I've been working for a little over a year now. To be honest, I thought that by now I would have cut out a significant portion of my student debt, have a few grand saved up in my bank account, and not be living paycheck to paycheck, but I'm not even close. (So now that I think about it, maybe I shouldn't be really giving advice....) But I am an accountant! This is my job, and going into 2014, I want to make a conscious effort to eliminate my student loan debt by $15,000 next year. This means I have to pay off at least $1,250 a month. Holy. Crap.
Just a little history and a bit about myself, I am 23 years old. I went to college at one of the most expensive private universities in New York City. And as if I wanted to dig myself an even bigger hole, I did my graduate studies at the same expensive private university. After 5 years of school, I accumulated $90,000 in student loans. I secured a full time job at a top accounting firm, and I currently work as an tax accountant. This was the ultimate goal: to get a stable job and pay off my loans quickly. I'm looking back at the past year and see that I have utterly failed at the latter. So now, in an attempt to motivate myself, and the 37 million other student loan borrowers, I have created a list of tips to start the journey to eliminate student loan debt.
1) Get a reality check. Know your debt- student loans, credit card debt, mortgages, what have you. When I started college, I signed whatever I needed to sign to take my classes, not knowing at all what I was really signing up for. The National Student Loan Data System is a federal system that gathers all the loans under your name.
2) Cry a little. Take a deep breath. Then organize. List out all of your loans from the highest interest rate to the lowest, with the principal balance, interest accrued and new principal balances.
3) Look for glimmers of hope. Look into consolidating your federal loans (NOT private). What loan consolidation does is average out the interest rates to give you one huge consolidated loan. You will have to calculate the percentages to see if it is worthwhile. For example, if you have a $40,000 loan at 7% ($2,800/year) and a $10,000 loan at 2% ($200/year), you can consolidate to have a $50,000 loan at 4.5%. ($2,250/year). With consolidation, in this example, you save $750 a year!
4) Pay more now, save more later. Pay off more than the minimum payment. An extra $25 will go a LONG way. Also paying 2 smaller amounts a month, rather than 1 big amount a month, will lower your interest accrued each month.
5) Did you really need that Celine bag? Budget, budget, budget! I will have to create multiple posts for just this point.
6) Everyday I'm hustlin'. Find some more money. Sell your old textbooks on Amazon, old clothes on Poshmark, look through your couch cushions, or start a blog and get ad revenue!
I know this can be very overwhelming, but I hope you find comfort in knowing that there are millions struggling with student debt. Whoo-sahhhhh. We will get through this together.
Cheers,
Ali
Just a little history and a bit about myself, I am 23 years old. I went to college at one of the most expensive private universities in New York City. And as if I wanted to dig myself an even bigger hole, I did my graduate studies at the same expensive private university. After 5 years of school, I accumulated $90,000 in student loans. I secured a full time job at a top accounting firm, and I currently work as an tax accountant. This was the ultimate goal: to get a stable job and pay off my loans quickly. I'm looking back at the past year and see that I have utterly failed at the latter. So now, in an attempt to motivate myself, and the 37 million other student loan borrowers, I have created a list of tips to start the journey to eliminate student loan debt.
1) Get a reality check. Know your debt- student loans, credit card debt, mortgages, what have you. When I started college, I signed whatever I needed to sign to take my classes, not knowing at all what I was really signing up for. The National Student Loan Data System is a federal system that gathers all the loans under your name.
2) Cry a little. Take a deep breath. Then organize. List out all of your loans from the highest interest rate to the lowest, with the principal balance, interest accrued and new principal balances.
3) Look for glimmers of hope. Look into consolidating your federal loans (NOT private). What loan consolidation does is average out the interest rates to give you one huge consolidated loan. You will have to calculate the percentages to see if it is worthwhile. For example, if you have a $40,000 loan at 7% ($2,800/year) and a $10,000 loan at 2% ($200/year), you can consolidate to have a $50,000 loan at 4.5%. ($2,250/year). With consolidation, in this example, you save $750 a year!
4) Pay more now, save more later. Pay off more than the minimum payment. An extra $25 will go a LONG way. Also paying 2 smaller amounts a month, rather than 1 big amount a month, will lower your interest accrued each month.
5) Did you really need that Celine bag? Budget, budget, budget! I will have to create multiple posts for just this point.
6) Everyday I'm hustlin'. Find some more money. Sell your old textbooks on Amazon, old clothes on Poshmark, look through your couch cushions, or start a blog and get ad revenue!
I know this can be very overwhelming, but I hope you find comfort in knowing that there are millions struggling with student debt. Whoo-sahhhhh. We will get through this together.
Cheers,
Ali
No comments:
Post a Comment