Living the Debt-Free Life by 2017

“A man in debt is so far a slave.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Our lease is up in our Boston, MA apartment on April 30, 2016. Ariele, Rosie (our cat), and I are currently in the process of significantly paring down our possessions to comfortably fit in our tiny home on wheels. We started by taking a roll-call of all our belongings: furniture, kitchen supplies, clothing, personal items, etc. We made a list of items we plan to keep and items we plan to sell or giveaway. Our goal is to be less tied to “stuff” and more in tune with what really fulfills us. Ultimately, we will be left with only necessities and a few cherished items in our tiny home.

Through this process, we went through all of our bills and future expenses to see what needs to be done to live the debt-free life by 2017. We both live lifestyles that don’t exceed our means, but we still have student debt. We have a current combined student debt of $28,806.67.

We have carried this unwanted student debt baggage around for over five years... And while there have been spurts of aggressive attention devoted to it, such as paying off $15,000 in one year, we have been stuck in payment purgatory for the past few years, forking over about $500/month to MyFedLoan. The worst part is our payments don’t seem to make a dent in the overall amount. Our debt feels like Mount Everest and we’re making monthly day hikes. At this pace, it would take decades to reach the summit.

Our goal is simple; we want to live a life of freedom, one that’s free of monthly debt obligations. We put together a google spreadsheet of our monthly worth and tied it to expenses, with a major focus on paying down debt; over 50% of our earnings will join the ring to fight our student loan debt.

We understand our goal is aggressive to become debt free by the end of the year, but we’re in the mindset to make it happen because we’re excited about the outcome. The process will be a marathon, not a sprint. It will take committed conditioning and determination to stick to our plan; this way, we will overcome any unforeseen bumps and keep our eyes on 2017.