How to Pay Off Student Loan Fast – Not Another Budgeting Lesson You Heard 100 Times Already
Did you know that National Student Loan Debt has already reached $1.56 trillion? Here is a great visual prepared by Best Lifetime Income to show General Student Loan Debt Statistics:
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If you have a student loan and reading this article you might be looking for ways to pay off student loan debt fast and wondering what are your options.
You have probably watched a ton of YouTube videos and explored Google on how to pay off student loan fast and also watched at least a dozen of Dave Ramsey videos on how to do the budgeting and nearly cut down on everything in order to pay off a student loan with either snowball or avalanche methods.
Most likely if I were to give you 100 questions quiz on budgeting you would answer most of the questions correctly because of how much information you already researched on, but something still bothers you about the fact that you have to change so much in your lifestyle to pay off this massive debt.
I decided to write this post because I know exactly how it feels since this was me - the same person with $90K student loan debt and bachelor degree in Computer Science.
Do you know why it all starts to hurt even more when you graduate and start paying down your loan?
- You realize you probably could have borrowed less money for school
- Maybe you could've saved more money while you were in school
- Maybe you would've not even chosen this profession if you knew what paying student loan back would be like
But anyway it's too late to debate about that and you need to deal with student loan that feels like a huge burden and can stay for many years with you unless you do something radical about it.
What Advises Do You Get Online Including Dave Ramsey?
- Change your spending behavior
- Learn to budget your personal finances
- Sacrifice. Save money on literally everything
- Use either Snowball or Avalanche method to pay down your debt
- Take on a side hustle job on the weekends
Basically every little penny you can scrape up including maybe selling stuff on Ebay from home in order to focus entirely on repaying your student loan debt.
Certainly this is the way to tackle any debt and not only a student loan but I couldn't believe I would have to put myself in this situation for nearly 5-6 years in order to get out of my student loan. It's like you rented out your FREEDOM to do anything until you pay student loan back.
Biggest Realization I Got After Graduation
Let me tell you this first of all. The job I work at for over 10 years didn't even need me to have computer science degree. I could have gone to a state university and get a degree in Information Technology and spend 3 times less money.
Most important things I learned were at my job and with help of Google and my teammates. The practical knowledge I gained was far more valuable than most of the theory I learned in school. You probably know that hands-on practical experience is way more valuable.
So what I am trying to say is that - for those who are deciding on college, before you trap yourself - think first if you need a degree from that fancy private university. You may well be OK with community college and then your local state university, unless you have a calling to become a lawyer, doctor, scientist etc...
I Didn't Want My Life to Become Miserable
After realizing what life I would have to put myself through to pay off $90K student loan I came to this conclusion: You can either go ahead and follow all the budgeting tips and wait till you pay off your student loan debt which depending on the amount can take number of years, or you can find a way not to only pay off student loan faster but also start building wealth at the same time. Here is the motto I came up with:
"My Student Loan is My Motivation"
~Vasiliy Latipov
I knew that I was willing to work hard, but in a smart way and my motivation to earn more money was very strong. I went on to exploring how I could earn more money to pay off student loan faster and of course as Dave Ramsey suggests:
First I Tried Side Hustle
Yes I drove Uber on weekends and sometimes in the evenings because I had full time job. After about a month I felt very exhausted as I took barely any rest and I still netted to earn about $400 in 1 month after all commissions and gas deduction.
Even though this would have helped to pay down student loan debt it very quickly led me to the point of exhaustion which negatively effected my main job as I felt tired all the time.
Finding a Way to Earn Residual Income
Yes exactly residual income, because I wanted to make money while I was sleeping. This is where I started exploring various "Make Money Online" programs including:
- Multi-level-marketing (MLM)
- Drop shipping
- Ebay
- Answering online surveys
- Even day trading
If you have done something similar you will realize how much Scam out there that gets you in first with some hyped up claims and later you realize you can't practically make any money and only wasted your time.
But my motivation to find a way to earn money legitimately kept on moving me forward as I could easily sort out scams online.
I started exploring further how successful people make money online consistently and stumbled upon many bloggers who earn legitimate income from their personal blogs.
I asked myself: Blogging? That must be difficult.
Then I dug down deeper and realized that every blog that promotes something and makes money follows these core principles:
1.What is Your Interest? What are You Passionate About?
We all have hobbies or if not then we are passionate about something. For example I like coffee, electric bikes, idea of making residual money online, good cars. Any of these ideas could be a niche to create a successful blog around.
Then find affiliate programs in that niche that are ready to pay you commission. For example Amazon has affiliate program that will pay very generous commission depending on the product. Or almost any product has an affiliate program either through the manufacturer or retail websites like Amazon, Ebay, Walmart etc...
"Promote Products on Your Website or Social Media and Earn Commission"
~Affiliate Marketing
2. Create a Website
You do need your own website once you decided on the niche. Yes there are other ways to do that, but having your own websites gives lots of flexibility. Most bloggers use WordPress where you can create a website in literally 30 seconds. And even though I studied computer science I never developed any websites. With WordPress you don't need to know a single line of code.
3. Drive Traffic to Your Website
I learned that there are so many ways to drive traffic to the website. One of the best ways to get Free traffic is from search engines like: Google, Yahoo, AOL, Bing.
Then use Social Media: Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest. All these are free sources to get quality traffic.
4. Generate Revenue
Earn commission from multiple marketing streams and you will not only pay off your student loan fast you will also build wealth which will first be your part time income, then will turn in to a full time income and even will be your retirement income. Here is what Warren Buffet said:
"If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you'll work until you die"
~Warren Buffet
Do you see where I am coming from?
If you don't start building wealth today by creating residual income then 5-7 years when you pay off your student loan nothing will really change.
Yes your monthly payment will go away but you lost very valuable time of your life and banks took that away from you. Instead you could be paying off your student loan and building wealth at the same time.
4 Reasons Affiliate Marketing is a Great Way to Create Successful Online Business
- 1No Initial Investment. Perfect If You Don't Have Initial Capital
- 2Millions of Affiliate Programs to Choose from
- 3Tons of Ways to Get Free Traffic
- 4Work from Comfort of Your Home
You May Ask Vasiliy Are You Promoting Something to Me?
Absolutely not. I created this website and started earning money well before I wrote this article. I am giving you FREE education right now so that instead of scrapping pennies and making your life miserable to pay down student loan you can actually take that as a motivation and find a way to earn residual income which will not only pay your student loan off but will help you build wealth and give you the Freedom you always wanted and deserved.
Is Affiliate Marketing The Only Way?
No there are many ways to earn money online and let me tell you what I found that really works for people who implement this:
Conclusion
I started this website www.bestlifetimeincome.com because of my student loan. I couldn't accept the fact that I would have to cut down on everything and focus on paying my student loan only.
I am very happy I made this decision because now I am enjoying the benefits I get from this website. You can learn more here how I make money online including my income proof.
I hope you learned something new today and will take action, because it is important to ACT NOW. Here is my Favorite video, make sure to watch it.
If this video stops working on this website for some reason here is a link:
Let me know if you have any comments. Please share my post and I hope you get the motivation I got to build wealth now and use your student loan as motivation instead of a burden.