Another one bites the dust.

Happy Friday! Oh man, it is a GREAT day. I have amazing news to share! Tyler and I have officially PAID OFF OUR STUDENT LOANS! Woooohooooo!! :) :) :) I can hardly believe it. I've been dreaming of this day since my first payment came due in November 2011. But let me back up just a bit....

Tyler and I both graduated college with A LOT of student loan debt. I earned my Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University (Boiler Up!) and Tyler his Master of Science in Accounting from Ball State University (Chirp Chirp!). So while we are fortunate to have both gone to in-state schools, college is EXPENSIVE. To be honest, I'm just glad I was able to get such a great degree from a renowned university in only four years. I can't even imagine paying for graduate school on top of it all. Yuck.  Anyway, I was really lucky to earn several scholarships when I graduated high school to pay for my room and board freshman year, but those were a one-time only deal. I worked my sophomore through senior year to pay for my own housing, food, etc., and Tyler did much of the same. All of our tuition, on the other hand, was paid through loans.

Now don't get me wrong, I know neither of us could have landed the jobs we have without our education, but those monthly payments have been a real drag. I tried to make extra payments whenever I could, but sometimes stuff just comes up. You know.... like when my old car decided it had met it's last day so I had to buy a new one. Or when the cutest little house went up for sale and we couldn't pass it up! Oh, and then Tyler bought a new car. Basically, all of that happened within a 6-7 month span of time. I felt like I was spending money left and right. Who wants to spend their extra cash on silly student loans anyway? Oh, and on top of that, we decided to get married the following year and spend two weeks in Italy. So yeah. I guess that's just LIFE!

Well, let's fast forward to this past October 2014. We had recently celebrated our one year wedding anniversary and Tyler started a brand new job. Lot's of changes were in the air. We went on a super long walk one sunny Sunday afternoon and started talking about getting rid of our loans once and for all. We had both made a significant dent by that point, but we knew we still had a long way to go. What if we lived like poor college kids for a while and threw every extra penny at these silly loans? Could we pay them off in a year? Less? By Tyler's birthday in June? Yes. Let's shoot for that. June! We had 8 months to officially get these puppies paid off.

I won't go into the nitty-gritty details, but let me just say that the amount of money we have thrown at these loans over the past four months almost makes me sick to my stomach. But you know what? WE DID IT. In HALF the time, no less. I guess when you give us a challenge, we like to exceed even our own expectations. :) I'm SO PROUD of us. Now please excuse me while I try to find some spare change in the couch to "replenish" our savings account...