The lease is signed. It's sitting in a folder on my desk with a sticky note on top that says "June 1" in my mom's handwriting, because she wanted to be the one to write it. In about six weeks I'll be living in a top-floor studio in south Evanston, and I'll be paying $1,295 a month in rent for the first time since Rogers Park.
Which means the loan payment has to change. Since January I've been sending $800 a month to my student loans while putting $900 a month into a move fund. Once I'm paying rent, that $800 doesn't fit anymore. Starting in June, it drops to $550.
How I picked $550
I didn't start with the loan number. I started with everything else and let the loans take what was left, with a cushion.
My take-home since the raise in March is $1,332 per paycheck, about $2,886 a month. I keep doing some weekend dog walking for two clients in Wilmette, which brings in roughly $250 a month after I set aside 25% for taxes. So I'm planning around about $3,136.
Here's the monthly budget I built for the apartment, before loans:
- Rent: $1,295 (heat and water included)
- Parking spot: $50
- Electric: about $38
- Internet: $55
- Phone line on the family plan: $35
- Car insurance, my own policy for the first time: about $130, based on my dad's guess
- Renters insurance: about $14, from the quotes I've gotten so far
- Gas for the car: $90
- Groceries: $260
- Emergency fund: $250
- Fun and eating out: $120
- Everything else: about $110
That comes to about $2,450. Subtract it from $3,136 and there's roughly $690 left. If I sent $800 to the loans, I'd be $110 short every month. If I send $550, I have about $140 of breathing room, which I want for the first few months while I find out what living alone actually costs.
The required minimum on my remaining loans is a lot lower than $550, so I could technically go down further. I don't want to. $550 keeps the loans moving at a pace I'm comfortable with, and it leaves the budget a little loose instead of a little tight.
What it does to my payoff date
My balance right now is a little over $10,400, and by the end of May it should be under $10,000. If I could keep paying $800 a month from June, the loans would be gone around the middle of 2027. At $550, the payoff moves to about November 2027.
So moving out costs me roughly five extra months of loan payments, plus some extra interest. My remaining rates are all under 5%, so by my club sheet the extra interest over those months is somewhere around $150. That's real money. It's also a lot less than I expected when I first sat down to do this math, half-convinced I'd have to give up on the loans entirely for a year.
Is this the right call?
I've gone back and forth. The rent is about 45% of my take-home, which is high, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. The general guidance is closer to 30%. I looked at a one-bedroom in Skokie for $1,450 without heat and a garden-level studio in Evanston for $1,375 that smelled like a basement, and this one was the cheapest of the three and the one I'd actually want to come home to. Around here, most of what's cheaper means a longer commute or a roommate.
The honest version is that I could stay at my parents' house another year and finish the loans by spring 2027. Nobody is asking me to leave. My dad said so in exactly those words. But I'm 26, I've been back in my childhood bedroom since July 2024, and I've done what I came home to do. The card is gone, the emergency fund is full, and the loans are a third of what they were.
Moving out slower is a trade I'm choosing on purpose. I'd rather pay $550 a month for an extra five months than spend another year waiting for a "perfect" moment that's always one more payment away.
My mom read this draft over my shoulder and asked if she could come over for dinner once I'm settled. I said yes, if she brings the sticky note.
