Around 8 months ago we finally got serious about building our net-worth. We had been out of university a few years, lived in high-rises downtown, taken exotic trips, and lots of fun. However, our net worth was still negative by quite a bit. At this point we were not following a budget, and not aggressively going after our debt.
The conversation that started it all went something like this:
- Reaching FI: Income wise we do quite well for our age, but our net worth is still terrible. Do we want to retire and travel?
- Spouse: Good point, and yes I love to travel!
- Reaching FI: Well, I’m concerned we will be too old by the time we retire
- Spouse: Let’s look into refinancing our student loans and paying them off
- Reaching FI: *Googles refinancing student loans and learns of SOFI*, applies, and sees considerable rate decrease, gets spouse to apply as well
- Reaching FI & Spouse: Accept SOFI quote and refinance with them
In the end we managed to reduce our interest rates by a couple percentage points cumulative, and get my spouse out of some nasty variable interest student loans.