I've heard it said, "Life is hard but you get to choose your hard."
And it's true. I can choose to workout every day, count my calories, and eat healthy meals now, which takes time and energy but gives me greater freedom down the road. OR I can choose to eat what I want, when I want, and in the quantities that I want now. Odds are, life will become very hard down the road as I deal with obesity, lack of energy, and a variety of health issues, not to mention getting winded when I reach the top of the stairs.
Student loans are no different. They aren't going away anytime soon, so we all get to choose which hard we want. Do the work to get them out of our lives now, or hang on to payments for potentially decades. Take a look at this example:
Without much work, you can choose to save yourself about $4,000 dollars over the course of this loan. You may have to sacrifice a few coffee runs a month and skip bar hopping for a bit. But what does life look like on the other end of paying off these loans where you don't have any of your hard earned cash going to a monthly payment? Fiji, anyone?
Or perhaps you want to attack your student loans like training for an Ironman competition (no pain, no gain, right!?) and save yourself almost six grand! Or maybe your financial situation will allow you to get out from under those loans in under 2 years with a mere $1,500 of interest paid out.
Ultimately, the choice is yours.
If you want to get started, check out the free Student Loan Worksheet on the Resources page.