When we graduated from school we knew we had one main priority: Pay off our student loans. In 2019, after four years we finally accomplished that goal and paid off student loans reaching over $180,000.
People always ask us how we paid off our student loan debt so quickly. The truth is that we used many different strategies to accomplish our goal.
We were lucky to have good jobs as traveling physical therapists. Of course, our salary helped but there was more to it.
Below are some of our biggest tips and tricks to pay down our debt. If paying off your student loans is a priority, give some of this try.
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Contents
- 1 Budgeting
- 2 Refinancing
- 3 Prioritizing Our Loans
- 4 Limiting our Spending
- 5 Paying More Than the Minimum
- 6 Living in a Tiny Home
Budgeting
The most important thing to do when it comes to money is to have a budget. You have to make sure you know where your money is going at all times.
We created a budget with the specific purpose of paying off our student loans. That meant starting by figuring out what we wanted to pay for our student loans and work around that.
Make sure that when you budget for your student loans you put as much as possible towards your loans. This needs to be a number based on what YOU can afford.
The other important part of budgeting with student loans is making sure you have enough money in other crucial areas. You need to make sure you can maintain this spending for the long haul.
Refinancing
This was step one in our student loan payoff process. We started with over $165,000 in student loan debt and the average interest was around 6.5%.
We knew with that much debt and with that high of interest, we needed to refinance ASAP. So we looked around at our options and found a refinance option.
Ultimately we chose to refinance our loans with SoFi. They offered us an easy process to refinance and they gave us a decent interest rate (4.75%) for a five-year loan refinance.
It's important when you refinance the loans to think about what your priorities are. For us, we were looking for the lowest interest and term length which meant the highest monthly payment. We were okay with that tradeoff but make sure you pick what situation is best for you.
Prioritizing Our Loans
When it comes to dealing with student loans, we made sure they were the priority. For us, that meant paying them off as soon as possible by always putting more money towards them.
If you are trying to prioritize your loans, you want to choose the shortest term AND pay it back sooner. That is why we chose to get the shortest term possible (five years) and we made the deal we would pay ANY leftover money towards the loans.
Anything you can pay above and beyond the typical payment is an improvement and will speed up your student loan payoff date.
We always made sure to prioritize our loans first and foremost. It's important to set the tone for yourself so you will pay those loans off as fast as possible.
Limiting our Spending
It's important when you are trying to pay off large student loan debt that you limit your spending elsewhere. That's because every dollar you save means you can put that towards the loan, allowing you to pay off student loans sooner.
The other important thing with limiting spending is that it lets you live more within your means. The longer you can live like a poor college student the easier it can be to pay off your loans as soon as possible.
It can be difficult to limit your spending forever so make sure what you are doing won't tax all your willpower. We found a way to still contribute to all of our budget categories, including travel, while still saving overall for the loans.
Make a plan that is doable for you and limits your spending without a strain on your mental health. The goal is to pay off that loan quicker without losing your sanity.
Paying More Than the Minimum
This is probably the easiest and the quickest way we paid off student loans. Making sure you pay more than the minimum will, by definition, allow you to pay off your student loans quicker.
The key to paying more than your minimum is starting with your minimum payment and doubling it. That's at least what we did.
You don't have to stay at that level but that gives you a good starting point. You also should treat this as your "new" minimum payment so it no longer seems optional but what you have to do.
A lot of people will refinance to a 10-year loan term and pay for the full 10 years. This is not the way to go.
The goal is to pay off your loans ASAP. You should be able to pay off your loans early with no extra fees (If not you may be working with a crooked company).
For us, our minimum payment was just over $3,000. That meant our "new" minimum payment was $6,000! And we stuck to that payment for as long as we could to force us to pay as much as possible.
Living in a Tiny Home
This one might not be for everyone but for us, this saved us so much money. By switching to a travel trailer we were able to allocate more funds to get out of debt.
In the months when we didn't live in the tiny home while traveling we spent almost 30% more on rent per month. That equals out to another $300 we had to use on rent rather than using it on the student loans.
Tiny home living saved money and sanity in a variety of ways. Having an extra $3,600 per year can mean paying off your student loans a year early as we did!
Make sure if you do decide to move into a tiny home, it has everything you want. If you move into a tiny home but you arent 100% happy with it, you will find yourself spending more money on other things to fill the void.
You also want to make sure you do your research and figure out the best place to park your tiny home. If you pick high cost of living areas like San Jose or San Francisco, you will still be spending a lot on rent even in a tiny home.
You might be just getting out of school or you might have been out of school for 10 years but you are still staring at a huge loan bill. Unfortunately, that is the reality for a lot of people nowadays but that doesn't mean your situation is hopeless.
You might not be able to pay off your loans in four years but maybe you can finish it a year earlier. For us, taking a year off our payment was worth it and we bet it will be for you too.
Living without a monthly loan payment made our life easier. It allowed us to do more of what we wanted without having to worry about money.
Use some of our tips above to pay off your student loans and get one step closer to financial freedom.
