I mailed a huge check to the US Department of Education Friday, paying off my last student loan. Which means that I am completely debt free. No loans. No credit card debt. Nothing.

I paid for 8 of the 9 semesters it took me to graduate myself with loans. My mom and grandparents helped me out a long the way, and my mom paid the interest on my loans while I was in school, but the majority of that cost was all on me.

I worked in corporate real estate right out of college and made a huge salary I hardly spent. At the time I wanted to save up as much money as I could so I could open a yarn shop, and over the 2 years I worked there I saved around $36,000. I invested a lot of it, I put the rest in a money market account, and before the recession I was making more money off that money than the cost of my loan payments.

But when interest rates went down and you couldn’t find a good short term CD to save your life, and when I realized opening a yarn store wasn’t part of my life’s goals anymore, I started paying off my loans.

$12,000 last year. And $17,000 on Friday.

So here I am, at 26, owing no one in the world any money. Not my landlord, not my mom, not the US Department of Education, not any credit card company, not AT&T. I went to college and paid for the majority of it myself. I’ve had at least one job since I was 15 years old. I work hard at what I love, and I’m really proud of myself for all I’ve accomplished so far in my life.

But it’s kind of terrifying! Like I don’t exist. It’s so unnatural for someone to not be in debt that I feel uncomfortable. I should be expecting a call from Obama asking me to buy a car or something. But shouldn’t everyone’s goal to be debt free? Shouldn’t I be pumped instead of feeling like I’m going to be in trouble? Has American excess been embedded so deeply into my brain at even without practicing it it’s part of my life?

Related Sweatshop Love:

  • No Related Post