rates calm down for everyone soon.
Credit card interest is compound interest, usually at double digit percentages and car loans are simple interest, usually with much lower interest rates. Car loans aren't anything like credit card debt, so consider yourself lucky enough to have some savings towards a new car! Give yourself some credit
@@vulpixelfulI am puzzled by one thing. People mention that credit cards use compound interest. I understand that, but when do they ever accept less than all of the interest you owe them each month in their minimum payment? Are there credit cards that don't require you to pay at least enough in the minimum payments to bring your current balance to zero eventually?
@@AndyBHome The minimum payment only takes your statement balance into account. They can show you a pay off date on your statement as long as you don't charge anything else past your statement balance.
But, that's not how the statement balance works. By the time you get your statement you probably have pending charges that won't be accounted for until your next statement term. This is how people never get to their payoff date.
If you use the card just once, get a statement for that balance, and never use it again, you will pay it off eventually. But the minimum balance is set to get as much interest from you as possible. You end up paying hundreds or thousands more for things you may not even be using anymore...I think the pay off date is more than a decade away. Idk, I just pay them off in full each month so I rarely notice the date they give me.
Why would u pay off your debt? Why wouldn’t you use the debt to create money? The dollar is debt.