For the first time since I started law school, I am 100% debt-free.

I was fortunate not to have to take out student loans to pay for college, but for law school I did. So I began accumulating debt when I started law school in the fall of 1996. I graduated in 1999 and my first student loan payment was due in December 1999. On Thursday I finally paid off the loan. It took me 10 years and 8 months.

Back in 1999, paying off the loan looked daunting. I graduated law school without a job lined up, and I didn’t make a whole lot over the next year. Making the payment each month was basically putting one foot in front of the other, knowing that the finish line lay far in the unimaginable future but just trudging forward step by step in the meantime.

In addition to the student loan debt, I graduated law school about $4,000 in debt to a therapist I’d seen twice a week during school (stupid idea). And during my first year after graduating, I accumulated about $3,500 in credit card debt. It took me a couple of years to pay off the latter two debts, but the student loan has hung around my neck for the last decade. Now, student loan debt is considered “good” debt because it has a relatively low interest rate and it’s supposedly an investment in yourself, but I have never liked the idea of being in debt; I guess I’m old-fashioned that way. But I do hope to own property someday, so a mortgage is something I can live with, I guess.

For now, however, I am free and clear of any debt to anyone at all. I say this not to toot my own horn; I’m just really happy about it, and where else to write about it but here. It feels good to be debt-free.

Now I can start catching up on retirement savings, in which I’m woefully behind.