Goodbye Student Loan Payments

Getting rid of my student loans was more anticlimactic than I thought it would be.

I wasn’t really expecting fireworks or a flood of invitations to exclusive clubs or anything like that. I thought there would at least be a note of congratulations from the student loan company, though.

For the past six and a half years, student loans have weighed on my mind whenever my thoughts turn to finances. I calculated how long it would take to pay them off, how many months a little extra each month would knock off, what I might do when the debt was gone. There was a certain bittersweet feeling even then; each payment was a little more distance from the college days, covering a certain portion of that time, literally putting paid to periods that gradually grew from classes to semesters to years.

Considering some of the figures I’ve heard from friends, it could certainly have been a much larger burden and the interest rate of four percent wasn’t too onerous (especially considering that these interest payments counted toward whatever tax rebate I got each year). But I still looked forward to the day when the first of the month would arrive and the rent payment would be the only one to make.

The loan's payment history reads like a personal rendition of one of those giant tree slices the science museums put up with markers of historic events. There’s the point where I got my first job and was able to ramp up payments. There’s where I bought a car and had to scale them back. There’s the last of the car payments and, soon after, the move to Connecticut.

My last payment is more of a reflection of the still struggling economy. I started putting aside a good deal of my savings in a certificate of deposit a few years ago to capitalize on the higher interest rates. But with mortgage rates still so low, the bank is keeping CD interests even lower. When I went in earlier this month to check rates and roll over the CD, the three-month one didn’t even have a better rate than a standard savings account.

At that time, I had calculated that my month-to-month payments would knock out the student loans in the summer of 2014. But with such miserable CD rates, another choice opened up. Either I could go through with putting a chunk of my savings account into the CD and enjoy a few extra dollars in interest each month, or I could put it toward the loan and free up a few hundred dollars in income each month.

Pretty simple choice, right?

It was still a somewhat nerve-wracking one. The final payoff was nearly as much as the down payment I made on my car. Even the process itself was enough to raise anxiety. The loan company confirmed the transaction. The bank recorded the withdrawal of funds. And for a seemingly lengthy period of time, though it was probably only a day, the loan company didn’t record it in the payment history.

And then I logged in to check for the umpteenth time and saw a beautiful sight. Loan status: paid in full.

The boilerplate e-mails confirming the transaction are the only ones recording this milestone. The more exultant feeling might kick in more with my next paycheck, which will mark the first bimonthly revenue where the loan company doesn’t get a cut.

It’s not the $300 million Powerball jackpot. But something tells me an extra $300 a month will be plenty gratifying.

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