how to pay off student loans fast

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How to Pay off Student Loans Fast

Do you want to spend years, even decades, paying off your student loans?

Hell no, right?!

Then keep reading because in this post and in the video below, I have 5 tips how to pay off student loans fast.

I don’t know about you, but I am sick and tired of paying my student loans and I want them out of my life NOW because I want to be able to save money for my retirement, my emergency fund, and my investments.

Becoming free of your student loan debt won’t happen overnight, but with dedication and consistency, your student loans (and mine) will be out of our lives forever.

I paid off one of my loans so far using tip #3 and I hope one of these tips can help you too!

*I wish to be transparent with my readers/viewers. Some on the links in the description contain affiliate links. If you click on the link and then go on to make a purchase, I will earn a small commission.

How To Pay Off Student Loans Fast

1. Refinance Student Loans

On of the best ways to pay off student loans fast is to lower your interest rate. By doing so, you can save thousands of dollars in interest payments, which will be particularly helpful if you have repayment plans that extend more than 5 years.

Two personal finance companies to look into refinancing your student loans are SoFi and Purefy.

SoFi doesn’t have brick-and-mortar branch locations and therefore, they are able to offer great low interest rates to borrowers, which means more money in your pocket. You can easily apply online where SoFi offers an array of products to suit any borrower’s needs.

Purefy wants to see borrowers get out of debt sooner by offering customized repayment terms and lower interest rates that gives borrowers flexibility. Plus, they lay out and explain the whole application process to show you how easy it is to apply.

Having good credit is a requirement to get approved for both, so if you think you are a good candidate and can benefit from refinancing your student loan(s), I say take a look at these personal financing companies to see which one is best for you.

2. Get a Second Job or Start a Business

Become an Independent Contractor

Today’s society offers a great opportunity to supplement your income with part-time work as an independent contractor with companies like Uber, Lyft, Amazon Flex, or Postmates to name a few. If you live in a busier city like New York, Los Angeles, or Miami, your chances for getting constant work can increase where you can earn a full-time income.

I recently signed up to deliver food for Uber Eats and within three days after working only 5 hours, I made $120.66. Not bad as an easy hustle! You can read more about my Uber Eats Review here.

With the customer tips and the weekly Quest promotions Uber Eats offers, one can earn some nice extra money to help pay down debt. Uber Eats offers a generous sign-up bonus for new drivers and you can begin earning money in as little as a week.

Unlike traditional part-time jobs, you have to look around to see who’s hiring and go through the whole interviewing process in order to get hired (that is by the way… IF you get called in for an interview and IF you get hired).

On the other hand, as an independent contractor with Uber Eats for example, you can easily apply via a mobile app, and start working and earning money right away. This is perfect for people who need money RIGHT NOW and can’t wait for someone to hire them.

Could an extra $250, $500, or even $1,000 per month help you get out of debt sooner?

Here is a list of some companies to start working as an independent contractor where you can be your own boss and start earning extra money fast!

Uber Eats
Uber
Lyft
Sidecar
Wag
Rover
AmazonFlex
Instacart
Postmates
DoorDash
Tasker (scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on “Become a Tasker”)

Start a Business

If you are really serious about becoming your own boss and eventually leaving your current full-time job, you can start your own business with an ecommerce store and sell things like T-Shirts, handcraft goods, start-up beauty products, dropshipping items, etc.

Here is a list of the most popular sites to open your own ecommerce store.

Shopify
BigCommerce
WooCommerce

Another option to be able to pay off your student loans fast is to take an online course to learn a new skill to start a business.

Online courses are becoming increasingly popular and are a fantastic way to learn a new skillset at your own pace, all in the comforts of your own home.

For instance, you can learn photography and take family portraits, wedding photos, or headshots for clients. You can learn how to become a social media marketer and start your own social media marketing agency. Or you can become a notary loan signing agent and start working in the evenings after your full-time job and work on the weekends.

One website where you can have access to unlimited online courses is SkillShare and you can sign up free for 2 months. Then again, if you have an idea for your own online course, you can easily create one and sell it on Teachable to start earning money as your business model.

How about becoming a self-published author and write ebooks to sell on Kindle publishing or on your website? In my blog post, I mentioned how one fellow YouTuber’s system teaches people how to come up with an idea for an ebook and write it all within 24 hours.

Crazy, right?

People have made thousands of dollars selling ebooks on Amazon, their websites, and blogs. Therefore, if you are looking for ways how to pay off student loans fast, publishing ebooks can turn into a passive, lucrative income stream for you.

3. Do the Snowball Effect or Debt Avalanche Method

Ever heard of the snowball effect and the debt avalanche method? If you do one of these methods, you can really help pay off student loans fast!

You can apply the snowball effect by paying the minimum balance on all your student loans and then taking extra money to pay off the student loan with the lowest balance.

Likewise, the debt avalanche method is similar, but this time any extra money you have, you pay off the student loan with the highest interest rate first.

Personally, I like the idea of paying off a student loan with the lowest balance first because it’s easier to tackle and you can see the debt dwindling down to $0 really fast.

That’s what I did with one of my student loans and I’m now working on my next loan with the lowest balance. So, here is how the snowball effect method works:

Any time you get extra money, whether it’s from a side hustle, gift money, tax refund, money left over from your monthly budget, etc., take that and apply it towards your student loan.

For example, if you are focusing on paying down a student loan with the lowest balance first and you earn an extra $75 at the end of the week from a side hustle, take that $75 and pay it towards the loan.

If the following week you earn an extra $150, again take that money and pay it towards the loan. Keep putting extra money towards your loan until it is paid off.

Preferably, it’s best to call your student loan servicer and ask if you can make additional payments towards the principal, not the interest, over the phone. Hopefully, you can do so without being charged a fee.

However, if your loan servicer does charge an extra fee for making payments over the phone, then go ahead and simply make payments towards your loan online when you get extra money.

Either way, any additional payments you make adds up!

Before you know it, you will have paid off your student loan and will be able to move onto your next loan. Click here to use the Debt Snowball Calculator and see how fast you can get your student loans paid off.

4. Live like a Minimalist or a Broke College Student

I’m sure your heard about minimalism, right?

It’s becoming very popular to live a lifestyle that’s simpler without the need to clutter your home and space with a bunch of unnecessary “stuff.”

While I am not about to embark on a minimalist lifestyle, I do agree with the belief that people don’t need to be attached to material things in order to live happier lives. Besides, if you think about it, all that extra stuff was once dollar bills.

Dollar bills…that could have been used towards paying down your student loans.

Same principle with the idea of living like a broke college student. College students don’t have a lot of stuff because they can’t afford to buy anything.

It’s ramen soup and PB&J sandwiches all day long while living the broke college student life.

Oh…and along with living with 1, 2, or maybe 3 roommates.

Whether you choose to live like a minimalist or a broke college student, the idea is simple: save your money and spend it only on the bare necessities.

Accordingly, if you want to pay off your student loans fast, stop the lavish shopping, pass on going out on Friday nights to the bar, skip dining at restaurants, and if you have the space and can stand it, get a roommate or two (which I’m seriously considering because rent in southern CA is no joke!).

To help you budget your money, try You Need A Budget or Mint. If you want, you can also get a budgeting workbook to help with your monthly finances like the “Budgeting Workbook: Finance Monthly & Weekly Budget Planner.”

5. Make Bi-Weekly Payments on Student Loans

This is super easy to do! Make bi-weekly payments to help pay off student loans fast.

With this tactic, you take your regular monthly payments for your student loans and split them into two payments.

For instance, if the monthly payment of a loan balance is $100, pay $50 every two weeks and be sure that the monthly balance is paid up by the due date. If you do this to all your student loans, you will have made one extra full payment in a calendar year to each loan.

It may not sound much, but these bi-weekly payments add up as well!

Even better, do this method AND the snowball effect method or the debt avalanche method with one of your student loans, and you are sure to pay down the balance of your loan quicker.

Thus, saving thousands of dollars in the long run!

To motivate yourself to stay on the road to financial freedom, check out “The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness” by Dave Ramsey and begin following his 7 Baby Steps to Financial Freedom.

I got baby step #1 completed!

Try one of the above tips or all 5 to help you pay off your student loans fast. Remember, with dedication and consistency, your student loans will soon be out of your life (and mine) forever!