Almost 5 Years Later: My Loan Is Still HUGE

I've been a PT almost 5 years now... The time has gone fast and life has taken me on a journey. I graduated, got a job, and worked hard. I paid extra on my loans for 2 years then I made the bold move of working for myself! I opened a small PT office in the town I grew up in. Things were going okay (not amazing but I was able to cover the basics and I continued to make minimum loan payments. Then Covid hit like an unexpected snowball to the face. Patients cancelled therapy and there were no new patients. The rug got pulled out from under me! 

So I closed up shop and took a 1099 (contract job) upwards of 1600 miles from where I was. The money was good and the thought of making some extra payments on my loan was enticing. At this point I have been doing this contract work for 6 months and starting to chip away at my loan with small extra payments. 

I used to have the mentality that I can't do anything until my loan is paid off but at the moment I have come to terms that I will just keep chipping away a little bit at a time and keep living live. This doesn't mean that every once in a while I don't freak out about the sum but for the most part I just try to forget about it and just understand it is part of my budget for the foreseeable future. It's not really how I thought things would go but plans change.

If I allow the loan to paralyze me with fear and anxiety that I am chained to it for years and years to come. The fact of the matter is for now I am tied to the loan but I have to live life. I have a family to raise. Having 5 kids and a wife I just can't say sorry family we are going to move to a one room studio apartment for years to come so I can pay down my loan. So I will continue to budget and pay down the loan as best I can. I surely will shave some time off but I guess I am not going to be the story you see on Yahoo! News about getting my loan paid off in an incredible period of time. I can only imagine what the headline would say if an article was written about me... Guy Pays Off 185K In 27 Years: How He Did It. 

When it comes down to paying down your loans find a plan that is realistic and stick to that plan. We'll make it through the next couple of decades together. 

Join the journey with me! Leave a comment and let me know where you're at in the process.