So in a recent post, I shared that I used the balance transfer method to transfer my Private Student Loan 1 balance to two of my credit cards, using a 0% interest for 12 months, balance transfer offer. I initiated that process this past Saturday and as of this morning, Wednesday, August 7th, I have transferred the funds in full to my student loan lender (I intentionally did not use the words “paid off” here as I didn’t payoff anything, I just reorganized my debt).

Private Loan 1 Balance (Paid to Student Loan Lender): -$9,817,69
Discover Card Balance: -$3,450.50
Citi Card Balance: -$6,695.00
Private Loan 1 Balance (After transfer to credit cards): -$10,145.50

If you read my post, you know that $295.50 of the balance increase resulted from the balance transfer fees. However, if you subtract $295.50 from the new balance, you would notice that there is still a small difference of $32.31. That difference was an overestimation on my part. Unfortunately, unlike a lot of lenders which allow you to get a payoff estimate, my student loan lender did not and I didn’t do the math. Ugh.

In any instance, I will make very little progress on this loan this month because I used the leftover from my August 1st salary (which wasn’t a full salary because I didn’t start at the beginning of the month) to finish cash flowing my moving/settling expenses (seriously, moving from literally one side of the country to another is not cheap). While it is disappointing that I won’t make much more progress on my student loans this month than the minimums, I knew this was a possibility and I’m grateful not to have had to go into debt or touched my emergency fund (look C, I can find a bright-side too!). So onto the revised, revised goals…

August 2019 Goal – My goal this month is to cover the cost of the balance transfer fees and, add the difference mentioned above, so that my balance on September 1st is the same or lower than the balance on August 1st. On September 1st, when I get my first full paycheck from my new job, I should be able to make the first really significant dent in this loan. My goal in August is also to find my first/initial side hustle. 

When checking my accounts this morning (I told you, I do this almost obsessively), I noticed that despite being a 0% for 12 months, 3% balance transfer fee offer, Citi said my offer end on 6/1/2020 (see below). While I have zero plans to have this debt lingering around that long, it did make me think more about how I should pay these two debts. While I initially thought I might pay the minimum on Citi and chuck everything at Discover, the smaller balance of the two, now I am not so sure. While Discover does have the smaller balance, their balance transfer doesn’t expire until 8/16/2020, two months later (again, even though I have every intention of having this paid off well before then, a buffer is always good).

Revised 2019 Private Student Loan 1 Goal – Payoff my Citi balance ($6,695.00). While it would be much easier to list the smaller debt as the goal, that wouldn’t really push me. I want something that is going to push me to hustle and sacrifice. It’s literally going to take everything I have and then some but I really want this for myself.

Okay. This should be the last post this week, I promise.