How To Pay Off Student Loans Fast - How I Paid Off $40,000 In 7 Months (2024)

Want to learn how to pay off student loans fast? Here’s how I paid off my $40,000 student loan debt in just 7 months. In July of 2013, I finished paying off around $40,000 in student loan debt. This still does not seem real to me. I honestly thought that I would be paying this…

Want to learn how to pay off student loans fast? Here’s how I paid off my $40,000 student loan debt in just 7 months.

In July of 2013, I finished paying off around $40,000 in student loan debt. This still does not seem real to me. I honestly thought that I would be paying this forever. The minimum payments scared me as well. Many people have asked mehow to pay off student loans fast, and I am here to help.

We were saving for quite some time, and then towards the end I just started plopping down as much money as we possibly could towards my student loan debt.

I worked like crazy as well. We both increased our day job income significantly over the year before and put this increase in earnings towardspaying off our student loansquickly.

We also never really increased our budget. Yes, we did buy new cars, but weirdly enough our budget did not increase.

How to pay off student loans fast.

See if your employer will reimburse your education expenses so that you can pay off your student loans fast.

Some companies will pay your student loans quickly if you work for them. I even know of someone who receives a $2 bonus for each hour that she works for student loans.

$2 may not seem like a lot, but if you work full-time then that’s over $300 a month. $300 a month for student loans is a good amount! And, it’s free money so it can all just be put towards paying off your student loans quickly.

Reduce your interest rate for your student loan repayment plan.

If you automatically pay your student loans each month or consolidate them, then sometimes you can get an interest rate reduction. With Sallie Mae, I believe the reduction is 0.25%. Not a ton, but that is something!

Related tip:I highly recommendCredible for student loan refinancing. You can lower the interest rate onyour student loans significantly by using Crediblewhich may help you shave thousands off your student loan bill over time.

Pay extra towards your loans each month in order topay off student loans fast.

If you’re wondering “How can I pay off my student loans faster?” – then this is a major tip!

You will, of course, have to start paying extra towards your loans.

Increase your income to pay off your student loans fast.

It’s no secret that I love making side income. It makes life so much easier. Without it, I definitely do not think that I would have been able to pay off my student loans as quickly.

You can completely pretend that this extra income is not in your budget, and just shuffle ALL of this extra income towards student loan debt so that you do not miss it. If you have any extra time, then I’m sure that there is something out there that you can do to make extra money.

For me, the main thing I did to make extra money was by blogging and freelancing. If you are interested in starting a blog of your own, I have a tutorial that will show you how to easily make a blog of your own in just minutes. You can find the tutorial here.

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Decrease your spending for your student loan repayment plan.

There are plenty of ways to decrease your spending. Decreasing your spending can really help you pay off your loans more quickly because you can throw all of your extra income towards your student loans.

There are plenty of ways for you to lower your income. Check out the articles below:

How To Save 50% Or More Of Your Income
Saving Over $2,000 A Year With Republic Wireless Review – How Much Money Could You Save?

Think about your goal for your student loan repayment plan.

Yes, student loan repayment can seem very stressful when you think about it. Many people owe thousands and thousands in student loans. And, no matter how old you are, it can seem impossible. However, think about your goal and how good life will be once all of your student loan debt is gone.

Try to not let it get you down. Think positively and attack that debt so that you can pay off your student loans fast!

There are many creative ways to pay off student loans, so if you are feeling like you don’t have much motivation, I recommend creating a vision board.

Is it smart to pay off student loans quickly?

This depends on the person and their own personal finance situation. If you have debt, then it can be a good idea to pay it off quickly.

I recommend reading Pay Off Debt Or Save Money – Is One Better For You? to help you make the decision.

How long will it take to pay off student loans?

The amount of time hat it takes you to pay off your student loans will vary. This may depend on factors such as:

how much money you put towards your student loans each month
the amount that you have in student loans
your interest rate
What is the smartest way to pay student loans?

Some people pay them off quickly, and others may take longer.

What are you doing to pay off your student loans fast?

FAQs

The fastest way to pay off your student loans is to increase your monthly payment. Decreasing your spending and increasing your income will help you pay more than your minimum payment. Refinancing your student loans may help—but it's not for everyone. Income-driven repayment plans are not your best option.

The fastest way to pay off student loans is to pay more than the minimum each month. The more you pay toward your loans, the less interest you'll owe — and the quicker the balance will disappear.

Borrowers between the ages of 25 and 34 carry about $500 billion in federal student loans—the majority of people in this age group owe between $10,000 and $40,000. However, people carry their education debt well into middle-age and beyond. Borrowers ages 35 to 49 owe more than $620 billion in student loans.

But if you pay off a $45,000 student loan in one year at a 14% APR, your monthly payment will be $4,040. The standard payoff period for a student loan is up to 10 years, and student loan APRs generally range between 5% and 14%. Private student loans tend to have higher maximum APRs than federal loans, however.

Options For Paying Off Substantial Credit Card Debt. There are a number of strategies to pay off large amounts of credit card debt. They include personal loans, 0% APR balance transfer cards, debt settlement, bankruptcy, credit counseling and debt management plans. You may be able to use more than one of these options.

The "snowball method," simply put, means paying off the smallest of all your loans as quickly as possible. Once that debt is paid, you take the money you were putting toward that payment and roll it onto the next-smallest debt owed. Ideally, this process would continue until all accounts are paid off.

Pay More than Your Minimum Payment

Paying a little extra each month can reduce the interest you pay and reduce your total cost of your loan over time. Continue to make monthly payments even if you've satisfied future payments, and you'll pay off your loan faster.

If you have federal student loans and pay them off early, you could lose the opportunity to take advantage of a student loan forgiveness program (if you qualify). If it's still worth it to you to pay off your student loans quickly, it may help to refinance your student loans as part of the process.

Sallie Mae does not offer any loan forgiveness programs. If you're having trouble repaying your loans because of an undue hardship and file for bankruptcy, your Sallie Mae loans might be discharged, meaning you won't need to repay them.