To show how our Minters are achieving their financial goals, we’ve reached out to everyday Mint users like you to share their stories. Whether it is meeting an emergency fund goal or making progress on student loan repayment, we are inspired by the commitment you have shown to work towards your goals and dreams.
One of those mints is Kimberly, who shared how they use Mint to repay their student loans. Check out their # EmpowerMint story:
I joined Mint about a year and a half ago shortly after graduating from nursing school. Until my first job in nursing, I had only worked part-time, never stayed on a budget, and had hardly any savings. Since Nursing was my second degree, I raised a sizable amount of student loans ($ 118,973.64 to be precise). Without a thorough understanding of my finances, I always assumed that the loans would be easy to repay once I started full-time.
I never really understood the severity of the debt until I actually had to think about repaying it. When I finally calculated my full loan amount and started creating a repayment schedule, I was completely overwhelmed. I researched various personal financial instruments and found Mint based on a recommendation from a YouTube video and decided to give it a try.
Among other personal finance applications, I found Mint to be the easiest to use, and most importantly, it was free! Seeing my negative net balance on Mint was an eye opener. I felt so deep in a black hole full of debt and I really wanted to get out. How could I possibly create wealth and meet all of my life milestones when starting so deep in the negative? Mint provided me with the organization and planning tools I needed to get started, starting with a schedule for repaying my loan. I have allocated my funds accordingly via the budget function. After using Mint for a few months, I was able to use the trending feature to see where my money is going and identify areas where I could reduce spending.
One of my favorite Mint features that helps me meet my financial goals is seeing my weekly and monthly spending insights. I use these features, along with the information on the Trends page, to reflect on my spending. It’s difficult to stay on a 100% budget. So when I see how I’ve done it each month, I can better understand which spending areas I need to adjust or be more attentive to. Before using Mint, I allowed a lot of “small” transactions that weren’t included in my budget. I am definitely more aware of the implications of these small transactions now and think about them a lot before buying anything because I know I will be thinking about it at the end of the month.
A year and a half later, I’m still on my debt-free journey, but I really feel complete and refreshed knowing I am on the right track. To date, I’ve paid back about $ 30,000 in student loans. Mint has made it both easy and enjoyable to manage my finances and work towards paying back my student loans.
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Annemarie Belda (13 posts)
Annemarie Belda is the communications manager for Intuit Mint. She is passionate about helping readers achieve their financial goals from opening a savings account to achieving financial freedom.
