Early last semester, I outlined an extremely ambitious financial goal for myself. With just under one year to work with, my goal was to not have to take out a private loan for the 2009-2010 school year. Nearly 7 months later, I figured I should give an update on how it’s progressing.
I’m managed to make some significant progress over the past half-year, closely following the plan I drew up last September. My small income while in school hindered me somewhat, but consistently saving seemingly small amounts adds up surprisingly fast. Pursuing this goal has only reinforced my fanatical obsession with funneling money into highly defined savings accounts on a regular basis.
Unfortunately, barring an unforeseen inheritance of other windfall between now and August, I will need private financing next year. As of now, I’ve saved about 35% of what I would need to completely forget about private loans. Given the price-tag of attending private college though, I don’t think that figure is too shabby.
Although I’m not technically going to succeed in achieving my goal, I certainly won’t consider it a failure. Had I not defined my desire to lessen the burden of college debt next year, I’d simply be waiting for the bill to arrive, complaining about the outrageous cost rather than proactively doing something about it. Now when my junior year’s tuition is due, it’ll be a huge relief to pay a good deal of it up front rather than financing my education almost entirely with borrowed money.
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