Hi everyone! The following is a guest post by Allen Kors from Achieve Lending, the first ever search engine for education loans. Please join me in welcoming him to Color Me Frugal today!
Paying off student loans, especially when the balances often total more than a year’s salary, can be a daunting task. For those who want to be smart about their student loan repayment, paying off debt faster and saving money on interest should be your goal!
Note: This post may contain affiliate links.
5 Tips for Paying Off Student Loans Faster
Get Creative
Often the most creative ways to pay off student loans can be overlooked. Whether you start a small side business, cram roommates into your apartment, or spend your free time taking surveys online, every little bit extra can significantly reduce the time you spend paying back the loan, and the interest you have to pay in the process.
Avoid Credit Cards
Many often try to get zero or low interest rate credit cards in order to take advantage of the introductory offers and funnel more money toward paying down the higher interest rate loans. While in theory this is a good idea, only the savviest of credit card users can master this feat. Many use the credit cards and end up with balances long after the introductory offers expire- putting them in both credit card and student loan debt. Not cool!
My best advice is to use credit wisely, avoid “robbing Peter to pay Paul” and focus on living within your means while contributing money to loans.
Build a Budget—and Stick To It
It can be hard to adjust a budget to include a loan payment, especially if you’re not used to making one. A good rule of thumb is to separate your budget by the 50-30-20 rule: 50% of your monthly take home income toward living expenses, 30% to discretionary funds, and 20% to debt repayment and savings. Depending upon how many loans you have and the interest rate, you may need to get aggressive and contribute 30% to debt repayment and 20% to discretionary or “fun money”.
Good advice is to try and find something that works for you, but that allows for you to make progress on your loans.
(Editor’s note: as someone who is currently paying off student loans, we have found that 20% for debt repayment is not nearly enough to help us feel like we are making progress. We are currently putting about 40% toward debt repayment, and plan to re-evaluate our discretionary spending once the student loans are gone. Until then- limited discretionary spending for us!)
Try the Debt Snowball Approach
In the debt snowball, you list all of your loan amounts and putting those with the highest interest rates at the top. The idea is to put all of your extra money to paying off the highest rate loans. Then when that one is paid off, on to the next loan, and so on and so forth. The advantage to this is that you could save thousands on interest. (Here is a great snowball calculator if you want to play around with the numbers!)
The only downside to paying down loans with the highest interest rate is that it can take a long time for someone to pay them off and feel successful. So, if it makes more sense to you to pay off smaller loans first in order to feel empowered, then by all means- do so. Many find this ”reverse snowball” approach essential to avoiding debt fatigue.
Consolidate Loans for Better Interest Rate
If you have more than one loan with different interest rates, you can consider consolidating your loans at one interest rate and into one monthly payment. Often there are advantages to doing this, just be sure to watch the interest rate. Sometimes borrowers end up consolidating at slightly higher total interest rate and end up paying more over the life of the loan. That’s because they receive a lower monthly payment, which looks good to them in the moment. Be sure to do your homework and compare interest rates before you sign.
The best rule to follow is to always stay in touch with your lenders no matter what the circumstances. You may be surprised by how willing they are to work with you on your repayment terms. In the event of unexpected unemployment or medical emergencies, many lenders offer economic hardship or additional forbearance for consumers. Many lenders would prefer to communicate with borrowers than pursue other avenues of collections.
(Editor’s note: Thanks for the great tips, Allen! By the way, I happen to think that the Achieve Lending student loan search engine is a pretty neat tool, which is why I wanted to give him an opportunity to share his knowledge with us today. If you are in the market for a student loan
, it is worth your time to check out his site at the link above).
Allen Kors is the Founder and CEO of Achieve Lending, the first ever search engine for education loans. Designed to help both traditional and non-traditional students find the best student loans, Achieve Lending offers users a free online portal to search, find, and compare student loans, often in as little as 30 seconds.
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We did the debt snowball with our student loans. Then at the end, we paid those suckers off with a big lump sum. It took a while to get momentum, but we did eventually. Glad it is all over with!
Good for you! We are still working on those darn student loans, but we’re planning to knock them out within the next three years.
I did a lot of tricks to help me pay off my student loans. I took surveys and sold stuff online to help me pay extra every month. It was some work, but not having the debt was a huge relief.
Excellent!
I say this a lot but: Save your savings! When you save money with a coupon, put that money aside. We have a sub-account at our online bank. I just transfer the savings from our main account into Saved Savings. And yes, I know that’s the least original name ever.
At the end of the month or quarter or whatever, take what you have in there and apply it to your loan.
This way, the money you save is actually, well, saved. And you get to cushion your payment.
Thanks Abigail! By the way, your “save your savings” mantra helped inspire me to save the money that we have cut from our expenses over the past few months! We are up to about $235 savings every month at this point, and it’s all going straight into our savings account! Thanks girl!
I disagree with tip #2. I would advise to get a credit card with a good cash rewards program. I think the problem is our perception of credit cards, not the credit cards themselves. My husband and I have a couple of credits that we use for everything with the exception of our mortgage and student loans. Every month, we cash in an average of $35-50. Of course, we pay the balance off in full, otherwise it wouldn’t make sense. But throw that additional tax free earnings at your student loans and you can pay your balance off even faster.
I think it totally depends on how responsible you are with credit cards. If you are good enough with them to pay off the balances every month, then I agree that taking advantage of rewards can be an awesome way to go. But if you ever carry a balance on the cards, then I think the wisest advice is to not use them, or stop using them. Unless you have enough discipline to always pay them in full, I think there’s just too much risk that you will come out on the losing end of that game!
I try to find frugal or free “fun” activities so I can allot fun funds for debt repayment or other money-making activities.
Same here! Our favorite thing to do on spring and summer evenings is to go for a walk! Great exercise and totally free 🙂
Those are great tips no matter if you have students loans to pay off or another kind of debt. I’ve taken up a side hustle to help me pay off my debts much faster and so far, it’s been working.
That’s awesome Kayla. That debt will be gone so much faster and you will really be thanking yourself for doing that!