I spent 20 years and nearly $100,000 paying off my student loans. I’m done just in time for my youngest to start college.

Pluto had just been downgraded to a dwarf planet.

I was obsessed with my Motorola Pebl flip phone and iPod.

It was also the year I started paying down my student loan balance after completing my MBA.For 20 years, this student loan was a constant in my life, a staple of my monthly budget.

It was older than my youngest child, and it was tied to a career I left in 2023.Finally paying it off in 2026 was a moment that I couldn't even fathom in 2006.After earning my bachelor's degree, I landed an entry-level communications job at a large public company.

I was young and determined — a single mom making about $30,000.After a year, that salary increased to around $36,000, but I was eager to get promoted and make even more money.

A manager gave me some advice: I would need a master's degree to have any hope of moving up.

I listened and started grad school in 2003.Three years later, I had my MBA and a bill for over $69,000.

This was the combined total of my $20,000 in unsubsidized undergrad and over $49,000 subsidized grad-school loans.At the time, that was a terrifying amount.

After all, it was more money than I had ever made in a year.But that manager was right.

Getting my MBA was the key to getting promoted, which happened in 2006 when I landed a new job with a better title at a new company.

My salary and bonuses greatly increased.The amount of my payment that applied to interest varied greatly over the 20 years it took to repay my debt.I had a standard consolidated 30-year loan.

My first loan payment was in December of 2006, and the automatic payments I set up would continue until November of 2036.

Every single month, $345.19 was deducted from my checking account.The first two payments went entirely toward interest, which was hard to stomach.

Over the years that shifted to about 50/50 principal and interest, and then the interest got lower and lower.When my oldest son graduated from college in 2022, and I was no longer giving him money for school, I was able to make extra payments and put a portion of my annual bonuses toward my loan repayment.

I was determined not to be paying my student loans into my mid-50s.I paid off the loan in early 2026.

Rather than the estimated $108,000, the total amount paid was $98,442.88.

It worked out to be $69,928.46 in principal and $28,514.52 in interest.My life changed enormously in the 20 years I had been paying off my student loans.

I got promotions, changed companies, and helped my son and three stepchildren get through college, all while paying my own student loans.I made a career change in 2023 and walked away from marketing and Corporate America — the reason I had gone to grad school in the first place.

But every monthly student loan payment was a reminder of the investment I made in a career I no longer wanted.

Some days, I felt irresponsible, paying for this degree I wasn't really using anymore.And now, two major life changes — my youngest graduating from high school and my husband retiring — are giving me more time and headspace to do something in addition to being a travel writer, the job I left my marketing career for a few years ago.

Yes, I'm considering adding some more lines to my résumé.A few days after making that final payment, I received an email from the lender congratulating me that my student loan was paid off.That was the moment it sank in.

This thing that had been a constant in my life for over 20 years — through a second child, promotions, writing a book, even making a career change — is now done.Paying off my student loans freed me from feeling an obligation to a career path I no longer want to pursue.

Finally, my thoughts about what I want to do next changed.Celebrating over coffee with my youngest, they shared what they think I should do next: teach.

I might give that a try.Time will tell what this next chapter will bring, but I'm glad my student loans won't be following me.