Today is Daylight Savings Time and despite your feelings on the matter, most of us turn our clocks back one hour.
The concept of turning back time has always fascinated people in modern times. It was popularized by H. G. Wells in 1895 with his novel The Time Machine and came to full-scale popularity in the current age with the likes of Back to the Future, The Terminator and yes, even in Cher’s 1989 hit “If I Could Turn Back Time.”
The reason why these stories are so entertaining to us as a society pertains to one thing – a sense of if you knew what you know now back then, you’d be better off.
We all have had those thoughts. If I only knew the lottery numbers. If I only found Jeff Bezos in 1997 and invested $5,000. If I could go back and stop Hitler (I understand why this is so popular, but I don’t know how people intend to do that when almost the entire world at the time was on the same page with you). If I could take back what I said to a loved one. I could keep going, but I think you understand the point.
The funny thing is that your college experience was probably not that different. I wish I hadn’t said this to that person. I wish I wouldn’t have worn that on Halloween. I wish I picked a different major. I wish I wouldn’t have taken a class called “Walk/Jog” and instead took Computer Programming. I wish, I wish, I wish.
Student loans are much like that too. I wish I would’ve started with the lowest introductory rate. I wish I would’ve consolidated as I went along. I wish I had someone to co-sign for my loans to bring the interest rate down. I wish I had someone that paid for my loans. I wish I went back in time and hit the lottery so I could pay this all off at once….
Statistics tell us that you most likely didn’t win the lottery and that you most likely still hold student loans. There are $1.5 Trillion in student loans with 44 million students carrying an average of $34,090 in student loan debt. Basically, there is a good chance you had, do have or will have student loan debt.
It’s easy to think about how to turn back time and change your current situation, but it’s hard to think about how to actually make that change. The truth is that it is fairly easy, you just need to get started and know where to start. Admitting that you have a problem is half of the battle.
After you are able to admit that you could be in a better place on your student loans, it’s important to take these next steps:
- Assess your situation – get your entire snapshot of where you currently stand
- Create a budget – create a budget with paying beyond the minimum for student loans as a bill
- Set a goal – we all falter here and life gets in the way, so it’s important to adjust as you go along
- Restructure & Refinance – there are many small tricks that can save you thousands of dollars in interest by the structure of your loans
- Eliminate – eliminate your loans in some order (descending from the highest interest rate, closest to being paid off, etc.)
There are many more little details that go into student loans, but at its base, if you follow these steps, you’ll be on the right track to eliminating your student loans.
Just think about what your future self would tell yourself now.