I wouldnt say fucked, but how you live with this has the risk of fucking you. Meaning, dont get anyone/yourself pregnant till this is in a manageable spot, live frugally, limit your free time spending, buy things on sale, any way you can take what you earn and save money and pay off debt. Idk if you have the option to, but if you ever have the opportunities to refinance for lower interest rates and restructure the payments I would research that and navigate accordingly as well. This isnt doomsday stuff, however you do have your work cut out for you.
All this to say, yes live frugally and keep costs low, but dont forget to live and try to enjoy life where you can. Find the little things.
None of what I said comes from a professional, and none of it was financial advice. This comes from a Redditor with far too much time on his hands.
This. You’re going to need a strict budget, cheap housing (preferably shared), a decent paying job, and reasonable entertainment expenses. That means smoking, drinking, drugs, vacations, eating out, pets, kids, vehicles, online shopping, gambling, new clothes, gym memberships, even most streaming services are off the table for a while. Decrease your phone bill as much as possible and use WiFi with the cheapest unlimited plan you can get.
Video games are one of the cheapest hobbies if you’re responsible about spending on games that are both a one-time purchases and provide years of entertainment. Alternatively, find a hobby you enjoy that can turn a profit in your spare time or simply work more if you enjoy it. Or pick up 1 streaming service.
Make all your own meals including coffee, limit your driving, walk/bike whenever possible. Try to use fresh ingredients - it’s better for you and typically cheaper. Simple meals are great - potatoes, rice, carrots, onions, leeks, beans, etc. are very cheap! No pop, no chips, no desserts, no bottled water. Buy necessities used from garage sales, thrift stores, and marketplaces - and do your best to haggle the price down.
Basically pretend like you don’t have *any* money all the time. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to live like this and it will help you become wealthy in the future because you won’t blow your paychecks on things that don’t actually matter to you.
>“I didn’t get rich by paying my bills” -Elon Musk
Most big corporations seem to prioritize not paying their bills. It's up there with reducing employee pay every way possible.
Lmao I was just going to suggest Skyrim. Or fallout. Or buy all of them for under $100, and you’ll have the next 5-10 years of entertainment on lock. Although I’d splurge and get Netflix for $17/month
Pluto TV and Tubi are pretty solid for free streaming sites. Honestly YouTube has stepped up its movies for free too. Was looking everywhere for Big Trouble in Little China and YouTube is hosting it free. Like not some random upload but free HD directly from YT.
I make well into 6 figures and this would take years for me to pay off, and would mean putting off a ton of shit.
I hope these are all federal loans and not private. If so income-based repayment and hope for eventual forgiveness, save up money and maximize your 401k and savings so you can try to get as much invested in the market as possible and try to catch up to this burden.
>Video games are one of the cheapest hobbies if you’re responsible about spending on games that are both a one-time purchases and provide years of entertainment. Alternatively, find a hobby you enjoy that can turn a profit in your spare time or simply work more if you enjoy it. Or pick up 1 streaming service.
i was about to reply to this, i don't know what OP is into but dollar-to-hour the two best things a person can do for cheap entertainment is videogames and a guitar. just an insane value if you think about it, from either of those things. also ANY streaming service beats the holy hell out of what i had for tv growing up. and there's so many great free ones.
Me being military probably skews my view of this, but gym should be budgeted for...especially over video games. Fitness should be a priority for everyone.
Gym memberships? I mean idk this person but if they’re at all fitness oriented I feel like a gym membership would be of great value, you can easily find 10-12 dollars a month gyms that aren’t too shabby. Plus the mental and physical benefits from it, definitely something to consider. Everything else yea I’ll agree with you
You are 100% right. This is how my wife and i paid off our student loan debts. Fast forward 15 years, we got locked into the same habits and will pay off our mortgage in a year or two.
Id suggest to shop at Marshall's or TJ Maxx for clothes and various things.. seriously. Discounts you won't believe.
The best possible course of action is to live with the parents if you can for 2-3 years if you're fortunate enough, with cheap or no rent and blast out as much as you can so the interest doesn't eat you alive for the rest of your life.
Video games: try No Man's Sky. It's a one time purchase, and it's hours of exploring other worlds. Takes your mind out of this one for a while. Also Starfield.
I agree, but keep the $10 a month planet fitness membership if possible. If you have time to go every night or two it'll keep you from spending other money when you're bored. Worked for me and that $10 investment has saved me probably $300 in late night boredom purchases in the last couple months.
>pretend like you don’t have any money
This. This is the best way. I am living paycheck to paycheck, and can only afford it because I pretend like I have nothing. It sucks, yes, and unfortunately most times that I actually have a decent amount of money, I want to spend it, but every time I do, I’m put right back into that ‘great, another week of ramen and carrots’ mindset. It sucks for a long time, until eventually it wont
This is all outstanding advice. Someone also mentioned yard sales. If you enjoy them, it's not only a hobby in itself, but once you have that console, you can get DVDs for 50 cents or a dollar.
I know people who yard sale for items to sell and turn a nice profit for a side gig.
This is baloney. They should make sure they're one a PAYE student loan repayment schedule (those all look like federal loans) and prioritize car payments. Make sure you, OP, spend money on entertainment etc. The life this commenter is recommending sounds like suicide
Absolutely do NOT cancel gym memberships. Go to a cheaper gym, maybe, but do NOT neglect your physical health. This is more important than all of the other entertainment options combined.
Just want to say this is a one-way ticket to depression. You need ways to wind down, and new stimulations(going out, trying new things). Definitely work and prioritize getting yourself out of debt, but do it healthily were if that means skipping on that double payment for a month means being able to do a date night or something. Do it.
Don’t have any fun or do anything fun or eat anything fun or feel joy and eventually you’ll maybe be able to pay off people who fly in private jets and jack off with lotion infused with solid gold and the tears of child slaves. Fuck this system.
If you are interested in gaming cheap, the Xbox game pass is a good option, like 10-15 a month but has same day releases of some AAA Games and a ton of already available games. Steam has some good sales this time of year to get Skyrim special edition with the old dlc included. Wife has over 300 hours in already and we played it for years before.
Being broke is not hard, especially if you’re able to see progress on those loans. A Costco membership (60-120/year) is a good option for bulk buying shelf stable staples and rotisserie chickens, they are huge and sold at a loss. 3 chickens makes 4-5 different dinners for my family of 5 with a preteen and a 20 year old who eats like crazy….
Anyway good luck!
Holy dystopia, Batman. not coming at you at all - but the fact that an education in the USA means basically no freedom to even have a soda pop until the cost of that education and the interest on top of the cost is eliminated.
That actually helped me so much. Currently 24 and tryna to sharpen up my budgeting habits and cut costs. I’m tired of throwing money around everyday on non necessities lol
No.
OP, you can absolutely still spend money on what you love. But you can also mercilessly cut out things that you don’t love.
It’s definitely important to make a budget and stick to it, but you aren’t living if you’re doing what is suggested above.
The whole “live poor and in misery now so you’re happy later” mindset that gets thrown around is terrible. You can save money, save up, and pay off debt without being miserable.
Also, if you don't have money to pay all of your loans at once (if you have multiple) pay the highest interest rates first, and go to the lowest.
Another good thing to do that I didn't see many people take advantage of: if a "no-interest for a limited time" thing happens again like it did during the pandemic, keep paying your regular monthly rare on the loans.
I saw many people stop paying because it wasn't gaining interest, so why pay? Pay because it's less interest you will be paying when the no interest thing stops.
You got it half right. Obviously a person with debt doesn’t have enough money to pay said debt, otherwise they wouldn’t be in debt. Or they are just stupid and didn’t notice, I think the former for this person.
It’s not smart to pay off debt according to interest rates. Why? Because is way more important to continuously pay off debt than to pay the least amount to get out of debt. Always pay off debts from lowest total to highest total. That way, you can actually completely finish off debts, and that builds confidence for the bigger ones. OP already knows that, because they mentioned the Snowball method.
Also, chances that interest gets frozen again are tiny, even with Biden in charge. That was directly caused by the pandemic, and will only be repeated if something of that level happened again. Aka another pandemic or WWIII. So we will have bigger things to worry about if it happens again.
>I saw many people stop paying because it wasn't gaining interest, so why pay? Pay because it's less interest you will be paying when the no interest thing stops.
Or better - You should put the money into a high interest rate savings account as if you were paying the loan off like normal, then pay the entire account balance when the loan starts accruing interest again. It’s like a negative interest rate for your loan.
This. Don't get discouraged because you put your entire $15k bonus towards it and it goes from 130k to 115k. My wife had to do that for years. Every chunk you can break off do it
This. I graduated from undergrad with $170K in loans (many parent plus with an avg interest rate of 7.8%). I worked my ass off and paid very aggressively until I could afford the higher refi payment and drop the interest rate.
I graduated at 22 and was finished paying for it at 29 and still managed to buy a house at 30.
Just put your head down and pay as much as you can if getting out of debt is your main goal.
Like how this is allowed. If you want a business loan, they will want statements, proof of income, and so on. But when you're a student, they really do give you loans without thinking twice.
Real question would moving out of the country “clear it” like obviously couldn’t come back without it chasing you, but get a degree and then transfer those credentials/accreditations across seas?
Genius... this is the Asian way...
Send all your kids to university to become doctors, lawyers, and dentists, then ship them off to Europe or Canada so they don't have debt to worry bout 👌
Basically the answer to your question is yes. People do that sometimes. There isn't really anything they can do if your wages are earned in a foreign nation from a foreign company.
This is basically my brother's situation. He has lived in Thailand for many years and is an English teacher, married to a Thai woman, and teaches martial arts and does small acting roles that call for Caucasian men on the side. He only owes about 12k, but good fucking luck to the creditors ever getting him to pay. They called my mom a few times looking for him, she told them where he lives and they were just like "oh...well damn, ok, let him know he owes us this if he ever comes back." 😂
Don’t forget that if you don’t pay them by the time you retire they’ll garnish your social security. Has to be one of the sweetest loans (scams) to underwrite for these corporations.
Do you actually support the idea that government student loans should not be provided to anyone, and instead only people who can afford to pay for college should be allowed to attend? Honest question and genuinely curious
It’s how college used to work when it was cheap, and allowing everyone to pay infinite tuition regardless of financial background is what got us to the current situation. But when people say things like this, I have a hard time figuring out if they’re willing to stomach the reality that turning the government loan system off or restricting it means not everyone can study
It’s kinda tricky though because that system wouldn’t work for a student because he/she won’t have any meaningful financial information until starting the career that comes from the education that the loan was funding.
Private student loans require a credit approval, the federal stuff is automatically qualified through the use of the FAFSA, but those big loans were a choice beyond what was just handed over.
It's because the government gives out 92% of all student loans now. It used to be a bank would carefully vet students by potential, but not anymore. The trap is set where colleges can double or triple their tuition, students take the easy money, and then are left on the hook.
How is it even expected that students who have nothing will pay for their education? It's in the society's interest to have educated people. It's so sick that if one wants to study they have to get in a huge debt first.
People said “everyone deserves to go to college”. And the government said “okay” and guaranteed student loans. Then the consequences of those good (naive) intentions kicked in.
should be free honestly they want us to be skilled workers then prepare us for the job. we pay out the ass in taxes already might as well get something out of it that's tangible
The top three loans are private loans not provided by the government. I had to do the same thing because my FAFSA said my parents should pay $30k+ per year into my tuition and living expenses, but the government doesn’t care if your parents cut you off when you turn 18. That left the only way for me to go to college being asking every wealthy person I knew to co-sign my private student loans until it got approved
Imagine giving in to societal pressure to go to college and being 17/18 when you make a life changing decision based on no prior financial education due to a gap in the education system and then having adults tell you that college is important for your life but not telling you how to manage the expenses properly 🤦🏻♂️
And then even through that college experience not being educated on the impact of graduating with 6 figure debt or how to prepare for that. Then you find yourself on Reddit….
>I don't care if I missed the "dorm experience"
If being gas chambered by the smell of weed while you try to sleep is your definition of the "dorm experience" then you aren't missing out.
Yep, this happened to me. Made a wrong decision right out of high school, and now I’m going back for another degree, accruing all the debt along the way
I honestly had my high school guidance counselor tell me joining the military was a bad idea and that I needed to go to college instead, when I told her I didn't have the money to go to college and didn't know what I wamted to study she told me to get a loan and that it didn't matter what I studied.
Still glad I ignored her advice.
There’s a lot of people that were 17/18 dealing with societal pressure to take loans out and go to college. And alot of people said fuck that and didn’t do it lol
Depending on the degree, his/her earning capacity could be substantial more with the degree. When I got out of school I had the lowest salary of all my friends. After a few years I am making 20-30k more than most of them
Dude your rate looks good! Jk, figure out which has the higher interest rate and aggressively pay off each one in that order. If you have any I loans below 3% just pay the min. Any loans at or below inflation is essentially breaking even. As you get the principle down you’ll notice that you’ll be losing less to interest every month.
Take a deep breath and remember you finished college. You’re in a good position to take control of your life and likely have a better job than most. Take advantage of every opportunity to save money and put that towards those private loans.
Tasty Meal prep recommendations :
Fried rice: chicken breast (cut down the middle and dice it), rice, green onions, carrots, soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil. Roughly 30$ in ingredients and you can get 8-12 meals out of this.
Fried chicken with fries: Panko bread crumbs, chicken breast, 2 gals of cooking oil, and potatoes with salt. This is an easy way to get 3-4 meals of fried chicken with fries for abt 15$
Beef pho: Beef broth, rice noodles, thin cut flank steak, green onions, garlic, cumin, garlic salt, salt, pepper, cinnamon, brown sugar. (You can add cilantro jalapeños and lime). Roughly 20-30$ based on what ingredients you already have. You can easily get 3-5 servings of pho out of this recipe.
Just some ideas. I love Asian cooking because you can grow most garnishes for it to save extra money and it tastes great as leftovers.
Well so long as our education system prepares you as it should, you’ll have a well paying job that covers that in no time. Especially in this thriving economy, where the rest of your expenses should be minimal!
(Sarcasm)
Military gets GI Bill, which is different than PSLF (which you’re talking about).
Almost certain GI Bill only requires 4 years of service and applies to public or private loans. It’s much broader than PSLF.
Ten years.
There are many other public service professions you can work in without having to risk your life though.
I’m working as a court clerk and will have 250k in student loans forgiven in the next 3 years.
It’s called Public Loan Forgiveness Program or PLFP
I was in state government and was counting down to forgiveness... Then got a private sector job that paid enough to make it worth it to split. But it was nice knowing there was a hard horizon.
I had an almost exact situation as OP student loan wise. Literally almost the same amount with the same mix of private and public loans.
My suggestion to OP is go into sales. It's a tough career and not for everyone, but it's lucrative and how I paid off my private ones 10 years early and made the public ones very manageable. Despite initially paying $850 minimum a month right out of college, I never felt like I was scraping by.
Fair, but like you said sales isn’t for everyone. If it was everyone would probably try to be in it. Sales makes quite a bit if you’re good at your job of course.
Yes just my suggestion. With this much student loan debt it's sometimes the only option because you can get close to or into a 6 figures income within a year or two of starting the career. But it's definitely difficult to find success and can wear you down over time.
I have some rough bouts of anxiety due to it, but the peace of mind financially and paying off my private student loans much earlier keeps me from feeling anxious about money. So it's a pick your poison type of thing.
You can sign up for the new SAVE plan, it’s income based, so you pay 5% of your discretionary income for 25 years then the rest is forgiven. Check out the government website on income based repayment?
Honestly if it was <80k I would try to pay it off asap. But I’m at >220k so ain’t no way I’m paying that off before I try to pay off my mortgage first asap so I’m on income based SAVE plan
I got approved for SAVE making over $100k, I think you are thinking of the previous REPAYE plan (unless I am wrong and need to prepare to have this revoked)
SAVE is 20 year forgiveness if you don’t miss a payment and payments are based on a calculation of your rent, income, and a few other factors
There is a separate program for low income if I remember correctly
Royally. Move overseas and get a cheap equivalency to that locale. Then break ties with the country where this was incurred. I don’t believe in student loans which is why I’m an uneducated fool. A debt free poor uneducated fool.
You are giving me flashbacks to my medical debts back in the day. Aghh.
In all seriousness the snowball method works amazingly. Just pay off the smallest and go to the biggest over time.
The key thing is, do not produce any children, or more children. Do not take in any other debts. No ccs, no more loans, no more nothing.
Choose your hobbies wisely. Adult coloring books are cheap and so are crayola color pencils. And depending on if you focus on improving your coloring skills, it can take literally months to finish one coloring book if you take you time and work on shading and details.
Believe it or not, but if you are a gamer, trying to 100% the games you already own that do not require a subscription, or if you are a wow player and only spend the 15$ a month, it can keep you home, save you heaps of money, and keep you busy and (if you play wow) social.
Make sure you pick up an interest in cooking all your meals homemade and meal preps. Do not go out to eat unless someone else is treating you for your birthday or some special occasion.
Take up writing. That costs you nothing. You can use your computer or your cellphone.
Reading, but only books from your local library. That is a free hobby too.
Make your hobby working. You can do surveys for money, you can babysit, do yardwork, walk dogs, do Uber eats, DoorDash, or even just pick up a part time job that only has you work 12 hours a week.
I dunno. You can save tons of money, and pay off your debt. You got this!
😂😂😂😂😂 I only laugh because this is exactly my situation. I have accepted it’s all fucked and I live in an RV—not kidding. I’m not having kids, am married, but know I’ll likely live in debt forever. Good luck with that budget!!! Let’s hope inflation changes 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Dave ramsey says tackle smallest debt first. If you make 42k (according to what people say you said) you can probably clear your 4 smallest debts with in the first year!! Imagine that! Youd only be left with 4 debts out of 8!! Yes the remaining 4 are bigger but just the thought of having 4 out of 8 debts cleared will greatly boost you mentally! Good luck dude
Yea your fucked. For at least the next 10 years anyways....unless you land a job in the top 1% and live in your parents basement - then you might be ok...
In this scenario, you've got to ask yourself 2 questions:
- Do you have access to a human skeleton that is roughly the same height and build as you?
- Do you mind torching the car that you took out a loan on with the aforementioned skeleton inside?
A brand new, debt-free life (south of the border) awaits you!
First, try to pay it all off. You come out better in the end but if any time you feel like your drowning with no way out. Remember this;
1. Step 1: Pay off Government Loans
2. Step 2: Find remote location where no one can find you for 10 years.
3. Step 3: Pay nothing
4. Step 4: Return after 10-15 years with zero credit score and zero debt.
5. Debt has a statute of limitations, just make it hard for them to find you and serve you.
Not sure what your degree is in but I would think about getting a job in sales with good commission potential and working your ass off for the next 5-10 years. Pay them off aggressively. It seems like a lot but you can do it. Nothing is impossible.
Hi! 👋 You’re in the same boat a lot of us are in. You’re not fucked, this system is fucked. Get on an Income-based repayment plan. Your payment might be quite low (or nothing!) depending on your income. Take advantage of any forgiveness programs for which you’re eligible. And then *forget about your student loans.* 🪄 You are hereby forgiven for being scammed by the government and university system. Pay your car payment. And keep a budget spreadsheet where you can monitor all outflows (yeah even fucking Mohela). You can manage this until such time that either the system collapses or the government forgives more student loans. ✌️
I haven't seen this in the top comments. Apply to this:
https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/repayment/plans/income-driven
It takes a few minutes, and you may have a large portion of your loans forgiven. At the very least, your payments will drop substantially.
Just ignore it, you will never pay this off. Make the minimum payments and spend your money on yourself however you see fit. Set the min payment to auto draft on the first and never think about it again.
I wouldnt say fucked, but how you live with this has the risk of fucking you. Meaning, dont get anyone/yourself pregnant till this is in a manageable spot, live frugally, limit your free time spending, buy things on sale, any way you can take what you earn and save money and pay off debt. Idk if you have the option to, but if you ever have the opportunities to refinance for lower interest rates and restructure the payments I would research that and navigate accordingly as well. This isnt doomsday stuff, however you do have your work cut out for you. All this to say, yes live frugally and keep costs low, but dont forget to live and try to enjoy life where you can. Find the little things. None of what I said comes from a professional, and none of it was financial advice. This comes from a Redditor with far too much time on his hands.
This. You’re going to need a strict budget, cheap housing (preferably shared), a decent paying job, and reasonable entertainment expenses. That means smoking, drinking, drugs, vacations, eating out, pets, kids, vehicles, online shopping, gambling, new clothes, gym memberships, even most streaming services are off the table for a while. Decrease your phone bill as much as possible and use WiFi with the cheapest unlimited plan you can get. Video games are one of the cheapest hobbies if you’re responsible about spending on games that are both a one-time purchases and provide years of entertainment. Alternatively, find a hobby you enjoy that can turn a profit in your spare time or simply work more if you enjoy it. Or pick up 1 streaming service. Make all your own meals including coffee, limit your driving, walk/bike whenever possible. Try to use fresh ingredients - it’s better for you and typically cheaper. Simple meals are great - potatoes, rice, carrots, onions, leeks, beans, etc. are very cheap! No pop, no chips, no desserts, no bottled water. Buy necessities used from garage sales, thrift stores, and marketplaces - and do your best to haggle the price down. Basically pretend like you don’t have *any* money all the time. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to live like this and it will help you become wealthy in the future because you won’t blow your paychecks on things that don’t actually matter to you.
Just buy skyrim. It's available on every console, even the TI-86, and after 4614 hours I still haven't been to bleak falls barrow
"If you owe someone $1,000, that's your problem. If you owe someone $143,207 and have a copy of Skyrim, that's their problem." --Warren Buffet
“I didn’t get rich by paying my bills” -Elon Musk
>“I didn’t get rich by paying my bills” -Elon Musk Most big corporations seem to prioritize not paying their bills. It's up there with reducing employee pay every way possible.
Yeah I don’t think Tesla is Sears they pay their bills
Lmao I was just going to suggest Skyrim. Or fallout. Or buy all of them for under $100, and you’ll have the next 5-10 years of entertainment on lock. Although I’d splurge and get Netflix for $17/month
With debts like that there better off sailing the seven seas.
Arrr ya got that right
I’d say ditch Netflix and search for the illegal streaming sites find a fire stick hookup
Pluto TV and Tubi are pretty solid for free streaming sites. Honestly YouTube has stepped up its movies for free too. Was looking everywhere for Big Trouble in Little China and YouTube is hosting it free. Like not some random upload but free HD directly from YT.
Divicast and bflix also work well but use an ad blocker if you dont wanna close a popup each 2 clicks
>Basically pretend like you don’t have *any* money all the time. I don't even have to pretend because I never have money
I, too, like to pretend like I am pretending I am broke
Yeah, that's easy, I don't have to pretend either, lol.
I'd argue to keep a cheap gym membership over streaming services or video games. Gym is so good for your mental health (and physical too).
Yes, they are great. Also can be very expensive. And you can work out without equipment. But if that makes you happy, then it’s worth budgeting for.
Situps, pushups, long speed walks, and a cheap weight set works wonders. Get a full body workout cheap with little effort.
Take out long speed walks and get a $100-200 mountain bike.
[удалено]
Do all this but keep the gym membership. Sound body is sound mind.
>gym membership off the table >spending more than that on video games or 1 streaming service is fine Reddit moment
Nah. Gym is the better investment
I guess it depends on what OP went to school for, that type of debt for a 6 figure salary is easily doable
I make well into 6 figures and this would take years for me to pay off, and would mean putting off a ton of shit. I hope these are all federal loans and not private. If so income-based repayment and hope for eventual forgiveness, save up money and maximize your 401k and savings so you can try to get as much invested in the market as possible and try to catch up to this burden.
>Video games are one of the cheapest hobbies if you’re responsible about spending on games that are both a one-time purchases and provide years of entertainment. Alternatively, find a hobby you enjoy that can turn a profit in your spare time or simply work more if you enjoy it. Or pick up 1 streaming service. i was about to reply to this, i don't know what OP is into but dollar-to-hour the two best things a person can do for cheap entertainment is videogames and a guitar. just an insane value if you think about it, from either of those things. also ANY streaming service beats the holy hell out of what i had for tv growing up. and there's so many great free ones.
Me being military probably skews my view of this, but gym should be budgeted for...especially over video games. Fitness should be a priority for everyone.
If he's close to his old college that student I'd will last at the gym indefinitely.
Gym memberships? I mean idk this person but if they’re at all fitness oriented I feel like a gym membership would be of great value, you can easily find 10-12 dollars a month gyms that aren’t too shabby. Plus the mental and physical benefits from it, definitely something to consider. Everything else yea I’ll agree with you
You are 100% right. This is how my wife and i paid off our student loan debts. Fast forward 15 years, we got locked into the same habits and will pay off our mortgage in a year or two.
That extreme, you can have 1-2 luxury’s like coffee and take out once a week. & fresh food is usually way more expensive than frozen.
At what age do you just say fuck it?
Id suggest to shop at Marshall's or TJ Maxx for clothes and various things.. seriously. Discounts you won't believe. The best possible course of action is to live with the parents if you can for 2-3 years if you're fortunate enough, with cheap or no rent and blast out as much as you can so the interest doesn't eat you alive for the rest of your life.
Video games: try No Man's Sky. It's a one time purchase, and it's hours of exploring other worlds. Takes your mind out of this one for a while. Also Starfield.
I am downvoting u since it’s called soda not pop
I agree, but keep the $10 a month planet fitness membership if possible. If you have time to go every night or two it'll keep you from spending other money when you're bored. Worked for me and that $10 investment has saved me probably $300 in late night boredom purchases in the last couple months.
DnD is a pretty cheap hobby. Everything is available online.
Oh boy, this is extremely relatable and depressing.. albeit impossible with a 6 month old.. I’m an idiot. Smh…
Agree with this. I suggest op build a gaming PC and stay home on most weekends. No subscriptions.
>pretend like you don’t have any money This. This is the best way. I am living paycheck to paycheck, and can only afford it because I pretend like I have nothing. It sucks, yes, and unfortunately most times that I actually have a decent amount of money, I want to spend it, but every time I do, I’m put right back into that ‘great, another week of ramen and carrots’ mindset. It sucks for a long time, until eventually it wont
This is all outstanding advice. Someone also mentioned yard sales. If you enjoy them, it's not only a hobby in itself, but once you have that console, you can get DVDs for 50 cents or a dollar. I know people who yard sale for items to sell and turn a nice profit for a side gig.
This is baloney. They should make sure they're one a PAYE student loan repayment schedule (those all look like federal loans) and prioritize car payments. Make sure you, OP, spend money on entertainment etc. The life this commenter is recommending sounds like suicide
Many libraries also carry video games now, so be sure to get a library card!
Absolutely do NOT cancel gym memberships. Go to a cheaper gym, maybe, but do NOT neglect your physical health. This is more important than all of the other entertainment options combined.
Just want to say this is a one-way ticket to depression. You need ways to wind down, and new stimulations(going out, trying new things). Definitely work and prioritize getting yourself out of debt, but do it healthily were if that means skipping on that double payment for a month means being able to do a date night or something. Do it.
If you’re on a budget just structurally play games that are 5 years old. Still fun and mostly dirt cheap :)
Jesus fuck that’s depressing
Don’t have any fun or do anything fun or eat anything fun or feel joy and eventually you’ll maybe be able to pay off people who fly in private jets and jack off with lotion infused with solid gold and the tears of child slaves. Fuck this system.
He can get one of those government phones if he makes a certain amount
Watch sites like gog.com fir HUGE sales on bundles and random games. It's a godsend
I lived with no WiFi and used my free hotspot for 2 years.
You're right he could buy Skyrim, Fallout and Eden ring and not have to buy another game for a Decade😂
Lol loans are slavery, I can't believe americans burden their youth with this. I could not manage this.
If you are interested in gaming cheap, the Xbox game pass is a good option, like 10-15 a month but has same day releases of some AAA Games and a ton of already available games. Steam has some good sales this time of year to get Skyrim special edition with the old dlc included. Wife has over 300 hours in already and we played it for years before. Being broke is not hard, especially if you’re able to see progress on those loans. A Costco membership (60-120/year) is a good option for bulk buying shelf stable staples and rotisserie chickens, they are huge and sold at a loss. 3 chickens makes 4-5 different dinners for my family of 5 with a preteen and a 20 year old who eats like crazy…. Anyway good luck!
*sweating and staring nervously at my steam library*
You forgot to tell him or her that they will need to do all this and until the day they die. Servitude and lesser quality of life.
Holy dystopia, Batman. not coming at you at all - but the fact that an education in the USA means basically no freedom to even have a soda pop until the cost of that education and the interest on top of the cost is eliminated.
Pretend you don't have any money. All the time. When solved, it will help you save for a house.
That actually helped me so much. Currently 24 and tryna to sharpen up my budgeting habits and cut costs. I’m tired of throwing money around everyday on non necessities lol
This guy budgets
No. OP, you can absolutely still spend money on what you love. But you can also mercilessly cut out things that you don’t love. It’s definitely important to make a budget and stick to it, but you aren’t living if you’re doing what is suggested above. The whole “live poor and in misery now so you’re happy later” mindset that gets thrown around is terrible. You can save money, save up, and pay off debt without being miserable.
Visible is 40/month unlimited
“For awhile” yeah the next 30 years lmao
Since when are kids counted as entertainment expenses lmao.
"Meaning, don't get anyone/yourself pregnant till this is in a manageable spot..." Say that part louder for the kids in the back of the class.
Paid to get that college education eh? Thank you for making everyone but yourself rich!
Double it and give it to the next person
I’m dead.🤣
Well at least you don’t have debt to pay then
Right, they’ll double it and give it to my kids in my passing.
happy cake day!
They don’t want you to know this one simple trick…
Debt collectors hate this one simple trick
Got a solid chuckle out of me ty
is generational debt a thing? Like you just live life to the fullest and keep passing it on to your offspring 💀
Except that isn’t really how most debts work
You're only fucked if you ignore the problem, attack it like it stole your child and you'll be fine.
Tried stabbing the loan but it didn't work
We have the 2nd amendment for a reason, homie Blast that motherfucker into oblivion.
Nuke from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
What if we ask the Jews for their space lasers?
This guy Aliens
You don't stab the loan, stab the lender
Try vanish/doom.
Update: viscously beat loan officer, now in jail. What’s next?
Establish dominance! Pee on them.
>Update: viscously beat loan officer, now in jail. What’s next? Three meals a day, a cot and a toilet
Also, if you don't have money to pay all of your loans at once (if you have multiple) pay the highest interest rates first, and go to the lowest. Another good thing to do that I didn't see many people take advantage of: if a "no-interest for a limited time" thing happens again like it did during the pandemic, keep paying your regular monthly rare on the loans. I saw many people stop paying because it wasn't gaining interest, so why pay? Pay because it's less interest you will be paying when the no interest thing stops.
You got it half right. Obviously a person with debt doesn’t have enough money to pay said debt, otherwise they wouldn’t be in debt. Or they are just stupid and didn’t notice, I think the former for this person. It’s not smart to pay off debt according to interest rates. Why? Because is way more important to continuously pay off debt than to pay the least amount to get out of debt. Always pay off debts from lowest total to highest total. That way, you can actually completely finish off debts, and that builds confidence for the bigger ones. OP already knows that, because they mentioned the Snowball method. Also, chances that interest gets frozen again are tiny, even with Biden in charge. That was directly caused by the pandemic, and will only be repeated if something of that level happened again. Aka another pandemic or WWIII. So we will have bigger things to worry about if it happens again.
>I saw many people stop paying because it wasn't gaining interest, so why pay? Pay because it's less interest you will be paying when the no interest thing stops. Or better - You should put the money into a high interest rate savings account as if you were paying the loan off like normal, then pay the entire account balance when the loan starts accruing interest again. It’s like a negative interest rate for your loan.
Aww good advice
My ex paid of her loans by living in the back of a van while working in San Fran.
This. Don't get discouraged because you put your entire $15k bonus towards it and it goes from 130k to 115k. My wife had to do that for years. Every chunk you can break off do it
This. I graduated from undergrad with $170K in loans (many parent plus with an avg interest rate of 7.8%). I worked my ass off and paid very aggressively until I could afford the higher refi payment and drop the interest rate. I graduated at 22 and was finished paying for it at 29 and still managed to buy a house at 30. Just put your head down and pay as much as you can if getting out of debt is your main goal.
Like how this is allowed. If you want a business loan, they will want statements, proof of income, and so on. But when you're a student, they really do give you loans without thinking twice.
You can't declare bankruptcy to forgive student loans so they will give them to anyone
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USA! USA! USA!
Real question would moving out of the country “clear it” like obviously couldn’t come back without it chasing you, but get a degree and then transfer those credentials/accreditations across seas?
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Genius... this is the Asian way... Send all your kids to university to become doctors, lawyers, and dentists, then ship them off to Europe or Canada so they don't have debt to worry bout 👌
Basically the answer to your question is yes. People do that sometimes. There isn't really anything they can do if your wages are earned in a foreign nation from a foreign company.
This is basically my brother's situation. He has lived in Thailand for many years and is an English teacher, married to a Thai woman, and teaches martial arts and does small acting roles that call for Caucasian men on the side. He only owes about 12k, but good fucking luck to the creditors ever getting him to pay. They called my mom a few times looking for him, she told them where he lives and they were just like "oh...well damn, ok, let him know he owes us this if he ever comes back." 😂
Don’t forget that if you don’t pay them by the time you retire they’ll garnish your social security. Has to be one of the sweetest loans (scams) to underwrite for these corporations.
Because bankruptcy can’t clear it. So they know they are getting it back and more. So they’ll give it to any student.
Do you actually support the idea that government student loans should not be provided to anyone, and instead only people who can afford to pay for college should be allowed to attend? Honest question and genuinely curious It’s how college used to work when it was cheap, and allowing everyone to pay infinite tuition regardless of financial background is what got us to the current situation. But when people say things like this, I have a hard time figuring out if they’re willing to stomach the reality that turning the government loan system off or restricting it means not everyone can study
It’s kinda tricky though because that system wouldn’t work for a student because he/she won’t have any meaningful financial information until starting the career that comes from the education that the loan was funding.
Imagine the backlash if the government and lenders had the discretion to deny loans based on their assessment of the borrower's future prospects.
Private student loans require a credit approval, the federal stuff is automatically qualified through the use of the FAFSA, but those big loans were a choice beyond what was just handed over.
Cause you can't file for bankruptcy on student loans. Government always fucks things up.
It's because the government gives out 92% of all student loans now. It used to be a bank would carefully vet students by potential, but not anymore. The trap is set where colleges can double or triple their tuition, students take the easy money, and then are left on the hook.
Look into student loan backed securities (SLBS)
How is it even expected that students who have nothing will pay for their education? It's in the society's interest to have educated people. It's so sick that if one wants to study they have to get in a huge debt first.
Because its a scam to get you indebted to work a slave life for corporations.
People said “everyone deserves to go to college”. And the government said “okay” and guaranteed student loans. Then the consequences of those good (naive) intentions kicked in.
should be free honestly they want us to be skilled workers then prepare us for the job. we pay out the ass in taxes already might as well get something out of it that's tangible
The top three loans are private loans not provided by the government. I had to do the same thing because my FAFSA said my parents should pay $30k+ per year into my tuition and living expenses, but the government doesn’t care if your parents cut you off when you turn 18. That left the only way for me to go to college being asking every wealthy person I knew to co-sign my private student loans until it got approved
*Makes 50k a year*
OP posted in here the other day. Makes $42k a year!
Imagine going into six figure debt to make $42k a year 🤦🏻♂️
Imagine giving in to societal pressure to go to college and being 17/18 when you make a life changing decision based on no prior financial education due to a gap in the education system and then having adults tell you that college is important for your life but not telling you how to manage the expenses properly 🤦🏻♂️
And then even through that college experience not being educated on the impact of graduating with 6 figure debt or how to prepare for that. Then you find yourself on Reddit….
This thread is brutally accurate hahaha
Lmao I can feel the pain in that ‘hahaha’ Im so sorry dude 🙏
Reddit should probably just open a university. The knowledge is already walking in the door in massive droves.
I'm so glad I waited a few years and went the community college route. I don't care if I missed the "dorm experience"
>I don't care if I missed the "dorm experience" If being gas chambered by the smell of weed while you try to sleep is your definition of the "dorm experience" then you aren't missing out.
Yep, this happened to me. Made a wrong decision right out of high school, and now I’m going back for another degree, accruing all the debt along the way
Imagine have parents who are dumb enough to let you.
I honestly had my high school guidance counselor tell me joining the military was a bad idea and that I needed to go to college instead, when I told her I didn't have the money to go to college and didn't know what I wamted to study she told me to get a loan and that it didn't matter what I studied. Still glad I ignored her advice.
Is that true though? Financial education was part of my curriculum in both middle school and high school.
Yeah, people act as if a bunch of boomer parents didn't make their kids do this.
There’s a lot of people that were 17/18 dealing with societal pressure to take loans out and go to college. And alot of people said fuck that and didn’t do it lol
It’s not rocket science bro I honestly have no idea how you spend over 40k for a degree
Imagine thinking your salary with no experience will not go higher with experience.
Point is you don’t need to go into six figure debt to get a degree and an entry level job to get said experience.
Depending on the degree, his/her earning capacity could be substantial more with the degree. When I got out of school I had the lowest salary of all my friends. After a few years I am making 20-30k more than most of them
I didn't see where he said his profession, did you? The more valid point is not all fields can be learned strictly by an apprenticeship.
Your rate looks good!
Look at the bright side!
Dude your rate looks good! Jk, figure out which has the higher interest rate and aggressively pay off each one in that order. If you have any I loans below 3% just pay the min. Any loans at or below inflation is essentially breaking even. As you get the principle down you’ll notice that you’ll be losing less to interest every month. Take a deep breath and remember you finished college. You’re in a good position to take control of your life and likely have a better job than most. Take advantage of every opportunity to save money and put that towards those private loans. Tasty Meal prep recommendations : Fried rice: chicken breast (cut down the middle and dice it), rice, green onions, carrots, soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil. Roughly 30$ in ingredients and you can get 8-12 meals out of this. Fried chicken with fries: Panko bread crumbs, chicken breast, 2 gals of cooking oil, and potatoes with salt. This is an easy way to get 3-4 meals of fried chicken with fries for abt 15$ Beef pho: Beef broth, rice noodles, thin cut flank steak, green onions, garlic, cumin, garlic salt, salt, pepper, cinnamon, brown sugar. (You can add cilantro jalapeños and lime). Roughly 20-30$ based on what ingredients you already have. You can easily get 3-5 servings of pho out of this recipe. Just some ideas. I love Asian cooking because you can grow most garnishes for it to save extra money and it tastes great as leftovers.
there is a whole book with recepies like that!!! title is self-descriptory :)) https://traumbooks.itch.io/the-sad-bastard-cookbook
I read that as "traumabooks" A traumatized, itchy and hungry sad bastard I think I found my people
Join the Taliban they will pay your student loans & offer you death benefits of 72 Virginians
What if he wants 72 New Yorkers?
Best I can do is 72 New Jerseyans
We're all washing our hair that day.
That scroll bar is scary.
Well so long as our education system prepares you as it should, you’ll have a well paying job that covers that in no time. Especially in this thriving economy, where the rest of your expenses should be minimal! (Sarcasm)
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Every system screws us.
Hopefully OP got a degree in something useful.
Join the military and they will forgive your student loans.
I don’t think they forgive private student loans. Also pretty sure you have to serve 10 years for them to forgive federal.
Worth it. You’re not paying this off in 10 years anyways
They only have 20k in federal loans. Rest are private and wouldn’t be forgiven
Military gets GI Bill, which is different than PSLF (which you’re talking about). Almost certain GI Bill only requires 4 years of service and applies to public or private loans. It’s much broader than PSLF.
For how long?
Ten years. There are many other public service professions you can work in without having to risk your life though. I’m working as a court clerk and will have 250k in student loans forgiven in the next 3 years. It’s called Public Loan Forgiveness Program or PLFP
I was in state government and was counting down to forgiveness... Then got a private sector job that paid enough to make it worth it to split. But it was nice knowing there was a hard horizon.
Your better off not having to risk yours life and work for a non-profit for PSLF after 10 years
Depends on what your career path is.
I had an almost exact situation as OP student loan wise. Literally almost the same amount with the same mix of private and public loans. My suggestion to OP is go into sales. It's a tough career and not for everyone, but it's lucrative and how I paid off my private ones 10 years early and made the public ones very manageable. Despite initially paying $850 minimum a month right out of college, I never felt like I was scraping by.
Fair, but like you said sales isn’t for everyone. If it was everyone would probably try to be in it. Sales makes quite a bit if you’re good at your job of course.
Yes just my suggestion. With this much student loan debt it's sometimes the only option because you can get close to or into a 6 figures income within a year or two of starting the career. But it's definitely difficult to find success and can wear you down over time. I have some rough bouts of anxiety due to it, but the peace of mind financially and paying off my private student loans much earlier keeps me from feeling anxious about money. So it's a pick your poison type of thing.
Not everyone can do sales. If you dont have the right personality you are setting yourself up for failure.
You can sign up for the new SAVE plan, it’s income based, so you pay 5% of your discretionary income for 25 years then the rest is forgiven. Check out the government website on income based repayment? Honestly if it was <80k I would try to pay it off asap. But I’m at >220k so ain’t no way I’m paying that off before I try to pay off my mortgage first asap so I’m on income based SAVE plan
Looks like most of this is private loan $, so not SAVE eligible right?
Private loans might not apply. Even if it did, SAVE plan only applies to certain income levels, and OP is far above that.
I got approved for SAVE making over $100k, I think you are thinking of the previous REPAYE plan (unless I am wrong and need to prepare to have this revoked) SAVE is 20 year forgiveness if you don’t miss a payment and payments are based on a calculation of your rent, income, and a few other factors There is a separate program for low income if I remember correctly
Your rate looks good 😬
At least your rate looks good 👍
Consolidate your loans. Try Sofi; got my payments from $680 to $410. I paid them off 6 years ago when I hit 29, but it was a life saver.
Royally. Move overseas and get a cheap equivalency to that locale. Then break ties with the country where this was incurred. I don’t believe in student loans which is why I’m an uneducated fool. A debt free poor uneducated fool.
You are giving me flashbacks to my medical debts back in the day. Aghh. In all seriousness the snowball method works amazingly. Just pay off the smallest and go to the biggest over time. The key thing is, do not produce any children, or more children. Do not take in any other debts. No ccs, no more loans, no more nothing. Choose your hobbies wisely. Adult coloring books are cheap and so are crayola color pencils. And depending on if you focus on improving your coloring skills, it can take literally months to finish one coloring book if you take you time and work on shading and details. Believe it or not, but if you are a gamer, trying to 100% the games you already own that do not require a subscription, or if you are a wow player and only spend the 15$ a month, it can keep you home, save you heaps of money, and keep you busy and (if you play wow) social. Make sure you pick up an interest in cooking all your meals homemade and meal preps. Do not go out to eat unless someone else is treating you for your birthday or some special occasion. Take up writing. That costs you nothing. You can use your computer or your cellphone. Reading, but only books from your local library. That is a free hobby too. Make your hobby working. You can do surveys for money, you can babysit, do yardwork, walk dogs, do Uber eats, DoorDash, or even just pick up a part time job that only has you work 12 hours a week. I dunno. You can save tons of money, and pay off your debt. You got this!
Yes
😂😂😂😂😂 I only laugh because this is exactly my situation. I have accepted it’s all fucked and I live in an RV—not kidding. I’m not having kids, am married, but know I’ll likely live in debt forever. Good luck with that budget!!! Let’s hope inflation changes 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
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My dawg if your loan looks like this, you didn't *get fucked,* you wanted to be fucked.
Look up velocity banking. Yw
First order of business is get your money up. $42k salary makes this a mountain. $70-100k and snowballing is a good play
Working with Indian Health Services. Losing $25,000.00 a year in student loan debt. Look for those low income location gigs.
Move to Thailand
Dave ramsey says tackle smallest debt first. If you make 42k (according to what people say you said) you can probably clear your 4 smallest debts with in the first year!! Imagine that! Youd only be left with 4 debts out of 8!! Yes the remaining 4 are bigger but just the thought of having 4 out of 8 debts cleared will greatly boost you mentally! Good luck dude
Yea your fucked. For at least the next 10 years anyways....unless you land a job in the top 1% and live in your parents basement - then you might be ok...
In this scenario, you've got to ask yourself 2 questions: - Do you have access to a human skeleton that is roughly the same height and build as you? - Do you mind torching the car that you took out a loan on with the aforementioned skeleton inside? A brand new, debt-free life (south of the border) awaits you!
It's the interest that fucks you over. Personally. I won't even bother with a car until the stude t debt is dealt with first.
I’d start with whatever has the highest interest rate rather than what is the largest dollar amount.
First, try to pay it all off. You come out better in the end but if any time you feel like your drowning with no way out. Remember this; 1. Step 1: Pay off Government Loans 2. Step 2: Find remote location where no one can find you for 10 years. 3. Step 3: Pay nothing 4. Step 4: Return after 10-15 years with zero credit score and zero debt. 5. Debt has a statute of limitations, just make it hard for them to find you and serve you.
Suddently the 20k i owe isnt so bad. How much you make a yr. My program was 20k for 21 months and i made 80k this yr, 2nd yr out from the program.
How tough am i? HOW TOUGH AM I? i looked at my debt this morning and only cried for 20 minutes!"
Like 143,207 dollars fucked I guess
Get a life insurance and take out a loan from it and pay those
Jesus christ, what is wrong with America?
About to be extremely fucked unless you've got a charger close by.
Not sure what your degree is in but I would think about getting a job in sales with good commission potential and working your ass off for the next 5-10 years. Pay them off aggressively. It seems like a lot but you can do it. Nothing is impossible.
Hi! 👋 You’re in the same boat a lot of us are in. You’re not fucked, this system is fucked. Get on an Income-based repayment plan. Your payment might be quite low (or nothing!) depending on your income. Take advantage of any forgiveness programs for which you’re eligible. And then *forget about your student loans.* 🪄 You are hereby forgiven for being scammed by the government and university system. Pay your car payment. And keep a budget spreadsheet where you can monitor all outflows (yeah even fucking Mohela). You can manage this until such time that either the system collapses or the government forgives more student loans. ✌️
I haven't seen this in the top comments. Apply to this: https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/repayment/plans/income-driven It takes a few minutes, and you may have a large portion of your loans forgiven. At the very least, your payments will drop substantially.
Just ignore it, you will never pay this off. Make the minimum payments and spend your money on yourself however you see fit. Set the min payment to auto draft on the first and never think about it again.