The October payment went out on the first, $550 on autopay, while I was standing on the Main Street platform waiting for a Purple Line train into the city to meet my brother for lunch. I checked the balance on the ride down. $7,140. I've been writing these numbers down since March 2025, and it felt like a good time to put them all in one place.
Eighteen months ago I was in my childhood bedroom with $24,600 to go. Now I'm in my own studio in Evanston, and I owe less than a third of that.
Every payment, by stretch
I won't list all nineteen payments one by one, because the pattern is easier to see in stretches. Here's what I paid and where the balance landed:
- March to May 2025: $330 a month, plus $150 extra in May once my credit card was gone. Total $1,140. Balance on June 1: $23,700.
- June to December 2025: $1,100 a month, plus a $1,100 lump from summer pet sitting in September and about $760 in smaller extras that fall. Total $9,560. Balance on December 31: $14,620.
- January to May 2026: $800 a month while I saved for the move, plus my $1,140 tax refund in February. Total $5,140. Balance on May 31: $9,740.
- June to October 2026: $550 a month since moving out. Total $2,750. Balance now: $7,140.
That's $18,590 paid in eighteen months. The balance dropped $17,460, so about $1,130 of it was interest. The 5.05% loan that started it all is long gone, and what's left are cheaper loans that I'm still working down in order, highest rate first.
Looking at that list, the June to December 2025 stretch is the one that did the most work. More than half of everything I've paid happened in those seven months. That was only possible because I paid my parents $300 a month instead of rent, and because my mom never once made me feel like a guest in my own old room.
I wasted the federal payment pause a few years ago, and I've been honest about that here. The way I see it, those months at home were my second chance at the same thing, and this time I used it. I'm not sure I'd have the emergency fund, the clean credit card or the studio without it.
What moving out changed
It slowed the loans down, on purpose. In January I cut my payment to $800 to build a move fund. In June, once rent started, I cut it again to $550. From June to December 2025 I averaged more than $1,300 a month, counting the extras. This stretch is $550 flat.
It also changed how money feels. At home, a surprise bill was annoying. Now, with rent at $1,295 and a $189 window air conditioner I didn't plan for in July, every surprise matters more. The emergency fund is at $7,400 and growing $250 a month toward a new target of $9,000, which is about three months of apartment costs. Some months that $250 feels like it should go to the loans. I've left it alone.
The new payoff date
At $550 a month, with rates that are all under 5%, I'm on track to make my last payment around November 2027. That's thirteen more months.
It could be sooner. I still walk dogs on weekends for two clients in Wilmette, and some months bring in more than the $250 I budget for. If I send the extra above that to the loans, plus any tax refund next spring, I think late summer 2027 is realistic. I'm not promising it. I'll check the club sheet every first of the month like I always do.
What I keep coming back to is how ordinary most of this was. No windfall, no big raise, no secret. Just a lot of first-of-the-month mornings, a planner full of crossed-out lines, and one stubborn spreadsheet.
My brother Nolan, who started his first real job in the Loop this summer, asked at lunch how long it took me to stop thinking about my loans every day. I told him I'll let him know. He paid for the sandwiches, which is a first. I wrote that down too.
