Student Loan Payoff

[Frugal]

I would personally pay off the student loans as quickly as possible. This is what I am doing. I will not take out any personal loans or debt for the rest of my life, after the horrible, lingering experience of trying to pay off student loan debt. Unfortunately, for most people who are married, if one spouse wants to get a house and take out a mortgage, you don't have an option of paying 100% for a house...if you are single, maybe you can decide! Lol.

I do not know anyone, wealthy or not, who paid for their house in full. And I have friends of the family who are millionaires, and they did not even put down that much. We put down around 20%, and actually I think it was slightly over that. It was a tremendous sacrifice even for that much, and wiped out our savings over the past year, but at least we could put down that much. I think if you were able to put down even 50%, you might really feel it hurt your general living budget for at least that first year after buying. We bought our first house ten months ago, and we have still not recovered financially, and it will take years to build up our savings again to anywhere near what we had when renting. That being said, it was something we had to do, because rent was higher than a house payment and going up a LOT.

If you make enough to put 100% down on a house, more power to you! Don't think we will ever be able to, or most of our friends/family...

[jasminhatcher]

Debt free by 27? Good for you! It’s awesome to see young people who have their finances sorted, and live beyond the typical moment to moment, instant gratification trend.

[dczech09]

Just a quick up date: I've built up my emergency fund to $2,000, am setting money aside for retirement, have Christmas money saved, and am now planning in my budget to put a bit towards my loans too. I'm attacking multiple things at the same time. At the rate I am moving, I will be debt free by 27, have a fully funded emergency fund, and a healthy retirment savings. Let the good times roll!