#pay off student loans

[unlikecharlie]

Life has no value so I will be fine seeing another implosion and another boat sinking at the same time.

Real

[harmonyhealinghub]

How I Crushed $20,000 in Student Loans and Achieved Debt-Free Bliss!

Shaina Tranquilino

January 31, 2024

Student loans have become a harsh reality for millions of graduates worldwide. The burden of debt can be overwhelming, hindering our financial freedom and future aspirations. However, with determination, discipline, and these practical tips that helped me pay off my $20,000 student loan debt, you too can find your path to becoming debt-free.

1. Create a Solid Repayment Plan: The first step towards paying off any debt is to create a well-structured repayment plan. Start by evaluating your overall financial situation and set realistic goals for yourself. Determine how much you can afford to put towards loan payments each month without sacrificing essentials or other necessary expenses. Having a clear roadmap will help keep you focused and motivated throughout the journey.

2. Prioritize Your Payments: While it's essential to make minimum monthly payments on all outstanding debts, prioritizing higher-interest loans can save you significant money in the long run. By directing additional funds towards loans with high-interest rates, you'll reduce the overall interest accrued and expedite your debt payoff process.

3. Cut Back on Non-Essential Expenses: Consider adopting a frugal lifestyle while paying off your student loans. Identify areas where you can cut back on non-essential spending to free up more money for loan repayments. Assess your monthly budget meticulously; small sacrifices like reducing dining out frequency or cancelling unnecessary subscriptions can go a long way in accelerating your debt repayment journey.

4. Generate Additional Income Streams: Increasing your income is an effective strategy to speed up loan repayment. Explore opportunities to generate extra cash through side hustles or part-time jobs aligned with your skills or hobbies. Consider freelancing, tutoring, or monetizing specific talents online – every additional cent earned helps chip away at your student loan balance faster.

5. Utilize Windfalls Wisely: If fortune smiles upon you with unexpected cash inflows, like tax refunds or bonuses, refrain from splurging on luxuries. Instead, allocate these windfalls towards paying off your student loans. While it may not be as thrilling as a spontaneous shopping spree, the satisfaction of reducing your debt burden will far outweigh any temporary materialistic indulgence.

6. Seek Loan Forgiveness or Repayment Assistance Programs: Investigate loan forgiveness and repayment assistance programs available for specific professions or industries. Depending on your field of work, you might qualify for programs that forgive a portion of your loans after a certain number of years of service or offer repayment assistance in exchange for working in underserved areas.

7. Refinance Your Loans: Consider refinancing your student loans to secure lower interest rates and flexible repayment terms. Research different lenders' offerings and compare their interest rates, fees, and borrower benefits before making a decision. However, carefully assess whether refinancing is the right choice for you based on your financial goals and circumstances.

8. Stay Positive & Celebrate Milestones: Paying off significant amounts of debt can feel like an arduous journey at times. It's crucial to stay positive throughout the process by celebrating milestones along the way – no matter how small they may seem! Recognize each accomplishment and reward yourself modestly to maintain motivation and keep pushing forward.

Becoming debt-free is an empowering achievement that opens doors to financial freedom and peace of mind. Remember that everyone's journey is unique, so don't compare yourself to others; focus on what works best for you. By creating a solid plan, practicing frugality, increasing income streams, exploring loan forgiveness options, refinancing when beneficial, staying positive through challenges, and celebrating milestones – you'll pave your own path to debt freedom just as I did with my $20,000 student loan payoff.

Stay determined, disciplined, and committed - soon enough, you'll find yourself basking in the joy of being debt-free. Your future self will thank you!

[enrichedacademy]

Crush Your Student Debt: Tips from a Personal Finance Advisor

Managing debt can be overwhelming, especially when you have to pay off student loans. Attack your debt with these practical tips:

- Make a budget

- Prioritize debt repayment

- Consider loan consolidation

- Explore loan forgiveness options

A personal financial advisor can help you eliminate debt and reach your financial goals.

[marimbles]

Commissions open!

Tier 1: simple sketches—$15 base

Black and white or partial/low-opacity color

two characters: +$10

Tier 2: colored sketches—$25 base

full color with simple shading

two characters:+$15

Tier 3: full-render sketches—$35 base

full color, shading, environmental lighting, etc.

two characters: +$20

If interested, please DM me or email me at heymarimbles@gmail.com!

Reblogs appreciated💜 thank you!!

More details under the cut:

Will do:

fanart (miraculous ladybug, the owl house, and the legend of Zelda are my main fandoms, so those are the characters I’m most familiar with drawing, but other fandoms are also welcome!)

OCs/sonas (MUST provide references and detailed description)

real people (in my style)

ship art/light romance

Won’t do:

NSFW (or anything that feels too steamy to me djdjkd)

furry

mecha

gore

Other guidelines:

Prices are USD

Payment through PayPal or ko-fi

No price distinction between bust, half-body, and full-body

If you want more than two characters, we can talk about it!

Very simple background included in base price (like a solid color or gradient, a circle or square behind the character, etc). Anything else is negotiable depending on complexity.

Props and small companions (like kwami, palisman, pet, etc.) are negotiable depending on complexity.

These are sketches, so the lines will be somewhat rough and you may see structure lines underneath. If you are not satisfied with the level of cleanliness, I can clean it up a bit, but these tiers don’t include clean lineart. (If you do want clean lineart, though, we can talk about it!)

I tend to experiment a bit with my rendering tools/style, so if there’s a particular piece of mine you like and you want me to try to recreate that style, lmk!

References photos are super helpful! (And for OCs, they’re essential.)

If you’re interested in something that doesn’t fall under one of these tiers (like a comic, doodle dump, etc.), just talk to me and we might be able to figure something out :)

[bitchesgetriches]

{ MASTERPOST } Everything You Need to Know about How to Pay off Debt

Understanding debt:

Let’s End This Damaging Misconception About Credit Cards

Season 2, Episode 10: “Which Is Smarter: Getting a Loan? or Saving up to Pay Cash?”

Dafuq Is Interest? And How Does It Work for the Forces of Darkness?

Investing Deathmatch: Paying off Debt vs. Investing in the Stock Market

How to Build Good Credit Without Going Into Debt

Dafuq Is a Down Payment? And Why Do You Need One to Buy Stuff?

It’s More Expensive to Be Poor Than to Be Rich

Making Decisions Under Stress: The Siren Song of Chocolate Cake

How Mental Health Affects Your Finances

Paying off debt:

Kill Your Debt Faster with the Death by a Thousand Cuts Technique

Share My Horror: The World’s Worst Debt Visualization

The Best Way To Pay off Credit Card Debt: From the Snowball To the Avalanche

The Debt-Killing Power of Rounding up Bills

A Dungeonmaster’s Guide to Defeating Debt

How to Pay Hospital Bills When You’re Flat Broke 

Ask the Bitches Pandemic Lightning Round: “What Do I Do If I Can’t Pay My Bills?” 

Slay Your Financial Vampires

Season 4, Episode 3: “My credit card debt is slowly crushing me. Is there any escape from this horrible cycle?” 

Case Study: Held Back by Past Financial Mistakes, Fighting Bad Credit and $90K in Debt 

Student loan debt:

What We Talk About When We Talk About Student Loans

Ask the Bitches: “The Government Put Student Loans in Forbearance. Can I Stop Paying—or Is It a Trap?”

How to Pay for College without Selling Your Soul to the Devil

When (and How) to Try Refinancing or Consolidating Student Loans

Ask the Bitches: I Want to Move Out, but I Can’t Afford It. How Bad Would It Be to Take out Student Loans to Cover It?

Season 4, Episode 4: “I’m $100K in Student Loan Debt and I Think It Should Be Forgiven. Does This Make Me an Entitled Asshole?” 

The 2022 Student Loan Forgiveness FAQ You’ve Been Waiting For

2023 Student Loan Forgiveness Update: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 

Our Final Word on Student Loan Forgiveness 

Avoiding debt:

Ask Not How Much You Should Save, Ask How Much You Should Spend 

How to Make Any Financial Decision, No Matter How Tough, with Maximum Swag

Your Yearly Free Medical Care Checklist

Two-Ring Circus 

Status Symbols Are Pointless and Dumb 

Advice I Wish My Parents Gave Me When I Was 16 

On Emergency Fund Remorse… and Bacon Emergencies

Should You Increase Your Salary or Decrease Your Spending? 

Don’t Spend Money on Shit You Don’t Like, Fool

The Magically Frugal Power of Patience

The Only Advice You’ll Ever Need for a Cheap-Ass Wedding 

The Most Impactful Financial Decision I’ve Ever Made… and Why I Don’t Recommend It 

3 Times I Was Damn Grateful for My Emergency Fund (and Side Income) 

Buy Now Pay Later Apps: That Old Predatory Lending by a Crappy New Name 

Credit Card Companies HATE Her! Stay Out of Credit Card Debt With This One Weird Trick 

Ask the Bitches: Should I Get a Loan Even Though I Can Afford To Pay Cash? 

The Bitches vs. debt:

I Paid off My Student Loans Ahead of Schedule. Here’s How.

I Paid off My Student Loans. Now What?

Hurricane Debt Weakens to Tropical Storm Debt, but Experts Warn It’s Still Debt

The Real Story of How I Paid Off My Mortgage Early in 4 Years

Case Study: Swimming Upstream against Unemployment, Exhaustion, and $2,750 a Month in Unproductive Spending 

That’s all for now! We try to update these masterposts periodically, so check back for more in… a couple… months??? Maybe????

[nyaagolor]

I find it immensely funny that the vast majority of prosecutors / defense attorneys we see in Ace Attorney are extremely wealthy and / or well connected-- and then there's Phoenix and Apollo. I can just imagine the whole gang chatting about (insert thing only rich people can do) like it's normal and Phoenix + Apollo are standing to the side like O_O

[andy-clutterbuck]

LA TIMES - 2017

[eliounora]

are there any good alternatives for INPRNT? I don't make essentially any sales there, I think a part of it is definitely that I'm not a big artist but once in a while people ask if I sell prints so I would like to have a shop. maybe one that also ships from europe?

I could also maybe put up a store of my own but I have no idea where to get prints made? I've been thinking it would be fun to also sell things like keychains or stickers! commissions are not really my cup of tea so a little shop like that would be fun, especially if I'd manage to create illustrations etc of things people like!

[lucastheironiczombie]

i have not drawn ben drowned since i was 13 woof. is he still relevant???? i mean probably. im a sophomore in art school and this is all i have to show for it. he was not worth 20k in debt. 10k MAYBE.

[lovesodeepandwideandwell]

12th day of my new job, my boss and I successfully coordinated our move into a new office space downtown, and I have more money in my bank account than ever in my life (which sounds like not much still but one time I took out a loan for a whole year's worth of living expenses (for a poor master's student in pre-covid days), so)

[bidoofdaily]

i drew this on the clock so basically i got paid to do it

[rubenesque-as-fuck]

🎺🎺It's donnnnne!!! 🎺🎺 For the first time since ~February 2020, all of my credit cards are finally paid off again. Between getting hit hard with covid right at the beginning of the pandemic, then being unemployed for 8 months but not actually qualifying for unemployment, then going through a series of shitty jobs that didn't actually pay a living wage, for a long time it felt like I was going to be stuck in a debt loop forever. The light at the end of the tunnel only really appeared last year after I got a promotion and raise at my current spot, and even then it still took me another year of buckling down and putting most of my additional income directly into card payments. But it's fucking done. I know that this doesn't affect anyone else but it's such a fucking relief I'm sitting here crying while I try to get ready for work and I don't really have anyone to share it with so as usual I'm just yelling it into the blog void.

[enrichedacademy]

Financial Mistakes to Avoid in Today's Economy

You don’t need much of a financial education to understand that 2022 has been nothing but bad news for most Canadians and our financial future may not improve anytime soon. Our stock portfolios are worth a lot less, everything we buy costs more, and interest rates are making our mortgages and other loans a lot more expensive. More than ever it is time to tread carefully and avoid any financial mistakes, so we gathered up the top five missteps you definitely want to steer clear of for the rest of this year and beyond!

1. Not having any system to track your expenses. “I don’t know where my money goes” is a common refrain as prices continue to rise. However, given the number of mobile applications, web programs and other online tools available to simplify this task (or just use a pencil!), there isn’t any excuse. Regardless of how much income you have coming in, monitoring and controlling expenses is critical as plenty of high-earning-now-bankrupt athletes and actors have proven.

2. Not understanding your loan agreements. It is shocking to see how many people fail to understand the terms and conditions before entering into potentially life-changing contracts like a mortgage or student loan. Don’t assume it will be easy to pay off student loans after you graduate and (hopefully) land a well-paying job.  Student loans do not have a particularly low interest rate and you might be unpleasantly surprised by the amount of your monthly payment post-graduation, and how many years you will be paying!

Mortgages can be complicated, but that’s no excuse and a good mortgage broker will take the time to answer all of your questions. Trigger rates have recently been in the news and are a good example of people not understanding what they signed.

3. Not saving and investing. As higher prices and interest rates suck up more of our disposable cash, something has to give, and putting a little bit of money away each month may be on the chopping block. If you need the money for essentials like food or rent, then you have no choice but be honest with yourself on what is essential! Once you break the saving habit it’s hard to get it back and saving is not really a discretionary expense unless you have an alternative plan to fund your retirement? Catching up on savings might be possible when things get better, but that could be years and the earlier you start, the more your savings are going to grow.

4. Paying too much in investment fees. Not investing at all is a fatal mistake, but unknowingly paying exorbitant fees on your investments is also a critical error. Canada has some of the highest investment fees in the developed world and it isn’t easy to determine the fees built into your investments and how much your advisor is charging you for their services. Mutual funds are notorious for high, built-in MER fees (management expense ratio) that often exceed 2% annually and can rob tens of thousands of dollars over the years from your retirement fund. Make sure to fully investigate the fees you are paying on your investments and ensure they are justified by the returns. You may also want to consider a fee-based financial planner rather than a commission-based financial advisor. There are a few factors to consider, and it depends on the size of your portfolio, but fee-based advisors have a strong fiduciary duty to grow your wealth and not just sell you financial products.

5. Investing before paying off debt. The question of whether it’s better to invest any “extra” cash or pay down debt needs a re-think given recent economic changes. In 2021, mortgages and lines of credit could be had for around 2% and most stock indexes reported double-digit gains. Paying down debt with money you could have invested in the markets was not the best option.  

A year later, borrowing rates have doubled in many cases (mortgages for example) and financial markets are wobbly at best, with many deep into the red year to date. These aren't the only factors to consider, and you need to do the math for your situation, but the case for paying down debt is getting stronger by the day.

As financial educators we are very biased, but Enriched Academy truly believes that improving your own financial literacy is the best defense for avoiding financial mistakes, regardless of how many advisors you may have. Not only will you feel more comfortable with what your advisor is doing on your behalf, you will also be able to make your own informed decisions when you want to be in control.

[ricecaqes]

i hope that someday i create a work of art that gives otherkin people dysphoria in the same way httyd does for me

[bitchesgetriches]

Kill Your Debt Faster With the Death by a Thousand Cuts Technique

If you’ve got credit card debt, the interest is calculated on the “average daily balance.” So it’s beneficial to lower that balance as quickly as possible. And you can only lower the balance by making a payment… or payments.

The sooner you send a dollar to that debt, the less interest you’ll end up paying! It’s that simple!

Even if you can only afford the minimum required payment every month, splitting it into two payments helps. That can drastically reduce the average daily balance, and thus, the interest you have to pay. So making half of your monthly payment on the 15th of the month and the other half on the 30th (don’t @ me, February) can effectively save you money on interest. This goes for credit card debt as well as home mortgages and car loans.

Keep reading.

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