The Fastest Way to Pay Off Your Student Loan Debt

You just graduated from a university. You walked across the stage and took pictures with friends and family and are happy to have accomplished such a feat. Months later, you get a recap of how much you owe for the college or university you attended and the terms and how much needs to be paid each month, and by what dates. And, if there is more than one. Ouch!

This is much of the reality of going and finishing up at a four-year college. It is such an accomplishment to earn a degree, something that 40% or so of people in the US do. This paper is said to open up doorways and pathways to lucrative careers and a blossoming future. However, the amount of debt owed and the terms of repaying 6 months or so after college can be daunting and troublesome.

The best thing to do is to pay off the student loan debt as quickly as possible and do as much as possible to tackle it. Here are my tips for paying them off as soon as possible from my own experience.

Photo credit to Monstera – Pexels

Pay over the minimum 

This was the best way for me to pay off my student loan the fastest and make any real progress. I noticed when I made the minimum payments the balance did not go down very much depending on the set interest at 3 or 5%. Any extra income I could give I would give after some time and it would work as I would see the balance shrink by a sizeable amount with less interest being charged with it. Dents can really be made on a $5,000 or $8,000 loan and can be paid off if extra payments are geared towards it.

Budgeting

This goes hand in hand with the first tip but making sure to budget with other bills can go a long way to paying off a student loan faster. The more expenses, the more money is not available for use. It is crucial to budget, save, and allocate money towards bills, and, in this case, to gear to getting rid of the student loan.

Pay the smallest balance off first

This can be debatable. However, from my experience, I found paying off the lowest loan balance made a lot more sense than paying more sizeable student loans. Getting rid of the smallest one gets rid of it forever and allows you to save up money and budget to give money towards the larger loans. From my viewpoint, it made less sense to pay off a much higher loan since it will take a good amount of time to pay off and I wouldn’t make much real progress versus paying the loan that’s less than half of the price of the other. This is why I am a firm believer in paying off the smallest balance first and allocating money towards the biggest ones while saving up money and allowing for budgeting.

In the long run, it is a great financial decision to pay off the student loan debt as quickly as possible to save accumulated money from interest over time. These tips help do so.