I was doing some math the other day with my student loans and my bank account and my income. It was half depressing and half uplifting.

You see, I have x amount of student loan debt and I make y amount of money per year.

y > x

I also have z amount of money in my bank account.

z < x < y

However, I figured at my current earning rate plus my current bank account it will take me 5 months to pay it off and still have $200 in change. Therefore:

z + m(y) = x + 200

I like the looks of that. But if I factor in gas, the equation changes a little. I spend roughly $400/month on gas. Let’s subtract that from the monthly income of y:

z + m(y – 400) = x

If I plug-in the numbers I know, and won’t share because finances should be private, I come out with m = 5.87. Let’s round it to a nice, even 6 months (that way I’ll have a bit left over).

I think I can deal with student loans for that long. Everything after that is profit. Or car payments. I don’t want to factor those in now.