At the beginning of every new academic year, it’s unfortunate to know that many students worry more than just their classes. While some of them worry about the pathetic state their financial aid package is as it could no longer cover the amount due to school, many worry about how to deal with their student loan repayment system. Of course, according to The College Investor, the hardest part of dealing with student loan debt is the student loan repayment system.
Research according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has pointed out that nearly up to 6% of graduates owe more than $100,000 by the time they are receiving their diploma degree. And out of every 5 students, 3 of them are worried about how to make their debts gone forever. Here are simple 5 best strategies you can employ to erase your student loan debts.
1. Tap into a Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Program
This is the first way to get your student loan debt cleared if you are the type with a Federal student loan. This is a student loan that is being handled by the Federal government, and you could get yourself waved of such debt through three different ways. The first and the most popular is the Public Service Loan Forgiveness where you will be granted student loan forgiveness when you work in public service for ten years. This does not only include government jobs but also includes many education jobs, public safety or law enforcement jobs, and many non-profit jobs.
The other two ways to get this done according to Ameritech Financial is to get Teacher Loan Forgiveness by being a teacher or the Military Service loan forgiveness.
2. Consolidate your Federal Student Loans
Consolidating your Federal student loans is another excellent way to eliminate your student loan debts. This will help you to be financially organized. When you get confused due to numerous loans and payments, it could do a lot of harm to your credit score and be hurting your financial future. So, staying organised financially is a good way to go.
I recommend you read this ultimate guide to income-driven payment plans for Federal student loans. It will provide you with an insightful analysis of a variety of popular options for repayment within ten years.
3. Find state assistance for your loans
It is not only the Federal government that offers student loan forgiveness programs, but many states also do. Every state offers at least one forgiveness program that could help you erase your debts while some of them provide many programs to cover a wide variety of loan types. States like California offers student loan forgiveness to doctors, dentists, and health professionals while Texas offers for professors, teachers, doctors, lawyers, and nurses. So, what you need to do is to find out if your state offers such fogginess program and take full advantage of it.
4. Employer’s Tuition Reimbursement
It may interest you to know that more employers now offer tuition reimbursement to help their employees pay for school. While some of them, like the Starbucks, offer full degree programs, some other companies also offer student Loan Repayment programs as part of their employee benefits. You may want to consider working while you attend college which is a smart move for any student. And if you are already working, you may need to find out if your employer offers these types of benefits and take full advantage of it.
5. Earn more money
On a final note, if none of the strategies listed above work and you are yet to clear your student loan debt totally, then I think you should explore this option as well; that is earning more money. It is not impossible for you to make extra few bucks per month. The extra few dollars you receive at the end of the month when totalled at the end of the year could go a long way in helping you clear your student loan debt.
No matter how this might sound to you right now, earning more is no doubt a very great way to clear up student loan debt.
Bibliography
Chopra, R. (2015, October 30.) 5 steps to keep student loans from ruining your life.
Farrington, R. (2017, February 4.) 8 ways to eliminate your student loan debt.
Gitlen, J. (2016, June 9) The Ultimate Guide to Income-Driven Repayment Plans for Federal Student Loans.
Stern, G. (2017, February 27.) 5 ways to repay your student loans fast.
