Student Loan recap

There were two different student  loans.

Each with wildly different interest rates.

One was federal, one was not.

I will admit I was stupid when I was signing up for student loans.

I knew there was no way our budget could stretch to the entire tuition price for Chamberlain College of Nursing.

I took out loans.

$21,000 to be precise.

And while I was in school I was not smart about paying interest every month.

I may have just been trying to survive this new online education thing.

Toward the end of the BSN program I wised up and started paying for interest.

After the end of my BSN classes I knew I was going to go to Queens for my MSN.

And I did.

But I wasn’t smart enough yet.

So I took out a second set of student loans.

This brought my total to $29,000 before I started to pay for each quarter out of pocket.

In the background was me paying off three credit cards with a combination of tax returns, tuition reimbursement, and clinical ladder money.

I looked at my students loans and decided to keep paying the interest payment on the one with the smaller interest rate. And to double down on paying down the one with the higher interest rate with as much money as I could. This was helped by paying off all the credit cards. Twenties gets most everyone.

I paid that one off in November of 2019.

This left me with a balance of just over $20,000.

And I set my eyes on paying off the other student loan. I had a lofty goal of paying the entire shebang off by the time I graduated.

I was going to use a combination of our yearly bonus, my clinical ladder money, and the $6,000 in tuition reimbursement for 2019 and 2020.

And then Covid happened.

Well hell.

Clinical ladder was suspended.

All the money I had paid for my AORN conference had already been  paid out.

Nearly $2,000.

All the money had been paid for my graduation trip to London, all $14,000 had been spent. This is going to be pushed back a year.

The hospital still received our yearly bonus and I put that money toward the student loan.

The 2019 tuition reimbursement paid out in February and I held on to that money, just in case the economy did something stupid, including my job or my husband’s job.

And I had heard something about student loan forgiveness for front line workers.

Yeah, right.

I have submitted my tuition reimbursement for this year. It was a day late, I hope I am not penalized for not paying attention to the timing because after I graduated George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis.

And the Black Lives Matter movement began to heat up.

And it was Pride month and I am a proud Ally.

Regardless I submitted my tuition reimbursement  for 2020.

They are accepting Clinical Ladder applications again.

I will be submitting my 2020 clinical ladder application in three days.

My current student loan debt is at $14,499.

Between the clinical ladder money and the tuition reimbursement and a little extra it should be covered.

I should have my remaining student loan paid off by September or October.

I’m still holding on to the 2019 tuition reimbursement money.

July, I’ve got my eye on you.