A Moment of Celebration.

Some of you might remember when I bought my car. I never gave it its own post, but I did mention that I’d bought my first car in this update about my life back in July of 2015. It was a big deal at the time. And really, it still is. I had to navigate that whole process by myself and it was scary and overwhelming and I made a mechanic tell me whether or not I should buy the car. He said I should- thanks for that advice, dude!

In the intervening two and a half years my car has served me well. I’ve driven it all over the country and it successfully brought me to work when I had to drive a half hour on the highway to get there. Now I mostly just drive within five miles of my house with it, but that’s cool too. It gets great gas mileage- my $25 tank fill up usually lasts me a week or more.

Anyway, the point of this post is to say that as of today

 I’ve got my car fully paid off! 

It is a good feeling. It took me two years and eight months (which is still two years and four months early, so that’s solid) but it is finally over.

Here's a picture of the receipt I got from my credit union after the teller transferred money onto my loan. (She circled the 0.00 balance for me haha)

I did all the math on my student loans earlier this month, too, and determined that I might be able to pay off all of my debt by the time I’m 29, which is kind of exciting. A few years ago I made a five year plan to pay off my car and my student loans and since I was 25 at the time, I figured I’d get it all paid off by 30 and was fairly excited about that. And now it seems I might actually get it done a year ahead of schedule.

Although things happen. The way I plan my life isn’t always how it goes and any number of things could derail my financial plans. Like if I want to move away to the California sunshine (which I DO), my living expenses will go up considerably. And then maybe I won’t be debt free by 29. But that’s okay. Also, I’m pretty sure that (barring long-term unemployment) I’ll definitely be able to pay it all off by the time I’m 30 even if I do move. And that’s a nice thought.

In other news, if you hadn’t already noticed: I am completely OCD about money and paying bills. COOL!