Free From My Student Loans!

A little while ago, I tweeted that I paid off my student loans. I don’t know if this post will be useful to anyone, but here’s how I did it.

I just paid off all of my student loans. I AM FREEEE OMG pic.twitter.com/OgMcPe054Q

— rose🌹 (@melo__nsoda) February 15, 2022

I have two university degrees (one was 4 years and the second was 2 years) and graduated with a debt of $31,827.00. My parents contributed a portion of it through RESP (Registered Education Savings Plan). Otherwise, my debt probably would have been around 50k.

Another thing worth mentioning is that I commuted four hours each school day (2 hours each way) because I live far from the university. I chose not to live on campus because I didn’t want to increase my debt.

I paid off almost 32k in 15 months.

Right before I entered the repayment period, I paid off $10,000 from my savings. I’ve worked part-time jobs since graduating grade 12. In my final year of university, I had three part-time jobs so I had saved up some money. I paid off 10k right off the bat because it would make interest payments a lot easier.

However, I wish that I had started to pay off my student loans when I was still a student. If I had started budgeting really early on, I probably have would have paid off a significant portion of my loans before my graduation date.

I graduated in 2020, back when COVID was still relatively new. After five months of making repayments, the Government of Canada canceled interest payments because of COVID. However, this is temporary so my goal was to finish paying my loans before interest payments returned. Instead of making the minimum payment of $250-350, I made bigger payments like $1000, 2000, or 3000 a month whenever I could.

The biggest thing that helped with repaying my loan was living with my parents. I still live with them. Rent is really expensive in Vancouver, and I have a good relationship with my family so there was just no big reason to move out.

Another thing that helped was that I was super, super serious about paying my student loan debt as soon as I could. It was probably my main focus and goal at the time. That being said, I made sure not to splurge. Well, it’s not in my personality to spend a lot of money in the first place. That’s just not who I am. However, knowing that I had debt made me feel even more so because I felt really poor. “The money in my bank account does not belong is me” is how I felt the entire time. I think that this attitude helped a lot.

My debt wasn’t too large, though I think the average student loan debt for a Bachelor’s degree is 30k. It was manageable, and I feel lucky that I can live with my family. Although living in a pandemic sucks, I didn’t have to pay interest for almost a year which was really beneficial to me.

Present day

Now that I am debt-free, I am planning to open a TFSA but that’s another story (Probably should have done this earlier, to be honest). What I want to say is that my spending habits haven’t changed at all. I record everything I spend in a notebook and calculate how much I spend every week and month. I prefer writing it out but Excel spreadsheets are probably more efficient, haha.

I don’t have a budget, and I don’t really limit myself from spending. I will buy a bubble tea if I want it. However, I just don’t spend that much money so I don’t really see a need to budget right now. If my spending over a certain period was higher than an amount I’m comfortable with, then yes I would absolutely budget. Keeping track of my spending is more about knowing how much I’m spending and where that money is going.

This was kind of a personal post but I don’t mind sharing. I think I’m pretty open in general so I hope that at least one person finds this helpful.

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Thanks to my boyfriend for the congratulatory gift.

How I Stay Focused Throughout the School Term

A lot of people seemed to like my Study Tips & Uni Advice post so I decided to blog about school again! I’m currently doing a Social Work degree at UBC, so I’m taking five courses while doing a practicum. I can still blog and watch anime because I usually finish all my assignments early.

1. Use a calendar to record all your due dates and make a to-do list. Check these very regularly! 

I try to minimize my to-do list all the time because I know that it will get longer. If I see that I have a lot of due dates in the next couple of weeks, I start working on my assignments whenever I have free time. Thinking about the future will help you to not procrastinate. I don’t mean, think about your future career because that is a long time. Instead, think about your future weeks and how tired or stressed you might feel if you procrastinate now.

More importantly, I think the key to not procrastinate lies within your habits. Working on assignments early is a simple task for me because it’s so ingrained in my daily routine. It doesn’t take much willpower. It just happens on its own.

2. Self-care is super important. 

Taking care of yourself physically and emotionally is important because if you are sick or feel a lot of stress, it will be harder to focus on school. To a lot of people, self-care is jogging or doing some sort of exercise that makes them feel good. Honestly, exercise just makes me tired and I don’t enjoy it at all. Self-care really differs from person to person. To me, self-care is watching anime and getting a lot of sleep. Watching anime is not a waste of time if it helps you relax or take your mind off of school work. We all know that self-care is important, but also understand that it will look different for every person.

3. Understand what your priorities are. 

I prioritize school, doing a good job at practicum, and this blog. When your priorities are clear, it’s easier to say “no” to procrastination with your inner voice.

4. Live a fulfilled personal life, while maintaining balance with your school life. 

My personal life consists of being a cosplayer and blogger, and eating foods with friends. These are important to me because if my identity was only tied to being a student, that would be a very sad life. Your hobbies, interests and friendships give you more purpose and you’ll have fun outside of school.

It’s dangerous when you focus too much on your outside interests and not enough on school, so always do self-reflection and think about these different roles.

I write myself letters whenever I feel dissatisfied with my life, and I make an action plan on the things I can do to immediately change my current situation. It’s generally pretty effective. Take comfort in knowing that no one will read these letters except for you, so there’s no need to filter your thoughts! Be as vulgar, petty, or shallow as you wish, given that you do some reflection afterwards. 🙂

5. Know your self-worth. 

I feel like I am going off-topic but this is also related at the same time because if you feel good about yourself and view yourself as a person of value and importance, you might not procrastinate as much. I feel that often times, procrastination stems for feelings of insecurity or dissatisfaction with some aspect of life.

Every person is important and every life matters. Your grades are NOT an indicator of your worth as a person. Please don’t let negative thoughts get the better of you. Each day is a new day, full of possibilities.

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Every person is different, so maybe just one thing on this list will help you. Maybe all five are helpful, or maybe none at all. I also procrastinate sometimes. However, when I do, I forgive myself and move on. It rarely happens but I’m only human.

School Update + Gifts from Moya

As some of you guys know, I graduated in May 2018 with my Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. I am back in school now, doing my second degree in Social Work. I still attend the University of British Columbia, which was my top choice because I can commute from home and I have friends there.

I’m done my first week and I’m enjoying it a lot. I want to become a social worker, and I feel really good and confident about this decision. 🙂 It’s a two-year program and I have all my classes with the same 50~ classmates.

I had lunch with Moya on campus today and she gave me gifts! These are gifts from her Taiwan trip. I love stickers – I stick them on my transit card, notebooks, electronic devices, and letters I write to friends. I also love No Face from Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away, so I really like the No Face pen. Lastly, I got bubble tea flavoured chocolate. I’ve never seen that before and I love bubble tea. Thank you, Moya! ❤

I graduated!

As some of you know, I studied at the University of British Columbia in British Columbia, Canada. I am from BC and I finished my Bachelor’s degree in four years. I majored in Psychology and I will be continuing my studies at UBC because I was accepted into the Social Work program.

I do feel proud of myself because I graduated at the age of 21 by taking a full course load. I started university right after high school and you need a high average to get in. The Social Work program was competitive as well and the interview was three hours! Anyways, that’s enough bragging. I have bragging rights on my own blog, right? Right??

I wore my Kiki’s Delivery Service dress from my cosplay.

I like how the horns come out of the graduation cap. Thanks friends for the anime figures!

Thanks R for the flowers, card and presents! The graduation mug is very practical.