How To Reduce The Choke hold Pain Of Student Loan Debt
Submitted by xpertchick
If you've ever been to college, and graduate, and have to pay bills, then you know the pain of student loans is like a constant choke hold around your bank account and peace of mind.
Student loans are one of the fastest ways that college grads and young people build up massive debt. A typical student graduating with a bachelors in arts and sciences on borrowed money can can end up owing 20 to 60 thousand dollars, and a student with a medicine related degree can end up owing well in the hundreds of thousands. You heard right, hundreds of thousands.
It's become more and more difficult for students to pay them off quickly. But the longer you wait to pay, the more you'll be paying in the end as interest accumulates over time. Here are some tips for getting out of debt more quickly, and more importantly--pain-free:
1. Create a timeline schedule: Take the first step to reduce or eliminate student loan debt by analyzing your specific situation and set a goal to pay it off in a specific amount of time. Once you set a date to get rid of debt, you can calculate how much you'll need to pay per month so that you can budget your finances more wisely.
2. Only pay what you can afford: This rule should especially be applied if you live in a place with high cost of living. It can be very tempting to spend beyond your means with many options places and options to buy things from. But just remember that you are still young and have many years ahead of you to look forward to fun items and outings. Just because you're in the "real world" now, doesn't mean your budget has changed since your days as a student. This is the one time in your life when living on a blow-up mattress and not owning a television will be deemed acceptable, so take advantage of the money saving benefits while you can.
3. Set your job and salary criteria: Once you land that great job, sell yourself for all you are worth. When it comes time to discuss salary with your employer, negotiate for a higher amount, even if seems minor. Hey, an extra $1,000 a year is one less $1,000 you'll be owing to your alma mater.
4. Find tax breaks and make them work for you: You may be eligible for deductions that you're not even aware of, so make sure you do the research in order to reduce your taxable income as much as possible.
5. Maximize your overtime overtime: Well, don't sit around in the office twiddling your thumbs as 9 pm rolls around, but do offer yourself up for extra projects that can help you pull in key overtime compensation. And make a promise to yourself to put aside every penny you earn through overtime to go directly towards your student loans.
6. Get a side job: Finding a side job on top of your already stressful full-time job sounds miserable, but it doesn't have to be. If you enjoy being around children, offer to babysit the neighbor's kids a couple nights a week, or if you're a dog lover, start a weekend dog walking business. The little extra you make each week will add up big time in the end.
7. Pay bills early and on time: This may seem like an impossible feat, but if you can pay off any of your balance before you are officially required to start making payments, the amount of interest you owe in the end could be significantly lowered. Plus, if you pay a little extra on top of your required payments each month, it will be applied to your principal balance, thus minimizing the total interest you owe.
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