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Feature Friday: How I Crushed Over $200,000 in Student Loans

Last updated on September 5, 2018 By Millennial Boss 3 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which means I may receive a commission if you purchase through my links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

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My friend Emily made $375,000 on Etsy in her first 2 years selling digital products. She's a new coach in the E-Printables online course teaching you how to get started with this side hustle too. She's a mom of two kids and does this part-time. Join us?

My friend Emily made $375,000 on Etsy in her first 2 years selling digital products. She's a new coach in the E-Printables online course teaching you how to get started with this side hustle too. She's a mom of two kids and does this part-time. Join us?

Our guest today paid off over $200,000 of student loans. Crazy!

I know him as the personal finance blogger at Big Law Investor, where he shares money tips for high income professionals.

Read about how he paid off that crazy amount of debt below.

Have you paid off your student loans OR have your own business? Learn how to get featured on Millennial Boss Feature Friday.

BiglawInvestorProfile

Please tell us a little about yourself.

I am a lawyer and write over at the Biglaw Investor, a personal finance site mainly aimed at lawyers.

Related Post: How to Beat the Student Loan Debt Monsters

 

What was the total amount of debt and how fast did you pay it off?

I graduated law school with $191,984.91 in student loan debt (inclusive of all the interest I accumulated during school).

My firm also gave us a $10,000 “salary advance” because we didn’t start working until January of the following year, so by the time I pushed the elevator button to take me upstairs on the first day I owed a grand total of $201,984.91.

I paid it all off a little less than 6 years later but had achieved “net worth zero” after about 5 years.

 

Describe the moment you decided that enough was enough, you needed to pay off your debt.

I started to feel this way while still in law school.
When you have an aggressively growing six figure debt (this was before the refinance companies came on the scene, so I was paying 7-8% interest rates), you start to take notice.

 

How did you end up paying off the debt?

A lot of people might dismiss the debt payoff as a byproduct of having a high salary.

And while it definitely helps to be making six figures in your first job out of law school, it still takes an incredible amount of work to pay off the debt.

Persistence is the key and figuring out how to keep yourself happy while you grind through the payments is the challenge.

 

Did you have a plan for paying off your debt that didn’t work. Why did it fail?

No, my plan worked.

There were ups and downs though.

Some months I paid more and other months I barely made any progress.

You have to roll with the punches.

 

Can you describe a time where your friends, family or significant other challenged your plan to pay off your debt? How did you deal with it?

No. Everyone was very supportive.

 

Describe the moment that you made your last payment on your debt. When was it? What did it feel like?

I made my last payment on Christmas Day. I engineered the payoff plan so it would work like that. It feels amazing and anti-climatic at the same time.

For months you’ve been watching the debt whittle down to almost nothing, so by the time you pay it off it feels inevitable.

I’d say it only really hits you a couple of months later when you start having all this extra money coming in each month. That’s when you really know what it feels like to be debt free.

 

What’s next for you now that you are debt free?

The climb to my first million continues!

 

How a Lawyer Paid Off Over $200,000 in Student Loans

To learn more about his debt payoff story, check out Big Law Investor.

 

Millennial Boss Tip: We’ve helped over 100 readers refinance their student loans and recommend SoFi, which could refinance your loan and give you a lower interest rate. (I had a 6.8% interest rate on my student loans and could have refinanced for something much lower but I didn’t know about it at the time). This could save you thousands.
Fill out their quick questions here to see if you qualify for a better rate.

 

Related:

  • How I Paid off Over $89,000 of Debt in 18 Months
  • From Debt to a $200k Net Worth in 1 Year

 

Feature Friday: How I Crushed $200k of Student Loan Debt

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Julie paid off nearly $100k of debt and is on her way to financial independence. She is the creator of the Make Money with Printables side hustle course where she teaches people how to sell printables on Etsy and blog as a side hustle.
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Filed Under: Debt, Money

About Millennial Boss

Julie paid off nearly $100k of debt and is on her way to financial independence. She is the creator of the Make Money with Printables side hustle course where she teaches people how to sell printables on Etsy and blog as a side hustle.

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Comments

  1. Mrs. Adventure Rich says

    August 4, 2017 at 10:50 am

    Congratulations on the debt pay-off, Big Law Investor! I hear you about debt pay-off being both exciting and anti-climatic. I immediately realized the need for a “next goal” so I would keep motivated with my finances. Cheers!

    Reply
    • Josh @ Biglaw Investor says

      August 4, 2017 at 6:17 pm

      Thanks Mrs. Adventure Rich! Great point about needing the “next goal” – that happens to be exactly what I did too. And then when you hit that next goal, it’s a bit anti-climatic as well. So you set a higher goal!

      I don’t mean to sound all doom and gloom though. I think it’s important to understand that setting an audacious goal like paying off $200K in student loan debt feels exhilarating. The reality on the ground though is that you achieve these kind of things through a slow, steady and consistent approach to reaching your goal. So you’ve got to find the right balance between motivating yourself and finding a sustainable path.

      Reply
  2. Jeff - MaximumCents.com says

    August 4, 2017 at 4:27 pm

    I agree with paying off debt being anti-climatic. My student loan balance was in the 5 digits but I paid it off about 8 years early. It feels good knowing that I’m not wasting any more interest, especially since I was no longer getting the tax deduction. However, when it was first paid off it just felt like another task, not some huge accomplishment.

    Reply

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About Millennial Boss

Julie paid off nearly $100k of debt and is on her way to financial independence. She is the creator of the Make Money with Printables side hustle course where she teaches people how to sell printables on Etsy and blog as a side hustle. Learn more..

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Please note that Millennial Boss has financial relationships with certain merchants mentioned. Affiliate links may be used and commission earned in this post. While all attempts are made to present correct information, it may not be appropriate for your specific circumstances and information may become outdated. Copyright © 2021. All Rights Reserved.

About Millennial Boss

Millennial Boss is a lifestyle and personal finance blog created by Julie, who paid off six figures of student loan debt and is now on the path to financial independence and early retirement through side hustles. She lives in Seattle and teaches others how to start blogging and sell printables on Etsy.
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