JulieN|1391303935|3606086 said:Live like a monk.
Yssie|1391310509|3606178 said:Good god.
Eighty thousand - over one hundred thousand - dollars spent for education - that's... Obscene. How on earth did we get to this point - on what planet is that a burden anyone should ever have to take on in the name of higher education? And where do these soaring costs end?!
I'm in awe, truly, of people like you, Sonny, Julie, SB, luv, VC, the commitment and confidence it takes to take on that sort of monstrous responsibility so young, or for your children, and to have paid it off so quickly... Congratulations!!!!
I was very fortunate in that my parents were willing and able to fund my undergraduate studies. This thread brings it home for people like me - that our higher education system really is f'd up beyond belief!
ETA: sorry, Indy, my post isn't exactly helpful to you. I'm just... Sitting here gaping at my screen, and couldn't not comment...
Yssie|1391310509|3606178 said:Good god.
Eighty thousand - over one hundred thousand - dollars spent for education - that's... Obscene. How on earth did we get to this point - on what planet is that a burden anyone should ever have to take on in the name of higher education? And where do these soaring costs end?!
I'm in awe, truly, of people like you, Sonny, Julie, SB, luv, VC, the commitment and confidence it takes to take on that sort of monstrous responsibility so young, or for your children, and to have paid it off so quickly... Congratulations!!!!
I was very fortunate in that my parents were willing and able to fund my undergraduate studies. This thread brings it home for people like me - that our higher education system really is f'd up beyond belief!
ETA: sorry, Indy, my post isn't exactly helpful to you. I'm just... Sitting here gaping at my screen, and couldn't not comment...
Yssie|1391310509|3606178 said:Good god.
Eighty thousand - over one hundred thousand - dollars spent for education - that's... Obscene. How on earth did we get to this point - on what planet is that a burden anyone should ever have to take on in the name of higher education? And where do these soaring costs end?!
I'm in awe, truly, of people like you, Sonny, Julie, SB, luv, VC, the commitment and confidence it takes to take on that sort of monstrous responsibility so young, or for your children, and to have paid it off so quickly... Congratulations!!!!
I was very fortunate in that my parents were willing and able to fund my undergraduate studies. This thread brings it home for people like me - that our higher education system really is f'd up beyond belief!
ETA: sorry, Indy, my post isn't exactly helpful to you. I'm just... Sitting here gaping at my screen, and couldn't not comment...
JulieN|1391303935|3606086 said:Live like a monk. If you qualify for IBR/PAYE, GET ON IT ASAP. This will lower your minimum required payments, so that you can allocate more (if you can afford it) to the ones with higher interest. Whenever I start thinking about fun things I could do with the money, like new clothes, new purse, nice dinner, I make a payment.
I bought myself a new watch since I started my new job a month ago, and that's it, and it was 78% off of MSRP from Ashford.
SB621|1391305904|3606108 said:JulieN|1391303935|3606086 said:Live like a monk.
Yup this exactly. I graduated in 2004 with around 115k in loans. I consolidated whatever I could and started repayments. Because I went back to school for my MBA some of my loans defered but I still made monthly payments. I never ate out, never went to the movies, worked 1 full time job and 2 part time jobs. I lived off the wendy's dollar menu to $5 a day for breakfast/ lunch/ dinner. I got a credit card that let me use points to pay back my college students loans, then I OK'ed it with my boss to forgo the company card and use that card for purchases. I also split a small apartment with a friend so rent was around $400 a month with utilities.
I won't say it was easy. I creid often and the stress of the bills I still blame on leading to early gray hairs I found. I basically had ZERO life and the ONLY time I ever got out was when my DH (BF at the time) paid for me. In the end I ended up paying all of it off except for an interest free loan I had for 8k in 3.5 years. My DH and I were getting married and I didn't want him taking on any of my college debt into our lives. My goal was to get it down to under 10k by the time our wedding rolled around, you can imagine this also led to us having a small wedding.
My recommendations is to:
-Consolidate as many as you can into 1 loan
-Start paying off whatever has the higest interest rate first vs. paying small amounts across many loans
-Pay whatever you can extra per month (without incuring more debt as a result). I set up automatic payments from my account on a weekly basis. That way every week I had a check going out to my loan company. the faster it was out of my bank account the drive to spend it was a heck of a loss less.
Goodluck!
sonnyjane|1391302673|3606072 said:I started in 2009 with $82,000 in debt. I currently owe $21,000. That means I could have purchased three cars in the last 4 years lol!
The first thing is pay off the highest interest rates first. Pay the minimums on all the accounts but pay extra toward the highest rate. Also, I steal from my paycheck. Literally, on pay day, I transfer all the excess above what I need for food and bills toward my Sallie Mae balance. If I have $300 left after retirement, bills, and groceries each check in the budget, it ALL goes to Sallie Mae immediately. If it stays in my checking, there's a high likelihood I'd spend it, so I don't let it sit there longer than a day. Also if at the end of each pay period the night before pay day I have a bit left (say, $30-$40 here or there), I transfer it to Sallie Mae as well. I just put everything toward that.
I do keep a "fun" account that I put $50 or $100 into each month, so I'm not totally depriving myself, but I'll feel much more free when all the debt is gone. Good luck!
luv2sparkle|1391306613|3606122 said:My son doesn't have the debt, we do. I am so excited that the last 20K will be paid off in a couple of months. He graduated in 2012 and we have been making payments but have started ramping it up. DH took now days off in 2013 and we cashed those in and with our tax return this year (which is done) we will pay off all debt except our home. I am so excited. It was a lot of sacrifice for 2013.
Yssie|1391314080|3606221 said:I think I worded my post poorly - I'm horrified, but not by the fact that people choose to go to college and incur this sort of debt - it's the fact that anyone *has* to make that choice at all that I object to, viscerally. My family has always valued higher education and instilled that in me, and I applaud anyone who chooses to educate himself beyond the minimum necessity!! But it's outrageous that it should come with such a price tag - wherever you go, however many degrees you pursue I know exactly how much my parents shelled out for my private brand-name education and I was horrified by that number, too, at the time, but it's only after I started working that I fully understood just how much of a sacrifice that must have been for them. I am also genuinely awed by the resolve it must have taken to pay those loans off so substantially and so quickly - that takes incredible responsibility and commitment and I can certainly see how one could benefit positively in terms of learning money- and time-management to handle it!
vc10um|1391306881|3606129 said:While I didn't live *quite* like a monk, I certainly lived relatively frugally the entire time I was paying off student loans.
I graduated in 2007 with roughly $115K in debt, just like SB, began repayments in November of 2007, and my husband and I paid the last bit off just before Christmas 2013. (Note: we could've paid them off sooner, but opted to also save a 20% down payment on a house and a 25% down payment on a car as well, so that extended my loan term...but with my interest rates being so low we were willing to do that in order to get the home and car we wanted.)
Aside from the awesome suggestions you've already received, I'd make the additional suggestion to monitor your interest rates and keep abreast of what the Fed is doing with them on the federal level. When I graduated, my private loans had a variable interest rate somewhere near 6.5%, IIRC. I resisted the urge to fix the loan, though, because I didn't think they would go any higher, but knew they could go lower. By the time the economy crashed out and the feds made all their cuts and whatnot, my interest rate had dropped to 2.75% and my minimum payments had been lowered by over $200/month.
Just be diligent. Any bit of money that's not in your emergency fund: put it toward the student loans.
Best of luck to you, and everyone else paying down these debts!
justginger|1391316626|3606254 said:I am also horrified - my knowledge of the realistic cost of higher education in the States is skewed - I went to a private, $30k/year school nearly 10 years ago, but was there on a full scholarship. I didn't really consider what a whopping huge bill that could have been. Alternatively now I'm doing a second bachelor's, in Australia the amount a university can charge per year, based on discipline of study, is capped. Medicine is set at ~$27k/year. However, 2/3 of that is paid by the government, leaving my program at ~$9k/year.
For all of those who had staggering debt and knuckled down to take care of it - kudos! It will feel incredible when you get to the end of those repayments!
sonnyjane|1391317072|3606256 said:I wanted to add that I created an incredibly thorough and nerdy spreadsheet that breaks down all of my loan payments and total debt and also contains a box telling me how much I've paid each year in total. That's my little "kudos" box to let me know how much progress I've made.
IndyLady|1391381051|3606656 said:luv2sparkle|1391306613|3606122 said:My son doesn't have the debt, we do. I am so excited that the last 20K will be paid off in a couple of months. He graduated in 2012 and we have been making payments but have started ramping it up. DH took now days off in 2013 and we cashed those in and with our tax return this year (which is done) we will pay off all debt except our home. I am so excited. It was a lot of sacrifice for 2013.
Luv2sparkle, you are so thoughtful to take on the debt for yourself. My parents helped me through undergrad, for which I am very grateful.