You can pay back your student loans more quickly if you cut expenses.
Students pay an opportunity cost--in lost wages, expended time and missed opportunities--to go to college. Graduates are left with an average of about $15,000 in debt from a four-year bachelor's degree, according to the American Council on Education. Paying back your loans is not always easy, but you should be able to do it after a period of being conservative with your cash.
Instructions
1. Get employed quickly. The longer you wait before you start to pay off your loans, the more interest accrues. Obviously, a higher-paying job is best, but you may not be able to find a decent job immediately. Work as many hours as you reasonably can; you can reduce your workload after you've paid off your debt. But don't overwork yourself.
2. Sell off unnecessary possessions. Your college textbooks are a prime example. Many bookstores and online retailers will buy your books for a reasonable price. You never get 100 percent of your money back, but you don't need the books anyway.
3. Cut expenses. Cancel subscriptions that you don't need. If your phone bill is $100 a month, consider cutting back on your text messaging or data plan. You can always re-enable it later on.
In addition, avoid spending money when you don't need to. Instead of going out to a movie, consider a trip to the park. Recreation doesn't have to be expensive.
4. Pay back high-interest loans first. This prevents your debt from becoming unmanageable. Compound interest snowballs quickly--at 10 percent interest, it takes only seven years for an amount owed to double.
List all your loans, with the highest-interest ones first. Look at how much interest you would pay over different repayment periods, and decide how long you would like to take to pay off each loan. Then create a strategic payment plan, focused on paying off the highest-interest loans first, and determine how much you must devote to payments each month to meet your goal.
Tags: back your, your loans, debt from, loans first, loans more, your debt