I used all four years of College to ignore my debt. It was a burden I wasn’t ready to carry and also at that point I wasn’t really convinced that I would dig myself into a financial hole. If I was already conscience about how I spent my money – why would I ever wind up $30,000 in debt? It didn’t make sense, but I knew that it went hand-in-hand with my financial aid packet. So, if I wanted to go to school and graduate – I would take the financial aid packet and work whenever I had free time.

Because I was avoiding by loans, I thought I had more money than I really did. I did not pay attention to how I was budgeting, if I had cut back on a few cups of coffee here and there – I could have freed up some extra cash. And that cash could have ensured, at the least, that my interest was not growing at rapid speeds. I was convinced that I was a victim of my loans. Anytime student loans were brought up, I would zip out of that room faster than you could say “principal balance”. I was in the same situation Ariel was when she had to give her voice to Ursela in order to have a pair of legs. I had to take on these loans to get a leg up in the job market. Then I started telling myself – if everyone else had debts, what did my debt really mean? It wasn’t like I was the only one getting a ‘F’ in a class full of ‘A’s’ – I was getting a ‘F’ along side all the other ‘F’s’. So really ground zero wasn’t being free of debt – it was -$30,000.

Then I graduated, and along side the quarter life crisis, I was realizing that I needed to do something about those loans. That first month out of College, oh boy, I kept finding myself contemplating about life, death and nihilism. I wasn’t getting any answers, but the pressure was still there. This was the turning point – the very first step: Acknowledging that I had loans, and I could do something about it.

So, I have finally come to terms with the fact that I borrowed money and I need to pay it off. I also have realized that I am capable of understanding my loans and figuring out how to get rid of them as soon as possible. And here are the steps I’ve taken in the last few months:

1. Cut back on Costs (moving in with my Parents): First thing I did was ask them how long I was welcomed to stay. This gives me a set deadline. It also gives me incentive to use my time at home to my advantage.
2. Set up an Emergency Fund ($1000): For me this was to psych me up – to get used to taking money out of my Checkings account and setting it aside. It’s also good to have money to buffer any hick-ups along the way, just in case.
3. Find out what’s there: Perhaps the most basic of steps – to pull up the loan website and figure out what I owe. Also get comfortable with your loans, expose yourself to podcasts and articles about paying off loans. Learn to not feel frustratingly overwhelmed when student loans are brought to your attention.
4. List the loans by amount: This is how I’ve organized my loans: smallest to largest. Ones with higher interest rates and were unsubsidized moved further down the list. Listing them out can help put them into chunks that you can imagine paying off. When I saw that I owed $30,000 I had no idea where I would find that much money. But when they’re broken into $5,000 or $1,000 chunks you begin to be able to imagine how many paychecks that’ll need to take. And you can start imagining paying off one loan at a time.
5. Knock ’em down: Pick a loan you want to pay off first. I had started with the intention to first pay off the smallest loan, so I could get that high and ride the wave through my loan payoffs. Once you’ve picked your “favorite” loan, figure out your monthly payment. For that favorite loan, add a little more money into it each month. If you can, add twice the amount expected for the monthly payment. Speed it up, and get those loans out of the road. In a turn of events, I kept leaving the office on Fridays when checks were handed out – so I wounded up collecting three checks at once. When I deposited the money into my account, I realized I had enough to pay off one of my larger loans that was accompanied by a 6.8% interest. So I immediately chucked all my money into that loan. For the following two weeks I had $30 dollars in my bank account to use. I didn’t buy a single cup of coffee, instead of driving home for lunch – I brought my lunch with me to work, and not a single bag of chips was purchased. For me, that was what I needed to stay on track – to be forced into saving every cent.
6. Keep Chugging: It’s a learning curve! For the first loan that I attempted to pay off – there was an interest attached to it that I didn’t calculate in. So I still had $800 to pay til I could officially say that that loan was gone forever. Today I sent that money over – in two days I should be able to say that I have officially paid off my first loan. Don’t let long frustrating calls with your loan service deter you. Or $1000 interest build up from four years of neglect stop you. Just keep chugging.
7. Stay in School: I enrolled in 7 credits at my local community college. It cost me about $400 to take three classes, but now I get to take classes I didn’t have the time for when I was getting my Bachelors. Monday through Thursday after work I head over to the college and take amazing classes. I’m meeting fabulous people, expanding skill sets that are relevant to my career path and keeping my brain active. I’m learning about the local Native people and their history , so I can appreciate the land I’ve lived on all my life and the stories that are intertwined between the mountains and trees. I can take Astronomy or further my understanding of the local Geology, Biology or Ecology. I get to take courses that’ll keep my brain active, develop my career skills and also extend my loan deferment. The subsidized loans are (for now) taken care of because I’m a part time student.
8. Rinse and Repeat: You did it! You paid off the first loan – keep it going. Stay on a budget, save all those dollars so you can knock them down as fast as you can. The sooner your loans are paid off, the less accumulated interest you’ll be paying. If you have a $5,500 loan with a 6.8% interest rate – by the end of the year you’ll be paying $2,095.52 just in interest. That loan isn’t shrinking and the interest keeps coming back. Imagine doing that for five years, or worse ten. You can save an insane amount of cash if you pay off your loans sooner rather than later.

I have just started the journey – and I’m going to try my darndest to get out of this hole as fast as I can.

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I’m Ilena ’14 and I’m a huge supporter of caffeine, hot sauce, natural history, going places, and storytelling. I’m just a good ol’ twenty-something, raised but not born in the outbacks of Northern California where I spent most of my childhood wandering through creeks in redwood foreststhat were packed full with ferns and red bellied newts. Since then I’ve been trying to make positive life decisions. Like remembering to eat breakfast, falling asleep before 6 am and wishing people happy birthday on the day of their birthday. I’m a strict believer of graph paper and avoid the constraints of lined paper with great fervor. I have two thumbs and use them to make sure that toilet paper is dispensed from the top of the roll. I hope to one day become a full-fledge mediocre polymath.