I paid off nearly $80,000 worth of student loans within 8 years of graduation — here’s how I did it

It's a moment many student loan borrowers look forward to, and after nearly eight years, it's my turn: As of Oct. 3, I've finally paid off my student loans!

After accruing nearly $80,000 worth of student loans, I can remember graduating at 21 years old and thinking to myself — during many sleepless nights — that I would do everything in my power to pay them off in full before I hit 30. Now, just a few weeks shy of my 29th birthday, I can finally breathe that long-awaited sigh of relief.

The journey hasn't been easy. On some of my darkest days, I chose to skip meals or not turn on my heater in the winter out of immense guilt. Now that I've reached the other side of my student loans, I've learned how destructive student debt really is and how much it affects so many people's lives.

While some student loan payoff stories tend to highlight spending extremes, mine is more of a story of finding a balance. In short, I decided to live my life fully without losing sight of accomplishing my goal — while I could have paid my loans off even faster, I chose not to because I wanted to prioritize other goals, along with simply enjoying my life.

Overall, the success of paying off my student loans can be summarized by two simple principles: making more money and maximizing student loan refinancing. Here's how I did it.

First off, I attended two years of community college, which was covered by my parents. Then, for my second two years, I decided to attend college out-of-state, which came at a premium cost.

The kicker was I was unable to qualify for any loans or grants through FAFSA since my parents' expected contribution was so high. My parents hadn't saved up for me to go to college, so I was forced to apply for private student loans through Wells Fargo.

My 19-year-old self had no idea what he was getting into, but after graduating in August 2015, I had to face the financial reality of being $72,669 in debt — an amount which eventually ballooned to just under $80,000 thanks to accruing interest.

Thankfully, roughly 85 months later, I was able to crush my student debt by using these tactics:

Having a side hustle or two has become quite popular over the last decade. As wages stagnate and the cost of living continues to rise, Americans have found themselves needing to supplement their income from their full-time job.

In my case, I was looking for a way to pay down my student debt without having to sacrifice my lifestyle — and that's where side hustling comes in. I've had many side gigs, including delivering groceries for Instacart at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, working as a lifeguard for private pool parties, reselling items online and doing freelance writing projects. I've also taken full advantage of welcome bonuses from certain credit cards and bank accounts.

While I had little to no money coming in some months from my side hustles, other times I'd see upwards of $5,000 per month. Through it all, the one requirement I had for myself at the time was that these side jobs would always be flexible within my current schedule. I was already working around my full-time job's fixed schedule so I didn't want to work in another concrete schedule on top of that.

Over the last four years, I would estimate I've made about $30,000 in side hustle income. And while it did help me to aggressively pay down my student loans, having that side income also gave me the flexibility to enjoy my life.

If you're considering picking up a side hustle, follow my advice and do something you enjoy. It will make the time fly by and paying down your student loans (or other debt) will be a less agonizing experience.

A recent Forbes study showed that employees who stayed at one job for more than two years would end up making 50% less than those who made the jump to another job. Moreover, if your salary hasn't increased in the last two years, you've likely been experiencing a much tighter monthly budget as record-high inflation continues to drive consumer prices higher.

At this point, I'm on my 10th job out of college. Yes, this might seem like an extreme case of job-hopping, but it's also been a very lucrative one. By doing this, I've been able to increase my salary by over 175% since graduating, and this didn't happen by accident.

Shortly after graduation I realized that while you can only cut back so much on your budget, there's no cap on how much money you can make. I decided then to focus my energy on maximizing my income to pay down the debt, rather than living a super frugal lifestyle.

If you haven't marketed your services to new employers in the last few years, it may be time to put yourself out there.

Accruing interest on student loans is where many borrower horror stories come from and at one point, I was starting to become part of that narrative. After graduation, my loans had grown by roughly $6,000 even though I was making on-time payments.

I knew there had to be a better way and came across student loan refinancing. It's a simple concept: You move your debt from one loan servicer to another in order to receive better repayment options. The process is very simple, too, as there is no collateral involved, as is the case with a mortgage or a car loan.

It's common for borrowers to refinance one or two times to take advantage of better interest rates or repayment terms. My case is a more extreme example since I ended up refinancing six times as I worked to pay down my student loans.

As a result, I was able to lower my interest rate from over 7%, eventually reaching 2.25% by opening a personal line of credit with First Republic Bank — I detailed my step-by-step journey in this article. By doing this while aggressively paying the principal of my loan down, I quickly got in control of my debt.

If you find yourself getting crushed by high interest payments, consider checking to see which interest rates you qualify for. Keep in mind, however, that if you have public student loans and choose to refinance them, you won't be eligible for any student loan forgiveness or other federal protections.

Here are some of our favorite private student loan lenders for refinancing:

While I could have paid my student loans off even faster, I decided to begin investing heavily in 2018 once my interest rate was around the 4% mark. At that rate, I knew I had a high likelihood of making more money by investing over the long term compared to the amount of my monthly interest payments.

I started putting more money into my 401(k), Roth IRA and Health Savings Account and doing this has definitely paid off. Notably, when the initial stock market plummet happened in March and April of 2020, I began throwing as much money as I could into my investment accounts as a way to buy the dip. At that point, my student loans were down to a 2.25% interest rate, so it made much more sense to invest.

If you have your student loans under control and a low interest rate, it may be beneficial to put them on the back burner for a bit and prioritize investing for the future. These brokers and offer IRAs and taxable investment accounts:

The road to paying my student loans off has not been easy at all — it's been filled with heartache, mistakes, stress and frustration. Now that that's all in the rearview mirror, here's what I've learned:

A solid credit score is critical to financial success

I started building my credit before I was old enough to drive or vote — my parents added me to their credit cards as an authorized user when I was 15, which allowed me to start building my credit score.

Once I was old enough to apply for my own credit card, I began my journey by earning millions of points and miles to use for travel and continuing to bolster my credit score. This meant I would graduate with a high credit score, which made it easier when it came time to refinance my student loans. Had it not been for my credit score, I wouldn't have been able to knock down the interest rate as aggressively as I did.

If you're considering refinancing — for student loans or any other type of loan — be sure to build your credit score and check it through a credit monitoring service to see what else your credit history contains.

Don't let debt stop you from living your life

Life doesn't stop because of your student debt, and you shouldn't stop either.

In the last seven years after graduating from college and paying off my student loan debt, I've experienced and accomplished a ton. I lived as a digital nomad, got married and divorced, job hopped numerous times, moved several times, bought a home, traveled more than most, and enjoyed nights out with friends and family. As long as you have your debt under control and a plan dedicated to paying it off you should try to enjoy your life.

Whether it's getting married, going on that trip you've been dying to go on, starting a family or any other life adventure you want, don't let your student debt bog down.

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