4 Things That I Did to Pay Off My Student Loans EARLY

On September 23rd, 2020 my husband and I made the last payment on my student loans and we are officially personal debt-free!! It still doesn’t feel very real! So here is a little bit of the backstory first…

My husband and I both graduated in 2016. I came out with over $30,000 in student loan debt and he was very blessed to come out with none. I recognize that even though $30k is still a lot of money, many people have more than that.

But no matter how much you have in student loan debt, it is extremely possible to pay off your loans early if you create and stick to a plan. In this article you will learn exactly what our plan was to pay off my student loans early.

If you’re ready to create your own plan, check out these 2 debt payoff strategies that can help you pay off your student loans starting today!

Why We Paid off Our Debt Early

Before we talk about HOW we paid off our student loans early, let me tell you WHY we decided to pay off the debt early…

There are a few reasons we decided to pay off our debt early. Here are the top 3 reasons we decided to pay off my student loans early and become debt-free!

Debt is a Form of Slavery

The Bible teaches us that debt is a form of slavery. In Proverbs 22:7 we learn that the borrower is slave to the lender. Once you are free from debt, so many doors open. In 2020, we started paying about $2,000 a month towards my student loans. It was a lot of money, but we were extremely determined to get rid of them.

We decided to buckle down once we learned about the student loan forbearance and realized that the amount left on my student loans could be the total amount we had to pay since the loans were no longer accruing any interest!

When you have debt, you are bound to making those payments until they are gone. Depending on the debt, this could be years or decades. And until they are paid off, they will weigh you down and keep you from using that money for other things.

Check out this article, What Does the Bible Say About Debt?

We Are Pursuing Financial Freedom

We are on a journey to achieve financial freedom. As I just mentioned above, debt is a form of slavery, and we cannot be free until it is gone. One of the keys to the journey towards financial independence is to pay off your debts. It is difficult to build wealth when you are still making payments on student loans!

Becoming Debt Free Before Children

My husband and I decided that becoming debt-free before having kids sounded like a good goal to have. That way we wouldn’t have to worry about making those payments anymore and could simply focus on building generational wealth.

4 Things That I Did to Pay Off My Student Loans Early

Once you are free from debt, so many doors open. In 2020, we started paying about $2,000 a month towards my student loans. It was a lot of money, but we were extremely determined to get rid of them.

Here are the 4 things we did to pay off my student loans early.

1. Stuck to a Budget

As I mentioned, in the last stretch of having our debt, we were paying $2,000 every month towards them. So the first thing we did was created a budget that helped us to strategically focus on putting money towards the debt.

A budget is simply creating a plan for your money. And that is what we did. More specifically, we used the Value-Based Budgeting method to plan out all of our expenses so we could set aside enough each month to put towards my student loans.

Budgeting takes a lot of self-discipline, but it is doable. Especially with accountability!

2. Ruthlessly Cut Back Expenses

Along with creating a budget, we looked for every possible way that we could cut back our expenses in order to throw extra money towards my student loans.

We used to be very caught up in the consumeristic society mostly for FOMO reasons… The Bible has a lot to say about consumerism, including tha

This included very few dinners out, packing lunches, making coffee at home, putting off purchases, and even switching our phone plan (which did help us save almost $800 per year!). Do an expense audit to find areas in your own budget to cut back. You may be surprised at how much money you can squeak out!

3. Picked Up a Couple Side Hustles

If I’m being totally honest, this was probably the key to paying off my student loans early. You can only cut back your expenses so much, so at some point, it might be wise to look for new ways to bring in money! I personally love finding new ways to earn money through side hustles. So I started trying many different ones in order to earn more money.

Have you tried a side hustle before? Side hustles are simply ways to make money on the side of your 9-5 job. Here are a couple of examples of how we started making extra cash, my husband and I both delivered for different food delivery apps, I made over $500 using my favorite little side hustle app, and we started using cash-back apps religiously.

Need some side hustle ideas of your own? Check out this article on Side Hustles for Beginners.

4. Told EVERYONE What Our Goal Was

The last thing we did in order to pay off my student loans early was to tell EVERYONE about our big goal! I don’t know a single person that didn’t know that we were paying off my student loans on my birthday!

I’m sure I got really obnoxious to people because I was always talking about paying off my student loans, but here is why it was so beneficial…

It helped solidify the goal in my own mind
All of our friends and family held us accountable to that goal!

When you share your big goals with other people, it helps you to stay on the path toward that goal. Personally, when I start telling people I’m going to do something, I all of a sudden don’t want to let them down by not doing what I said I would do.

BONUS!

One other thing that I did to pay off my student loans early was to join communities filled with people who were working on similar goals.

If you are looking for an amazing community of faith-filled young professionals working to accomplish big money goals, I want to invite you to our community FREE Redeeming Your Finances!

Join in as we all work TOGETHER to accomplish great things within our finances, including paying off debt, in a way that brings glory to God!

I am confident that you will be able to accomplish your goal just like I was able to accomplish mine! It has been wonderful to pay off my student loans early and I know that you will love the feeling once yours are paid off!