(As a side note, I’m thankful that I cashed out of the stock market when I did because about 3 months later the market crashed. I probably would have lost 30-50% of that money. Now I make very conservative investment choices).

We were able to pay it off by selling both of our cars and instead of saving a lot of money every month we put it all toward my debt. In addition, I was hardly making any money through my 401k and decided to cash it out. That was about $10,000 and I applied it all toward my student loans while I was in school. You can withdrawal money from your 401k and put it toward student loan debt, without penalty, ONLY if you are in school. However, you still have to pay taxes on that amount. (As a side note, I’m thankful that I cashed out of the stock market when I did because about 3 months the market crashed. I probably would have lost 30-50% of that money. Now I make very conservative investment choices).

Only after our debt was paid, did we start saving money for a rainy day. Also, Logan has not accrued any student loan debt for his PhD program. His education has been funded through teaching on on the side, fellowships and scholarships.

Essentially we followed the program laid out in Your Money or Your Life.

I wish you the best.

I’m currently going down a very similar path with my wife and 3 month old son. We moved to DC from Virginia, sold our car and rent out a small apartment that is affordable with just my income. I find that it is still going to be very difficult to pay down our student loan debt. My wife and I both have bachelor’s degrees and I have a masters. The forecast is about a 30-year payoff on our current payment plan. I also noted that Logan is getting his PhD, which is a lot of more loaned money.

I’m just wondering how they got themselves out of the 30K debt in such a short time. Seems like a lot of educated folks like us will have considerable difficulty truly becoming debt-free with the crushing costs of student loans and the continuing decline and interruption of income.

Be well!

Cheers,
Logan.