Arden Missal paid $150,000 loans in 16 months

paid off – In September 2022, Arden Missal faced more than $150,000 in student loan debt after finishing PA school in 2022. She paid it off in 16 months, cutting spending, adding extra shifts, and accepting major personal sacrifices—then celebrated the final payment clea

In the summer, with “Margaritaville” playing on the radio as she drove to work, Arden Missal caught herself asking a question that doesn’t usually fit neatly into a paycheck: “Is this really what I’m supposed to be doing?”

She was heading into the hospital, still carrying more than $150,000 in student loan debt from her physician assistant training. But Missal had already decided her answer would come with a date on the calendar. She didn’t want to stay in debt for a decade. She wanted a finish line.

Missal, a 30-year-old physician’s assistant and blogger based in Jupiter, Florida, had over $150,000 in student loans after she finished PA school in 2022. After taxes, she estimated her loan burden was about two years of her take-home pay.

The usual advice she was hearing—make the minimum payments. invest the rest. stay in debt because the interest rate was relatively low—sounded sensible on paper. But when she ran the numbers. she saw something that felt wrong in a very practical way: if she followed that path. she believed she would have a negative net worth for five years. In her telling. it would mean earning a six-figure income. matching her 401(k). maybe investing in the market. and upgrading her apartment or taking vacations—while still being “completely broke.”.

“That felt completely backward to me,” she said in describing the moment her strategy hardened.

She turned to a different plan—pay off the debt as quickly as possible—and believed it was possible. She mapped it out in Excel and found she could be out of debt in under two years. The math landed in a concrete outcome: she paid off all $150,000 in 16 months.

Her start date was September 2022. The question she kept returning to wasn’t financial strategy in the abstract. It was personal discipline: “what could I live without for two years?”

She stopped spending money on anything that wasn’t life-sustaining. She cut her own hair at home. She switched from wearing contact lenses every day to wearing glasses, saving about $800 a year. She cut out vacations for 18 months. Each time she made a cut, she said the timeline shrank, and that made the next sacrifice easier to tolerate.

Money decisions, for Missal, started translating directly into time. If she worked more hours, the end date moved closer. If she cut another $100 a month, she said it might mean four fewer weeks of overtime. Watching that connection—numbers turning into a shorter countdown—became its own kind of fuel.

Then she went after the other lever: income.

At her peak, she was juggling three PA jobs and one teaching job at her alma mater. For about a year, she worked 80 to 90 hours a week. Her base schedule was about 60 hours, and then she picked up extra shifts, treating her Google Calendar “like Tetris” to keep everything aligned.

She also used remote options where she could. She worked in a hospital virtually for a ketamine clinic, and in an outpatient role that mixed in-person and telehealth. Sometimes she said she even pet-sat while doing virtual appointments.

People assumed it must have been miserable. Missal didn’t describe it that way. She said physically she felt fatigue, but she didn’t feel miserable, framing it as a kind of burnout prevention. Her argument was simple: burnout comes from having to work when it isn’t your choice—when a boss forces overtime or when debt payments dictate your schedule. In her case, she said she was there voluntarily, with a goal and a finite deadline.

She listened to podcasts about paying off debt during her long commutes, using the travel time to keep her mindset anchored.

She also adopted a “3% rule.” Missal decided that 3% of her take-home pay could go toward anything she wanted. She described it as her “joy” fund for things like lattes. eating out. and new clothes—something that kept flexibility in her routine so she could still feel human. She also framed it as incentive: the more she worked, the more things she could have for herself.

The balance shrinking was her biggest motivator.

But the timeline wasn’t smooth.

She faced managerial issues at one job and left after six months. She also saw bonuses cut, and overtime shifts added and then taken away. Every time something like that happened, she said her projected end date moved back—and when you’re counting down months, those changes were devastating.

Her life also didn’t pause for the payoff. She missed special events like bachelorette parties, engagements, and holidays while she was paying off her debt. Friends and family, she said, didn’t understand why paying off debt mattered so much. Her explanation was that she would say no for 16 months—and then she would never have to say no to events again.

For the most part, she said the sacrifices didn’t deeply damage relationships, because the period was short.

Her boyfriend at the time understood, but after about six months, both of them felt worn down by her constant work. Still, she said the trade-off was worth it. When she got married, she said she had no debt—and starting that chapter without student loans felt meaningful.

When she finally sent the last payment in December 2023, the moment landed like something her body had been waiting for. By the time the final payment cleared, she said it felt almost inevitable—like her physical reality caught up with the mental reality she’d been living in.

She celebrated with her boyfriend: they got pedicures, watched a movie, and went out for a nice dinner.

Today, she says she’s married to him, and they have a daughter. She’s still debt-free.

In the year after the payoff. she was able to take the first year of her daughter’s life off work. That’s also when she started her blog. “She’s Financially Free.” During her debt payoff. she described it as all-consuming. and most people in her life thought she was “insane.” The blog. she said. became an outlet to talk about what she did and to help other people—especially women her age—realize they have options.

For Missal, the pride isn’t only about numbers. It’s about not giving up during the hard times.

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