Hey, look at that! My current balance -$25,906!
Since my last post, I forgot an additional payment that hadn’t yet processed. My servicer can be a bit slow with crediting multiple payments. Anyway, my balance is dropping! The smaller the better. Hooray 🙂
Another Student Loan Refinance?
I’m thinking about doing another refinance. Yes, another one, after the first and second times. Once I get my balance down to about 18k or so, I’m considering refinancing into another 5-year loan with another servicer. Why? Two reasons.
REASON ONE. A refinance will drop my minimum monthly amount due from the $661 that I’m responsible for now down to about $350 or so, even if I had to take a slightly higher interest rate. This move would be precautionary. I have no intention of lowering my monthly payments. I want this debt gone.
This move would just lower the pressure on me in case I lost my job or couldn’t work for whatever reason. If I’m drawing unemployment, I’d rather have a $350 student loan bill to deal with, rather than a $650 bill. This would certainly help my Emergency Fund stretch longer. Again hopefully, this never becomes an issue and the debt is gone completely later this year or early next year.
REASON TWO. This is actually the main reason I’m considering another refinance. I’m eyeing a certain servicer that offers free career coaching and services to its members. This includes career coaching for career progression as well as career transitions – help with identifying new careers and how to break in, revamping resume and LinkedIn profiles, networking events, etc., all for ‘free’.
It sounds interesting and like something I very much need. I have another couple of months to look into this more before I decide to do it or not. I’m leaning towards doing this. I’m growing more and more miserable at my job. I am being thrown into the new style of work and I don’t know how much longer I can hold on.
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Another Milestone
I surpassed $142,258 in net worth! As long as the markets don’t take a nosedive, I’ve passed this marker for good and have met a goal on my 2019 Goals list.
When I started this blog, my net worth was NEGATIVE $142,258. It was all student loan and credit card debt. I was flat broke. I had no assets.
Currently, my net worth is in the black at a POSITIVE $146,500. This may not look like much to most people, considering I supposedly need ten times this much in order to ever retire, but it looks great to me.
This is a net worth change of over $288K. Wow. It doesn’t seem real.
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Do you have any upcoming financial decisions to make?
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“Debtor’s prison is real, and opportunity cost is a bitch.” (DDSW Archives)
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Double Debt Single Woman 
Hey DDSW, I’ve been reading your blog for a few years, and your progress is amazing! I just wanted to tell you not to get discouraged about your net worth. Now that you have that snowball rolling, you’ll be financially independent in no time. Don’t listen to the jerks who say you need millions to retire, it’s just not true. The 4% SWR works, and you probably need much less than you think. If you’ve never checked out Mr. Money Mustache, it’s a great community of frugal and financially savvy people. Cheers!
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Thanks, Heather. 🙂
We all will have to make do with what we have when retirement comes. Once I figure out what my next 12 months are going to look like, I can start thinking about the long term. Yes, I’m familiar with MMM!
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Wow – you have made SUCH incredible progress. I’m loving your updates. This is awesome!!
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Thank you! I’m enjoying seeing the balance drop as well. 🙂
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Nothing to say but congratulations. I was up all night trying to decide if I should refinance so I will look back at your old post about it and follow your updates closely.
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Hey Candice! Thank you. Refinancing is not a light decision to make, as you know. Everyone’s situation is different. I did include a chart in my first refinance post to help someone decide if refinancing might be worth looking into. And there are 100s of websites about it. 🙂
We’ll see how things turn out for me…
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Wow!!! Great job! Not on the being miserable at your job part but the extra payment part! And I’ for what it’s worth, can completely understand why you are considering the switch for providers. I think the pros far outweigh the cons in this case. As long as there is no penalty for paying more than the monthly payment, have at it. I spent this morning reworking my debt plan. I ended March with more debt than I started the year so I have a new 5% goal number which sucks but it is what it is. Hubby’s raise kicks in this month and there will be more take home to budget to debt repayment. Now, if we could get take out under control!! I’s also like to start making some extra payments on our vehicle loan (never again will I take out an 8 year loan OR roll money into a car payment!). Every little bit helps right?
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Omg don’t get me started on how I need to get my food (takeout) spending under control. I can so relate. 😦
As for the loan, I’ve double checked and there is definitely no penalty for pre-payment or paying over the minimum.
Way to go with budgeting your increase in income right away before you get used to seeing the extra money. That’s the way to do it!
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Amazing! Pretty soon you’ll be in the lower twenties, and you’ve already met one of your 2019 goals!
I think the refinancing sounds like a great idea (as long as, as Stubbornmama says, there’s no penalty for paying more than the monthly minimum). As you say, it would probably and hopefully only be a precautionary measure. But you’ve been tired of your work for a long time, and it could come in handy. Even if it doesn’t, the peace of mind you would get from knowing you can stretch your funds that much longer should you have to stop working for whatever reason, that sounds pretty darn valuable to me.
And the career coaching part, the networking etc sounds great! It could be really helpful in helping you get clarity on the kind of career change you want and what to do to make it happen. And support and motivate you as you work towards making it a realiy.
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Yeah, it feels like a proactive step in the right direction, career-wise and financially. 🙂
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Let the marathon begin! For a rock star debt crusher like you, this will be a breeze. I expect to be in the high $20Ks in my debt next month. Looking forward to that, and then another 20 months of debt repayment if all goes well till reaching plain ol’ poor but not indebted bum status. I have nowhere near the assets that you have. My condo is worth about 10K more than the price I bought it for 2 years ago, and I have about $5K in retirement savings. 😦 But I’m hopeful that I’ll be kickstarting my career by late 2020.
It’s smart to think, even at this last stretch phase, about your ‘vulnerability’ re debt payment. I’m not sure however that I’d be sold on the part on refinancing for a lower payment, for a higher interest rate to boot… unless you really don’t think you can hold out till the end of this year (your target debt payoff date). It seems that your job wasn’t as unstable as you thought. Unless you see an opportunity in the next couple-three months to switch careers, and the cash flow in the interim will be significantly lower, I’d advise with sticking to the current method. Your call, needless to say.
Whatever you decide, you got this!
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That’s great, czanclus! Looks like 2020 will be a transition year for us both. 🙂
Your condo may “only” be 10k more than what you bought it for, but you know what? You have your own place to live. You have a car to get around.
Those are great things to have. I don’t even know what it feels like to have my own space anymore. I’d almost kill to have my own apartment.
Things will come in time. (I’m the queen of impatience, so I’m writing these words for myself too.)
Thanks for your cautionary note about refinancing. I will have to do a ‘cost-benefit analysis’ of sorts once I get an interest quote from the potential new lender. Then I’ll weigh the pros and cons before making a decision.
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Many congratulations DDSW for how well you’re doing and have turned things around. I am looking forward to the fast approaching day when you are fully free of debt. I will continue to follow your progress and wish you the best of luck.
Paul, London
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As always, thanks for the positive words, Paul. 🙂
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It’s so exciting to see you keep crushing it 😉 Next payment should get you under $25K–which feels so doable! How weird! I think the refinance sounds like a great idea. Lowering your minimum payment plus the access to career counseling, why not? Even if there’s a slight amount of added interest per month due to a rate change, I can’t imagine it would make a real difference in your payoff schedule or total interest paid.
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Yeah, I’m starting to get optimistic that it’s finally going to be over!! Any interest increase from refinancing won’t make a difference in my payment payoff schedule.
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