Strategies to pay off student loans

The national student loan debt crisis is at an all-time high. Trillions of dollars are still owed back to the federal government in the form of student loans. The average adult in America has about $30,000 of student loan debt. Many adults are struggling with monthly student loan payments and feel like they will never be able to get rid of this debt. Many people pay off their student loan debt, but with deliberate, hard work.

One of the best ways to ensure you can pay off your student loans is to opt for the standard repayment plan. This will ensure that your loans will be paid off in 10 years and you won’t be drowning in compound interest. If you choose an income repayment plan, you may pay less on your monthly minimum payment than the standard repayment plan, but you will have this debt for a longer amount of time, and the interest you owe will grow much faster because of compound interest. Paying your loans off in 10 years versus 25 years will save you a lot of money in interest being accrued on your debt!

If you want to pay off your debt faster than the 10 years, then using the snowball method is your best option. For this strategy, you will need to list all of your student debts in order of smallest to largest. The goal is that you pay off the smallest loan first, second smallest second, third smallest third, and so on. This allows you to get into the habit of paying off debt as well as giving you very quick results since you are paying off smaller loans first. Once you work your way up to the larger loans you will be used to saving money and they won’t seem so daunting.