*Official student loan pay off thread*

[MDaware]

I have been looking forward to contributing to this thread. Made my last payment today. Wished I would've refinanced earlier during residency but refinanced near the end (DRB at around 5%) and then again with Sofi (5 year fixed just under 4%) soon after getting my first attending paychecks to decrease my rate. Refinanced again about a year ago into a 5 year variable (3.3%) to try to lower my rate even more. I technically deferred payment during residency but paid off interest to keep my principle the same every month. Got married shortly after residency, moved, had to furnish a new place since I had very little in med school/residency so didn't actually start making payments till after my grace period ended in November 2016 but finished residency in June 2016.

Loan: 190k: 170k (student loans) + 20k (car loan - my residency car's engine block cracked 2 months prior to residency graduation with only 130k miles on it...probably could've bought a cheaper car though to replace it)

Household income: emergency medicine - around 300k for my first year out but closer to 400k for this second year out with some quasi-locums work as an employee of my group. Married but no kids.

Today: 0

Time since residency graduation: just over 21 months

Thanks to WCI and others for helping me better understand the personal finance world. Here's to eventual financial independence!

 

 

 

 

[saildawg]

I forgot to do this when I paid off my student loans a few months ago.  I was too busy writing an article on my unique experience which you can read here:

https://passiveincomemd.com/student-loan-hack-for-high-income-professionals/

$300,000 student loans gone in 2.5 years, now I am ready to use the same behavior to accelerate my journey to FI.  Man it feels good!!!

[hightower]

MDaware wrote:

I have been looking forward to contributing to this thread. Made my last payment today. Wished I would’ve refinanced earlier during residency but refinanced near the end (DRB at around 5%) and then again with Sofi (5 year fixed just under 4%) soon after getting my first attending paychecks to decrease my rate. Refinanced again about a year ago into a 5 year variable (3.3%) to try to lower my rate even more. I technically deferred payment during residency but paid off interest to keep my principle the same every month. Got married shortly after residency, moved, had to furnish a new place since I had very little in med school/residency so didn’t actually start making payments till after my grace period ended in November 2016 but finished residency in June 2016.

Loan: 190k: 170k (student loans) + 20k (car loan – my residency car’s engine block cracked 2 months prior to residency graduation with only 130k miles on it…probably could’ve bought a cheaper car though to replace it)

Household income: emergency medicine – around 300k for my first year out but closer to 400k for this second year out with some quasi-locums work as an employee of my group. Married but no kids.

Today: 0

Time since residency graduation: just over 21 months

Thanks to WCI and others for helping me better understand the personal finance world. Here’s to eventual financial independence!

Click to expand...

Very well done.  You're going to continually thank yourself for getting rid of that debt as each year goes by!!  Hope you celebrated a little

[MDIndie]

*Loans officially paid off April 2018*

Total student loan amount: $106,000.

No undergrad debt thanks to academic scholarships with a few side jobs. Medical school loans were low in part due to a partial scholarship covering the majority of instate tuition. 

Graduated June 2017. 

My income for 2017: $202,000 and projected for 2018: $350,000.

The loans would've been completed earlier, but I also maxed out my SEP IRA for 2017, put together an emergency fund, moved to NC, and cash flowed a wedding last fall. His income is $85,000, which we now use as the basis of our household budget after TSP/backdoor Roth maxed.

I've loved the inspiration of this thread and education WCI has provided although I didn't discover the blog until PGY3 a few months before graduating. So, a few blunders have happened during that financial toddlerhood. The main one was never refinancing student loans with the majority at 6.8% throughout residency.  Frankly, that was laziness/inaction after reading the countless articles of how/why here. But, it was extra incentive to pay them off faster. Living in the Southeast helped with a lower COL. Forbearance x 2 years, then began IBR and paid off all the accrued interest thanks to moonlighting income in PGY3. We did buy a house a little larger than necessary, although within our means and less than our combined gross income.

Next up is to pay off what's left of our loans besides the mortgage by 08/2018: Volt $11,000 @3.25%, RAV [email protected] 0.9% and a small plane: $33000 @6.2%.

Then, .. .maxing, relaxing, and turning towards developing multiple passive income streams  

[MochaDoc]

MDIndie wrote:

and a small plane: $33000 @6.2%.

Click to expand...

Congrats!!

On another note, you're the first person that I've seen mention plane ownership. kind of surprised. most folks seem to be into boats.

[skiMD]

Left med school with probably around 250k in debt. Paid some off. Started having kids and loans took a backseat. Stated reading WCI and realized I didn't want to be making payments for 10-20 years. Used some inheritance money to pay down a bit more. Wasn't really putting anything into retirement either.

Finished fellowship in 2016. Loan total was right around 195k. Had kid #3. Paying mortgage and daycare and loans aggressively wasn't fun but didn't feel we were skimping on life either. 403b maxed out each year too. As of this week, student loans are gone!

Now, the craft beer budget increases! Anybody have some Mornin' Delight they want to trade/sell? I've got a fridge full of Tree House. :P

[djk3]

Just finished paying off the loans last night.  approx 180K in 9-2015.  Graduated 6-2016 but had refinanced with DRB 9-2015 in 4th year of residency to 3.5% fixed for 5 years.  Paid it off in earlier than 3!  Feels great.  We are going to celebrate with an ice cream cone with the kids today.  Congrats to everyone else on this feed and thank you for helping motivate my wife and I!!

[LizOB]

I love this thread.

My loans have been gone for about a year. I frequently get facebook ads for student loan refinancing, and I take great joy in telling facebook that they are not relevant for me.

[Dicast]

Must be something in the air. As of today we are student loan debt free at age 35. We owed 191k on hers and 165k on mine (356k combined) when I graduated from emergency medicine in 2012. We finished mine off in about 5 years, last summer. My wife has been out of fellowship for not quite 2 years and now hers are done as well. We maxed our retirement during most of this time. Refinanced my loans to 3.5% fixed and hers to a variable rate around 2.5% after she finished fellowship. The variable is up to 3.8% as of today but it doesn't matter.

I'm celebrating by working the evening shift with a grin on my face.

We're still very American with 3 car loans and a mortgage. 44k at 0.9% for 3 years, 22k at 3.8% for 5 years and 5k at 1.8% for 2 years on the cars and 344k at 2.8% on the house. We plan to knock out the 3.8% loan and let the others pay out. The car debt goes against conventional wisdom on this site but we're increasing net worth by about 250k a year between debt repayment and investments. We have pretty good shovels, insurance on shovels and emergency funding if the shovels break.

[DrDayDay79]

Finished residency in 2015 with $400k in student loans.
Currently down to $198k:

$40k in federal student loan at 1.86% fixed,   making minimum payments, will pay off in 8 yrs.

$158k in refinanced student loans at 3.25% fixed, making $5,500 payments (about 2x minimum), will pay off in 2.5 yrs.

 

 

[silverpaw54]

Finished residency in 2016 with about $200k in student loans.

Just made last payment today. Thank you WCI!!!!!

[Josh0731]

All gone! Just made my last payment this week.  Feels really good.  I paid off the last $7k at once because I got a letter from my lender saying they were selling my loan to another servicer and I would have to set up an online account and redo my scheduled payments with the new company, and I thought "I am so tired of this" and just paid it off.

Took 5.5 years to do it.  Graduated in '07 with $125,000.  Was fortunate that I finished just before tuition and interest rates started really shooting upwards.  I consolidated twice during med school to lock in lower rates as they were increasing.  And my wife (not in medicine) worked while I was in med school so I took out a little less than full living expenses each year.  I spent all 5 years of residency in deferrment, so I didn't start payment until late 2012.

It's helped that I've lived in low-to-moderate COL areas, so I didn't have to be quite as frugal as WCI recommends - we went on vacations, saved 20% for a house, paid for rounds of IVF, and started a college fund for our son all at the same time.  But there are a lot of other areas where we've tried to be smart and have avoided spending money so I could get debt paid off (I also left residency with a large credit card bill from 5 years of putting my head in sand about money - incredibly stupid).

So it can be done.  I'm enjoying the thought, "I have some extra money in the monthly budget now... How weird".

 

[DermRes]

Took the occasion to more accurately change my name....

 

Student loan free, just under 2 years into attending-hood.

 

Felt great to submit that payment, but hasn't really sunk in yet. Maybe the next couple months when I get to redirect that $$$ elsewhere....

 

Cheers!

[saildawg]

DermRes wrote:

Took the occasion to more accurately change my name….

 

Student loan free, just under 2 years into attending-hood.

 

Felt great to submit that payment, but hasn’t really sunk in yet. Maybe the next couple months when I get to redirect that $$$ elsewhere….

 

Cheers!

Click to expand...

Great job, your last statement is the key to wealth building as long as that somewhere else is savings, or investments.

This is the best thread on this forum!!

[hightower]

DermRes wrote:

Took the occasion to more accurately change my name….

 

Student loan free, just under 2 years into attending-hood.

 

Felt great to submit that payment, but hasn’t really sunk in yet. Maybe the next couple months when I get to redirect that $$$ elsewhere….

 

Cheers!

Click to expand...

Impressive!  How much did you have to pay off?  How did you do it?  Did you live like a resident the first couple of years?  Great work