Friday, November 13, 2009

Repaying Your Student Loans

By Sean Flynn

One thing is common among many students who borrowed to study - the difficulty in repaying the student loans. While you were a student, how much you received didn't bother you that much. However once you left college, the reality of the repayment dawned on you.

In this article, I have outlined a number of tips that might help you pay up your students loans and not have them bog you down.

Bring all your loans together. The first step towards dealing with your student loans is to consolidate all of the loans, regardless of where you got them. This will help you tell how much of a burden repaying the loans will have on you.

After you have consolidated your loans, know how much you owe. As already mentioned, it was usually about how much you got and not how you will repay the loans. Now that you want to repay your loan, it is important that you know the exact amount of student loans that you owe. Know what part of it is brought about by the principal and what part is brought by interest.

Set clear goals. Now that you know how much you owe, it is time to set goals on how you will repay your student loans. Put up goals that are measurable, attainable, and timely. Ensure that you are clear on when you intend to have cleared the whole debt, how much you shall be paying and how frequently you shall be paying. To make the goals measurable, break down the whole project into a couple of milestones. This will help you keep track of your success in regards to repaying your student loans.

Set aside the installments from your income. Everything now has been done on paper. What remains now is implementation. If you can pay the whole loan at once, well and good. However, since many of us can't afford that option, the best thing is to set aside a certain amount of money every month and devote it to paying the student loans. Get disciplined about this by setting up a budget. If your annual income is $25,000 and you intend to be paying $5,000 every year, budget your consumption as if you will be earning $20,000 annually.

Make use of tax laws. The longer you pay your debts, the more the interest component will be on the total repayment amount. However, some of the interest that you will pay as a beneficiary of a student loan is tax-deductible, but only to a certain limit.

Create reminders. Always make sure that you repay your loans as agreed. This will help you a great deal in avoiding the bad credit tag just because you have failed to repay your loans. In case you have difficulties in repaying your loan, consult your creditor and agree with him as to when you will be able to honor your obligations.

Every person's student loans repayment is different. What is convenient for me may not be convenient for you. This is because many of the repayments, depend on the level of income, personal needs, saving habits and much more. For this reason, no single plan can claim to cover all the intricacies of repaying student loans. However, the tips raised here will form a very good foundation for anyone who wants to quickly finish his or her loan repayment obligations. - 30462

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