If you’re among the 43 million Americans with student loans, you probably feel weighed out financially by your dept. If your career has taken off and you have loan dept, then you are not able to enjoy the fruits of your labor because rather than saving, investing, or spending you’re your earnings, you need to use them to pay off your loans. This can feel very demoralizing as if you’re stuck in neutral financially.
If you are still earning a relatively low salary, your loans could be crippling your ability to support yourself and your family. You may need to live with your parents, run up credit card bills, and severely limit your spending just to close the month. The worst part is that your know that even if you manage to get a small promotion at work, your financial standing wont change much. You will just use that money to keep your head above water.
But rather than just wallowing in your misery, you can take a few proactive steps to save money and get your personal finances on the road to recovery. Consider these 5 helpful tips.
- Drop Your Expensive Bad Habits
We all have bad habits we should be quitting anyway. These may include expensive alcohol consumption, binge-watching TV on multiple streaming subscriptions, eating fast food, and smoking. These are all habits you would likely want to give up even if you had millions. The best part is that you can replace them with healthier habits.
For example, you can save money by switching from smoking to vaping. Quitting altogether is best, but a healthy and cheaper first step can be transitioning to e-cigs. If the lifestyle and health benefits weren’t enough to get you to quit these habits, maybe saving money will be the motivating factor you’ve been waiting for.
- Cut Out Starbucks
Starbucks and most other coffee shop coffees are a drain on your bank account. The $7 coffees really add up. You can make a cup at for a fraction of the cost, or get one at work for free. Yes, the quality is not the same, but spending $2,500 a year on coffee is hard to justify if you are struggling to pay the bills.
- Carpool and Public Transportation
Gas, tolls, parking, and car payments are expensive. And if you think you’re saving money by using Uber when getting around the city, you’re wrong. You may save some time, but when you factor in parking, filling up gas, and taking care of your car, the benefits you get by spending all that money on being a solo driver start to wear away.
- Get a Side Gig
Taking on small jobs at night or on weekends can go a long way. Whether it’s in catering, blogging, driving Uber, selling things on Amazon, or anything else, you can find lots of opportunities to supplement your income. Not sure where to start? Create an account on Upwork or Fiverr to see if there’s demand for any of your talents.
- Refinance Your Student Debt
Your loans may be at high interest rates depending on when you took them out. Refinancing them could be a great to cut down your monthly load payments. The process requires doing some homework and comparing rates, but it’s less complicated than it sounds and it can really pay off.
If your student debt is a burden that’s interfering with your ability to move forward with your life, then it’s surely time to take action and get some control over the situation. The tactics listed above are not quick fixes, but they can help you improve your situation and get some much needed relief.