The radiator in my old bedroom clanks twice every morning around six, the same way it did when I was in high school. I'm 25 now, I have a full-time job and a car, and I'm writing this at the desk where I used to do algebra homework. There are still glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling. I've decided to leave them.
My name is Megan Wilson. I live in my parents' house in Wilmette, just north of Chicago, with my mom, my dad and Juno, a black Lab mix who believes every door that opens is about him. I moved back in July 2024, and this blog is my way of making sure the move counts for something.
The numbers, all of them
I'm putting every number up front, because the whole point is to stop being vague about money. As of this week:
- Student loans: $24,600 left, out of $31,400 I borrowed for college
- Credit card: $2,350, at 27.24% interest
- Emergency fund: $1,800
- Credit score: 668
- Paycheck: $1,342 every two weeks, after taxes and my 401(k)
I went to Illinois State in Normal and graduated in May 2022 with a degree in Health Information Management. Since August 2022 I've worked as a medical billing specialist at an outpatient practice group with offices in Skokie. I work claims, chase denials and talk to patients about their balances. It's a good job, and it pays $46,500 a year.
How I got here
The short version: I had a cushion of time and I didn't use it. Federal student loan payments were paused for most of my first year out of school, and payments didn't start for me until October 2023. I knew that was coming. I could have been putting money aside the whole time. Instead I signed a lease in Rogers Park with my college friend Tess, a two-bedroom a few blocks from the lake, and lived like the pause was a raise.
That year built the credit card balance. Takeout, a couch, a lot of rideshares home. Then in November 2023, in the second month of actual loan payments, I missed one. I hadn't set up autopay, I thought I had another week, and I was wrong. It went on my credit report as a 30-day late payment, and it's a big reason my score sits at 668 instead of somewhere nicer.
When our lease ended in June 2024, Tess moved to Minneapolis and I had a choice: find a new roommate and keep going, or go home and fix things. My dad didn't make a speech. He just said the room was still there and the furnace still works. I moved back that July.
I'm not going to pretend living with my parents at 25 feels great every day. Some nights it feels like I took a step backward. But my rent in Rogers Park was $925 for my half, before utilities and internet, and now I chip in at home instead. My parents never asked for rent. We're going to sit down and make my share official soon, because I want it to be a real number I pay, not a favor.
What I'm doing about it
The plan is simple, even if it won't be fast. First, the credit card, because 27.24% is the most expensive money in my life and nothing else makes sense until it's gone. Then the student loans, as hard as I can while I'm living cheaply. My loans are six federal loans on the standard plan, and right now I pay about $330 a month plus whatever extra I can find. The minimum would take years I don't want to spend on this.
At the same time I want the emergency fund to grow, slowly. $1,800 is better than nothing, but my car is a 2012 Corolla with 118,000 miles on it, and I know what that means.
I also do some pet sitting and dog walking for neighbors, mostly people who know my mom from the village library where she works. It's a small side income and it all goes toward the plan.
I keep a spreadsheet I call the club sheet. It started as a list of balances and has turned into the place where I check whether I'm actually doing what I said I'd do. Writing it here, in public, with real numbers, is the next step. It's harder to fudge a number when someone might read it.
This isn't advice. I'm not a financial professional, I'm someone who works in medical billing and made some expensive mistakes in her early twenties. What I can offer is the honest version: what I paid, what it cost, what worked and what didn't. If you're sitting in a childhood bedroom of your own doing the same math, I hope it helps to see someone else's numbers.
Next up, I'm putting all six loans into one sheet and figuring out what they cost me every single day. I suspect I won't like the answer. The radiator just clanked again, so I'm going to call that a sign to get started.
