A 2020 Year In Review: How I Missed My Goal of Paying Down My Student Loans to Under Six Figures
I, like many other doe-eyed folks, looked forward to 2020 on NYE last year. I remember planning a low-key celebration since being in NYC during that time of the year can be chaotic and expensive. I decided last minute to watch the ball drop at a friend's house party while watching Meg the Stallion perform right before the ball dropped in Times Square.
Man, oh man, if I knew what 2020 had in store for the world, I would have stayed out later and had an extra glass of cheap champagne. Furthermore, I would have gravely altered my aggressive financial goals. I'm usually someone that takes the first 2-3 weeks of December to plan out what I want to accomplish for the year, well in advance of the New Year. I typically like to write out 1-2 goals across the areas in life that are important to me, like health/wellness, spirituality, and of course, finances.
I remember distinctly that one of my financial goals for 2020 was to get my student loan debt under the six-figure mark. If you recall my previous blog post from earlier this year (insert link here), I started with close to $150,000 in student loan debt after I graduated and have been aggressively trying to pay it off.
But I have to tell you that this is one of the goals that I wholeheartedly failed this year. Back in January, I had this grand plan on how I would slow down my long term savings plan and begin to use that money and apply it to my loans. After prior years of yo-yoing between paying off credit cards to then being back in credit card debt, I finally had a few months of living expenses saved and have been credit card debt free for the past seven years.
However, who knew that Covid-19 would disrupt all plans. As the pandemic continued and I went through countless late nights of reading and researching financial articles, I realized that having more available cash on hand would relieve some of my increasing money anxiety.
Also, since I was under the first anniversary in my current job, reducing my student loan debt didn't feel like a critical goal vs. having more robust savings if I was let go from my company. I should also mention that I was one of the many millennials who graduated from college shortly after the 2008 recession. Perhaps I have some residue fear from periods where I was unemployed and later underemployed.
I can be honest and say that it sucked not to hit the mark on this financial goal. For years, I've imagined what my life would look like without my massive student loan payments. And after all the budgeting, savings, and a general increase in financial literacy, having my loans under that amount would have felt like crossing the first mark in a long debt-free marathon. But more importantly, I think about the future ways I will use those monthly debt payments. Such as investing more heavily into organizations that support BIPOC, actively participating in real estate, and reaching my FI/RE goal quicker.
So last week, when I started to go down a spiral of regret regarding my former decision, I checked my email and, to my surprise, received a nice little note of congrats from my credit monitoring platform. Despite my moment of disappointment, I had managed to pay off 19% of my student loan debt this year. It was seeming timed perfectly, as I was going down the "what if" thought process.
I'll say that even if you missed the mark on a 2020 financial goal, you most likely made more progress than the alternative of not setting the goal in the first place. I think this is the year for giving yourself grace and the space to excel in some aspects and slowly move along in others.
How are you setting financial goals for 2021? What are some goals for 2020 that you missed but had progress?