5 Tips for Paying Off Your Student Loans...while still having fun
I do not believe in total deprivation. I do not believe in living off rice and beans. I do not believe in not treating myself to a facial. I do not believe in total deprivation and 100% sacrificing things that bring me joy while I’m paying off my student loan debt.
In fact, I strongly believe that when you try to deprive yourself of the small joys in life, it ends up making this journey significantly harder and you may end up going in circles, never actually crawling out from under the debt.
Listen, you’ve worked so hard to get here and you deserve to enjoy the fruits of your labor - but no, I’m not saying neglect your student loans entirely. So, you may be reading this and thinking okay Amirra, so then how do I still enjoy my life even with the weight of six figure student loan debt?
One answer: you need a solid strategy and you need to stick to it. I’m gonna share the five biggest tips that have helped me pay off 20k of student loan debt (and save up another 20k for a lump sum payment in September when interest resumes) while still affording to get my monthly facials….
Know your numbers aka it's time to look your finances in the face and know where you stand. You can’t create a strategy until you know what you’re facing with your student loans. You need to know your TOTAL amount of student loan debt you’re in, your interest rates, the payment plan you’re on, the projected time to pay off your loans, and how much of your monthly payments are going to your principal balance vs just covering interest - this will have to be another blog post for another day.
Create an organized plan with realistic goals. You've got big goals (paying off your debt AND having fun) which means you need big plans. Do you want to be debt free in 5 years? 10 years? Once you know your numbers, you’ll be able to determine this. You also will need to know your income so if you’re stressing about this even before you have a job - don’t. You can certainly get a general idea, but your income is going to determine what kind of plan works for you. Of course, part of creating a plan is creating your long & short-term goals so you’ll want to do this too. This doesn’t have to only be for becoming debt free, if you want to plan for a vacation - add this into your plan, too!
Figure out the best budgeting strategy for you. It's time to buckle down and become a #BudgetingBoss. Tell your money where it needs to go. Yes, towards debt - but also towards the fun that you want to have. I can’t stress enough just how important it is to budget so that you know where your money is going. I recently wrote an entire IG post all about budgeting including some popular strategies, which you can check out here:
Save up for bigger expenses. This one has been key for me. If you follow me on IG, you know I had my eye on the Dyson V11 Animal vacuum which has a hefty price tag of $600. I knew I wanted this vacuum so I created a savings plan to save $100 per month for 6 months before I purchased it. I looked at my budget to see where I could cut back to be able to allocate money towards this purchase later in the year. I also made sure this would NOT impact my monthly student loan bill. The key here is you never want to take money from your student loan payment pile towards bigger expenses. Instead, once you’ve got your budget together you can figure out where you can cut back to save up over time for your big “fun” expense.
Remember, everything in moderation. I’m all for having fun even while on your debt free journey. I love to eat out but it has to be in moderation. I love to pamper myself but it has to be in moderation. I love shopping but it has to be in moderation. Are you seeing a theme here? You can enjoy the simple pleasures that you love but the sacrifice here on your debt free journey is that you’re only going to do it in moderation - not all the time. Enjoy those moments when you get to indulge and remember that one day, you’ll get to indulge far more frequently as long as you stay the course and keep your eye on the prize!
I’ll end with this: becoming debt free won’t happen overnight - whether it takes you 2, 3, 5, or 10 years - there will come a day when you won’t have that debt attached to your name. It’s a journey…so don’t forget to give yourself grace, be patient, AND #treatyoself along the way!