Today, over 66% of college students in the US graduate with loans to pay off soon after. Most students need to take out loans that begin being billed to them 6 months post-college graduation. However, you can get rid of student debt fast through a few simple steps!
4-year colleges cost around $35k for tuition alone. This doesn’t even include housing, books, and specific course fees that all add up. Here are some easy ways to get rid of student debt after school.
Become A Student Worker
Many universities offer a variety of student worker jobs for current and post-graduate students. These jobs can be anywhere from on-campus tutoring, being a teacher’s assistant, administrative work, or even maintenance.
Most student worker positions pay hourly. However, the money often goes straight to the student’s balance. If this is the case, you can pay off your tuition with your student worker hours and may not even need to take out loans for the next year!
Get On A Budget
There are many reasons for getting a budget as a college student. Not only does it help prevent unnecessary spending, but it can also help minimize your future expenses. Budgets will look different for everybody. However, it brings awareness to people of how much money they have and where it’s going.
If you have some extra money remaining after building your budget for the month, put it towards your loans. The money will add up over time, whether it’s $20 a month or $200.
Calculate Your Payoff Date
This is a big one! Using a student loan payoff calculator, you can plug in your loan amounts to determine your payoff date.
From there, the date you see may be a relieving or very stress-inducing one to see. This is where you can adjust and manage your monthly payments to fit your date goal better. If you want your loans paid off sooner rather than later, paying more than the minimum monthly amount can help you do that!
The Debt Snowball
That phrase must sound strange, but the results are very promising! This strategy is a method of organizing your loans from smallest to largest and making payments accordingly.
Start with the smallest loan, putting most of your money towards that and the minimum amount for the rest. Once that one is paid off, move to the second smallest loan and pay the same amount monthly as you were with the larger loan. Keep going until you make it through all your loans. You’d be surprised that this method has helped most pay off their loans within 18-24 months!
Apply Pay Raises And Tax Refunds
This is a small but extremely impactful tactic. As you grow and invest more into your career, take pay raises as an opportunity to put that extra money towards loans.
For those who receive tax refunds, we all love that check that comes in the mail every spring! That money can be put towards a plethora of things. Why not put it towards or even possibly paying off a loan? This way, there’s no extra money out of your pocket.
