Even though I was aware of my student loans, I have just been keeping them in forbearance and/or deferment for the past few years. I had an epiphany last week when I received my interest capitalization. Even though I have made good progress paying down debt, my student loans were still accumulating interest so paying down the other debt was sort of counterproductive. So I redone my budget and made my first student loan payment. (I also redone my sidebar since the SL is my priority now.) I paid off $11,000 in cc debt the past two years so I know this can done in 4 years or less.

I am glad I sat down and looked at my student loans.

I have so much going on right now. In March I will be donating a kidney to a family member so I will be off a few weeks recovering. The month of May will be tight moneywise (actually every month is lol) but I will still try to pay $100 towards my SL.

OAN: I am down to $400 on my cc debt.

My cc debt is under the $1k mark. I actually owe $950 now. I hope to have it paid off by the end of March.


I set my mom's 2012 budget up. She has been begging me since the 1st of Dec. I have her set up to pay her HELOC off by Nov '12. Last year we focused on her CC. She paid them off in full and according to her budget. I have to give her credit that if I put the plan on paper she will follow it. I am going too really cheer her on to pay her HELOC this year. Then she will be left with her mortgage which I know she can pay off by 2015 (at age 58). Afterwards, hopefully she can spend the next 5 years aggressively saving for retirement.


Even though my mom has always had good credit and has always paid her bills on time, she has never been much of a saver. The past couple of years I have been talking to her more and more about retirement so she had been more interested in her finances. I am so happy to help her get ready for retirement.