In 2012, fresh off my bachelor's and 30 grand in the hole, I took a job unloading semi trucks in a warehouse. I paid on my loans diligently for 8 months, only to find my balance hadn't moved. Even worse, it had grown. My minimum payment wasn't even covering the interest!

To work in psychology, a master's degree is the minimum entry point. So, I deferred the loans, went to grad school, and dug another 20 grand deeper. A professional degree and real opportunity ahead, I took my first job in a public school making $43k per year. This was a drastic departure from the 12k I was making as a graduate assistant, I thought I'd struck gold!

Immediately after that job offer, I went and got myself a brand new car lease and some shiny new guitars, on credit of course. I worked hard to get here. I deserved it. And with my new found psychologist job, I started to consume information about what to do with more money than I'd ever made before - pensions, investments, vacations - I listened to every podcast, read dozens of books, just hoarded information. In 2018, I realized that the mileage limit on my lease would be significantly over, so I made a deal to trade it in, roll the overage balance to my new car, and drive off with something that wouldn't restrict my travel - this is a must for any school psychologist.

By 2020, and now with a $52,000 student loan balance, I thought the PSLF program was the way out - work full time for 10 years in my job, loans gone. I'm 4 years into my professional role now, minimum payments made - still no movement on the balance, but that's ok, the government will wipe them out in another six years.

Read the fine print. The program was a disaster, eligibility disputes, failed forgiveness, income limits, a single missed payment could derail 10 years of work. Someone surely was going to fix this. Years of forgiveness and cancellation promises, legal proceedings, politicking at its finest. I watched for years, the epiphany slowly dawning....no one was coming to save me...and the loans were my responsibility. I also saw that it limited my opportunity. If I wanted to be an administrator, the salary increase would significantly increase my minimums, so much so that the standard repayment plan would have them gone before the forgiveness kicked in. If I wanted to take a job in the private sector, I'd lose eligibility. I was chained to this balance.

Then the COVID shutdown paused life...and interest accrual. I waited a little longer, but I knew the opportunity was there. My car's value increased due to the supply chain shortage, so I sold it, paid off my car balance, then bought a cheaper car with cash - car payment gone in March 2021.

I married my wife in the summer of 2021 and with her on board, I now had a cannon, not a pistol. We took everything we had and aggressively fired away, it was gone before I knew it. Almost $53,000, gone in six months. I thought it would take me a decade. I still have my "paid in full" letter. The relief was immeasurable, the burden just...gone. Every subsequent news story about the student loan fiasco simply didn't matter to me any more.

In our marriage, we've aligned our financial picture with what truly matters to us - that meant freedom and autonomy; then ruthlessly drove toward that end.

Since then, we've had two more children, we purchased a new car and paid it off within a year, I earned a doctorate out of pocket, eliminated her $43,000 student loan balance, purchased two rental properties, and have consistently grown our net worth.

With a household of seven people, we never made more than $120k per year. We're not super rich, but we've aligned our values with our financial goals and acted purposefully, one deliberate decision at a time.