Have school loans? Here’s a few tips to pay off your debts

Student debts are some of the most difficult to handle as an adult, especially when you’re just starting out. The cost of loans can be sky-high, with some students paying down hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of school loans well into their futures. Paying down these fees may seem impossible, but there are ways to get out of debt quickly and to avoid payments that are too high to handle.

Start by personalizing your plan. You may see that your federal loans are on a 10-year plan, for instance, but if that’s too much money for you to pay, then try to switch to a 15- or 20-year plan instead. The interest may be more over time, but your monthly payments should drop. Another option could be income-based payments, depending on the kinds of loans you have.

Another way to pay down your loans is to start by consolidating them. Having multiple loans with varied interest rates can be hard to manage, but with a consolidation, you may be able to put all of the loans onto one bill and reduce the interest you pay overall.

To pay down your loans faster over time, remember to try to make lump sum payments and extra payments when possible. Try saving up $1,000 to pay off a smaller loan all at once, or use extra funds you wouldn’t normally expect to have to reduce your debts. Doing this even a few times a year will speed up the payoff of your loans and help reduce your payments in some cases, too.

Source: Credit.com, “4 Tips to Help You Tackle Student Loan Debt,” AJ Smith, Aug. 20, 2015