100K of student loan debt.. advice for paying this off? (hyperinflation)

[jcd01]

There is some great advice in this thread! Student debt or not, the tips will help anyone struggling with their finances.

Question. How does a post become sticky?

[christina0001]

Ouch that is a lot of money. I graduated with $50k which was way more than I should have borrowed.
Look for state and federal programs that offer loan forgiveness/partial repayment if you work in a particular area. This works well for some professions (medical, education) but I don't know about engineers.

Look into volunteering for AmeriCorps. They will provide housing and a small stipend, and several thousands of dollars to put directly toward your student loans.

Live cheap. Very cheap, bare bones, as in don't eat out, don't buy new clothes, no cable TV, no internet, rent a room in some old lady's house cheap. Set up an affordable repayment plan, but pay as much as possible every month. (Warning: be sure to also set up a small savings account for yourself, so you have some money put aside in case you are ever unemployed. It happens.)

Sign up for automatic withdrawal from your bank account for the monthly minimum payment, if they will agree to reduce your interest rate. My loan holder gives 0.25% off the interest rate for doing this.

Just stick to it...eventually it will go down. I graduated in 2001, and I've gone from a balance of $50k to just less than $19k. Still a lot of money to owe, but it's getting there.

[Woof Woof Woof!]

and check out the "Can you live on $1 a day" thread.

[debtmonger]

How to pay 100k of student loan debt Quickly? Get a 100k full time job and a 20K part time job. Live on the 20K, and use the remainder goes to pay off this debt. It would take about a year. When you are finished with this year of sacrifice, you will realize that it wasn't just silly to take on this debt, it was stupid.

[subsound]

Student debt is the hardest thing to get rid of, the only way to do anything is pay it off...it never goes away unless you live under a bridge (even if you get out it still comes back). The best thing to do is get a good job and live like a poor undergrad till it gets paid off.

[evilnewbie]

My wife has over 210k worth of student loan debt.... I doubt she make 210k a year... her loans are the first thing to be paid off... especially when they are at a fixed 6.8% interest rate... I don't expect other people to pay HER debts... I expect me and her to do it...

[texdav]

I find it funny that peoploe talk about loans going away now days instead of how to pay them off, No wander we are in such trouble in thsi country.Saw a show about studentr loans and they wre telling about the percentage of student that thier loans were mo0re a larger percenatge of living expense than education.

[Moonwalkr]

Loan forgiveness is the quick and easy way to do it, but you need to be in the right field. MD's and PhD's in the science field can get rid of hundreds of K's for free courtesy of the NIH. Of course, the ones I know in those situation are also making 200k+ a year. There's always some sort of help for the rich and the poor, just not everyone else in the middle.

[wheelsup]

Don't worry - inflation will take care of your student loans right quick.

[drjones96]

Well there are options...

1) Move to a foreign country and change your name...don't leave a forwarding address either...that'd just give you away.
2) Continue to take college classes until you die. As long as you still attend college you can defer your loans...well some loans let you do this I know.
3) Military - as already mentioned.
4) Death
5) Invent something cool that you can make a ton of money on (let me know if you come up with something and I'll manage it for you)
6) See if you can have yourself committed and maybe you can get out of it somehow. Only a crazy person would go into debt by $100k in order to be an engineer right?