Paying Off Student Loans: What to Do

By Amanda Cohen on September 6, 2018

If you are going into your senior year of college or if you just graduated college, paying off your student loans has got to be in the front of your mind and one of the main things you need to do. Whether you have created a 10-year-plan or even a 20-year-plan, you want to make sure you do your research before settling on a specific timeline to pay off your student loans.

Regardless of how much money you owe in student loans, paying them off is likely to be a huge stressor in your life… so, what do you do? How do you ensure that you are getting all of the best advice and the correct information regarding your student loans? How do you ensure that the monthly payments you will make towards your student loans won’t cause you to be without groceries for a few weeks? Well, that’s where I come in! I did a ton of research so you didn’t have to. I’m here to help you tackle your student loans!

Image via. https://pixabay.com/en/dollar-currency-money-us-dollar-499481/

Student Loan Calculators

There are a ton of free student loan calculators online to help you make strong, smart mathematical judgments when creating a timeline to pay off your student loans. Most calculators have the following features: (1) the amount of money you owe in student loans, (2) the amount of interest you would have to pay on the original monetary amount, and (3) your desired timeline.

Before using a student loan calculator, make sure to triple check that you have all of your ducks in a row. When deciding how long your payoff timeline should we, think about your yearly salary, how often you are paid, and what your typical expenses are. Even though it may seem stressful to create a shorter timeline to pay off your loans, the quicker you pay everything off the less interest you will have to pay. One student calculator that seems to be popular is brought to you by Student Loan Hero.

Choosing a Job that Helps with Loans

Depending on your field of study and career prospects, this may not apply to you. However, certain jobs, like in medicine, will help entice you by offering to pay off a fraction of your loans. If you are deciding between two jobs, you should ask their human resource representatives about whether or not this is an option. If one of the jobs offers to help you with student loan payments, or will increase your salary to help you out, then you should probably take that job unless you absolutely hate everything about it.

If you want to go to graduate school, but are worried about having even more student loans, talk to your human resource representatives to see if their companies offer programs that pay for graduate school so that you can continue your education while continuing to pay off your student loans. Talking about student loans with your employer (or potential employer) may seem scary, but if you are assertive, they will take you seriously, and remember, they were probably in your same shoes not too long ago.

Setting Aside Money

This particular suggestion may sound obvious, but you would be surprised how much money you would accumulate if you set a bit aside each day or each week. If you set aside five dollars every week for a year, you already save $364. That may not even seem like it makes a dent, but adding this small payment once a year in addition to the amount you would pay each month (an amount that you would learn from your student loan calculator) will pay off.

If you don’t want to set aside money each week, when your family asks you what you want for the holidays or for your birthday, instead of asking for the cute purse you’ve been fawning over, ask for some money that you put towards your student loans. A fun way to decorate your apartment and save money is to have a cute piggy bank that you put any loose change you find in. Even if it only amounts to a small amount of cash, it’s still something that gets you one step closer to being debt free. For a cute, and reasonably priced, adult piggy bank, check out Amazon or go right ahead and buy my personal favorite piggy bank shaped like a pineapple.

Image via. https://pixabay.com/en/piggy-bank-money-savings-financial-970340/

These three suggestions will help you start living your life debt-free sooner rather than later. I know student loans are stressful, but take some deep breaths because you aren’t alone and you will pay everything off eventually. If you are looking for part-time work in college or over the weekends to start saving, read my article “How to Earn Some Extra Cash in Your Wallet.” If the pressure is getting to be too much, read my article entitled “Mental Health and Student Loans: You Are Not Alone.” Good luck to all of my fellow recent graduates and/or current college students!

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format