A Major Setback and a Small Step Forward

Here we go. Post #2 on our Student Loan Payoff Saga.

First: The Setback

We found out about 2 weeks ago that we will not be receiving loan repayment from the national loan repayment program. So, we will not be receiving any loan repayment for this year. This is a major setback in our plans/goal to be done with student loans by our 10th Anniversary. Yes, we can , and will, apply again next year. But, in the mean time, the next year looks a little grimmer.

The most frustrating part is that it might have been different. There is a big long story about what happened, but I will shorten it. An error was made on our application, after the time line to fix such errors. We did not make the mistake. We feel pretty sure that if the mistake had not been made, we would have received the loan repayment help we were counting on. We have called and emailed the national loan repayment office and have been told that there is nothing that can be done to fix the error now. We are just out of luck for this year and try again next year.

Since David did not receive any loan repayment this year, it is in his contract that the company he works for will add some income to his paychecks every month, which is great. Right now we aren't sure how much that will amount to, but unfortunately, it won't match up to the tax free loan repayment we were anticipating.

Second: The Small Step Forward

I finally got up the gumption to make our first large payment on some student loans. In my last post I mentioned planning to pay $10,000 right away. I didn't do all of that amount because we have had some expenses come up that I want to make sure we can cover before draining the rest of our savings. But, I was able to fully pay off the first few smallest loans. So, YAY! A small victory for us. Once I make sure the expenses are covered, I will pay off more.

Until next time...