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Let me just start off by saying that if you do not have any student loans, you might be the luckiest person alive in my opinion. I envy you wholeheartedly.
My parents are not rich and I am not smart enough to have a full-ride, or even a partial college scholarship. The only way college was going to be an option for me was if I took out student loans. So here I am, only 21-years-old and already thousands of dollars in debt. How many of you all reading this can relate?
As I am writing this article I am listening to a podcast called “Death, Sex & Money.” Ironically the episode I am listening to is about student loans and people around the country have sent in their stories about how student loans have affected their life. I am going to be 100 percent honest, this episode has me all up in my feels. I am feeling relieved because it eases my mind to know that I am not the only person in this country that is being affected by student loans, but on the other hand, I am feeling worried and sad because this is something that I am going to be dealing with for the rest of my life (more than likely).
From the moment I walked across the stage and accepted my high school diploma, my parents have told me, “Go to college, get your degree, get a job doing what you love and save your money.” But sometimes I feel that no matter how much money I save, I will never save up enough to pay off my student loans in a reasonable time frame. If I had been more educated on student loans during my senior year of school I would have taken applying for scholarships, no matter how small, more seriously. I honestly did not know student loans were a thing until my parents told me that I needed to apply for one before starting my first year of college.
When doing research about student loans I stumbled upon an article on cheatsheet.com. On here it gives readers with student loans like me eight things that you should know about student loans. I read through it and five out of the eight things I truly did not know about student loans. I recommend this article to people who are unknowledgeable like me! Direct link here: (https://www.cheatsheet.com/money-career/everything-you-should-know-about-student-loans.html/?a=viewall).
According to studentloanhero.com, “Americans owe over $1.45 trillion in student loan debt, spread out among about 44 million borrowers. That’s about $620 billion more than the total U.S. credit card debt. In fact, the average Class of 2016 graduate has $37,172 in student loan debt.” This statistic absolutely blew my mind. When reading that my mind automatically asked the question: “If in this day and age you have to go to college to get a decent job, why is college this expensive?”
College tuition will only continue to rise, there is really no way around it. So for people like me and whoever else may be reading this article that is in the same student loan debt situation that I am in, here are a few tips and steps that we need to do to pay back our student loans in the best and most efficient way: (Courtesy of http://time.com/money/3387201/student-loan-repayment/)
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Pick the repayment plan that suites your needs
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Put payments on automatic
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Reduce your rate
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Act quickly, and payback your loans as soon as possible