As of today, I've paid off 20% of my student loans!
And because of the way amortization works, time-wise I'm much beyond 20% done! In fact, a quick check of an amortization calculator shows that I'm....over 22% done!
If I do have a mortgage by the time my loans are paid off, I will look into the possibility of selling my house and then renting somewhere, just for a month or so, just so I can be debt-free ONCE in my life.
yeah. i googled/wikipedia-d to figure out what amortization was. and i still don't exactly get it. i guess because i'm still debt-free? do all my be-debt-ed peers understand this? i guess i'll need to?
Briefly: When you pay down a debt, you pay the same amount each month until you're done. At the beginning, there's a lot of interest generated each month, because your principal is high, so your payment goes mostly to interest and only a little bit toward principal. Toward the end, your principal is much lower, so there's not much interest generated each month, so most of your payment goes toward actually paying down the principal.
I know, still doesn't make that much sense. You have to stare at it awhile.
Good for you, Desh! Charley and I have a combined REALLY big amount of student loan debt and are hoping to have it all paid off in the next three years- that's three (not thirty) saving thousands of dollars in interest. When we sell our house in Baltimore (in 4+ years) we will be completely debt free! Of course, it means making payments with four figures instead of three :)
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(Of course, by the time I pay off student loans I'll probably have a mortgage and oh god we're all going to be in debt forever, aren't we?)
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I know, still doesn't make that much sense. You have to stare at it awhile.
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