3617: How We Paid Off $17,000+ in Student Loan Debt in Just 54 Days by Dave Cahill with Jackie Beck

[00:00:00] Right now, get up to 15% off Select Storage Solutions. Put heavy-duty HDX totes to good use, protecting what's important to you. The solid, impact-resistant design prevents cracking, and the clear base and sides make items easy to find even when the totes are stacked. Find Select Shelving and Tote Storage up to 15% off at the Home Depot to organize every room in your home, from your garage to your attic. Visit homedepot.com. How doers get more done.

[00:00:31] This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+.

[00:00:54] This is Optimal Finance Daily. How we paid off $17,000 plus in student loan debt in just 54 days. By Dave Cahill with JackieBeck.com. Money can be emotional. Few experiences compare to the joys of earning a long-awaited promotion or receiving a raise. Sometimes those experiences teach us that the grass isn't always greener on the other side. I learned this lesson the hard way.

[00:01:23] In June 2015, I earned a promotion as a public school administrator. Two weeks later, my wife Megan secured a new job as a teacher in the same school district. Our new jobs came with significant raises. I thought we had it made. Before starting our new jobs, my wife and I celebrated with a vacation and spent a week basking in glory. Life finally seemed perfect. Getting a wake-up call.

[00:01:49] But everything wasn't as perfect as it seemed. Like many millennials, I found myself sitting on over $17,000 in student loan debt at 6.5% interest. I was horrified when I read a statement which showed that the typical 10-year repayment plan would cost us $10,000 in student loan interest, over $27,000 in total. The facade of our perfect life began to crumble in early 2016.

[00:02:14] One cold February day, after much soul-searching, I came to the conclusion that I hated my new job. I wanted out even more than my supervisor wanted me to leave. But our debt was suffocating, and it limited my options. From that day on, I was completely consumed by paying off student loan debt. Nothing could stand in our way. Our payoff strategy. When my wife and I decided to pay off my loans, we decided to do it quickly.

[00:02:41] We knew we could sacrifice for a short while, even if it hurt, as long as it freed up cash in our budget to make large payments. We cut out almost every unnecessary expense. Eating out, non-basic groceries, movies, clothing, and unused subscriptions and memberships. We ate very simply and spent many quiet evenings at home. Much to our surprise, few people noticed our extreme frugality. Most who did were surprisingly supportive and understanding of our sacrifices.

[00:03:11] But we still had our detractors. A few people suggested that we were going overboard with our new plan. Others told us to lighten up a bit and have some fun. We stopped spending time with those friends, for the duration of our payoff plan. Our frugality alone propelled our financial plan forward, and allowed us to pay off nearly $2,400 in February, our first month of our journey. I don't remember seeing the inside of a restaurant, Target, or Banana Republic during this time.

[00:03:40] We encountered a few unexpected expenses over the next several weeks that followed, but we were still able to pay off an additional $1,100 in March. April was a dream month for our monthly budget. My wife and I each received three paychecks. Even our modest educator salaries, when combined with our ongoing frugality, allowed us to pay off over $4,000 that month. Yet the finish line seemed like a faint mirage in the horizon.

[00:04:09] After over a month of sacrifice, we still owed $10,166.37. I became discouraged around this time and thought about giving up. My wife urged me to keep my eyes on our goal and suggested I finally start my own website to share about our journey and help others who were struggling to make sense of life's money problems. I officially launched FinancialSuperhero.com on April 1, 2016. Reaching the Finish Line

[00:04:38] In my discouraged state, I reviewed our financial big picture and found a glimmer of hope. Some quick math revealed that we had more than enough money in our emergency fund to wipe out my remaining student loan debt. We faced a dilemma. Our large emergency fund was our security blanket. It gave us peace. But neither of us could shake the uncontrollable urge to wipe out our debt. We knew that if the situation were reversed, we would not take out a loan at 6.5% to build an emergency fund.

[00:05:08] And we knew that even after spending this money, we would still be in a position to protect ourselves against unexpected emergencies. Moments later, my hand trembled as I submitted a payment in the amount of $10,166.37 and ended our 54-day journey towards freedom from student loan debt once and for all. Lessons Learned During the Journey I'll always remember the day we made our final student loan payment.

[00:05:36] We learned so much during our 54-day journey. Paying off my student loans so quickly was a big challenge, but the resulting freedom and opportunities to pursue my passions are benefits I wouldn't trade for anything. I'd be lying if I said it was easy to focus on the finish line for 54 straight days. Our methods may not be realistic in your circumstances, but don't be afraid to bet on yourself and take reasonable risks to achieve debt freedom. It may be uncomfortable, even scary,

[00:06:05] but it's worth noting that sometimes the biggest risks are those which you don't take. Living frugally did not come natural to us. Each day was a new battle which tested our resolve. But we were willing to do nearly anything to break free from our debt as soon as possible. In the darkest moments, our vision for a better future was what kept us moving forward. You just listened to the post titled

[00:06:33] How We Paid Off $17,000 Plus in Student Loan Debt in Just 54 Days by Dave Cahill with JackieBeck.com Most of us have a clear picture of how work should get done and almost no visibility into how it's actually happening. We've all sat in meetings where decisions about what to fix or automate can come down to gut feel because nobody had real numbers. And the traditional fix, interviews and months of process mapping, is outdated before it's finished.

[00:07:01] That's exactly what today's sponsor Scribe was built to solve. Scribe Optimize passively captures how your team works across approved business apps, following workflows even when they jump between tools, and turns it into a live dashboard. Not last quarter's report, but what's happening right now. It automatically surfaces your biggest inefficiencies and gives AI-powered recommendations with estimated time savings built in. And user-level data is anonymized by default,

[00:07:29] with sensitive info redacted and never leaving your firewall. That kind of visibility used to take months. Now it's just always on. To see Optimize in action, visit scribe.how slash OFD and mention OFD for a 30-day risk-free trial. That's S-C-R-I-B-E dot how slash OFD. Google is offering free AI training and tools to U.S. small businesses

[00:07:56] so they can innovate in ways both big and small. Built by Google experts, the Google AI Professional Certificate equips small businesses with practical AI skills. Through hands-on projects, they can start using AI to get more done and unlock new opportunities for their business. This is a new era of American innovation. Find out more at grow.google slash business. Reading this article was like a trip down memory lane

[00:08:25] because getting out of debt has been the best part of my financial journey. I made my last payment on August 16th, 2016. And I know this because a friend of mine made a video of me sending off the final payment and documenting how I felt about it. I look like I'm high in this video. I'm so overjoyed. If you want to see the exact moment of debt freedom, just Google The Day Diania Merriam Paid Off 30 Grand of Debt. Embrace yourselves, my friends. Getting out of debt takes a lot of hard work

[00:08:55] and the weight off your shoulders is well worth the effort. The process helped me learn to live within my means and solidify the frugal habits that still serve me today. Someone mentioned to me recently that they were thinking of selling some of their investments to enable them to get out of debt quicker. I'm sure there are scenarios where this might make sense, especially for high interest debt. But I wondered how this might affect this person's ability to stay out of debt. Debt repayment is typically the first order of business when cleaning up our finances,

[00:09:25] and it can set the stage for all of our other financial wins. The experience of ticking away at that debt over time allows us to get used to living below our means, and that's the skill we need to make sure we don't get back into debt. But that'll do it for today. Thank you for listening. Have a great rest of your day, and I'll see you on tomorrow's show, where optimal life awaits.