The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act allows employers to pay up to $5,250 per employee toward student loans. As a tax-free fringe benefit, these payments are deductible. With the money I made from blogging, I was able to pay off my student loans faster than I expected to. And today, it’s easier than ever before to make money blogging. Check out my post on how to start a new blog in just 15 minutes. Want to learn how to make money to pay off student loans? One of the best ways is to pick up a side hustle in order to pay off student loans. Ever feel like it’s going to take a lifetime to repay your student loan? Well, you’re not the only one. The average person takes 21 years to repay their student loan.

These are our favorite creative ways to pay off your student loans.

Student loan debt is on the rise. Many recent graduates and working professionals are still struggling to find ways to pay off their student loans. We are here to help. Here are some of our favorite creative ways to pay off your student loans.

Majority of college graduates today have a student loan debt. According to the student loan debt statistics for 2018, the average student loan debt for the class of 2017 graduates was $39,000, which is an increase of 6% from the previous year.

The average student loan balance is increasing at a faster clip than wages. That is a serious problem.

An overview of how student loans have impacted the ability to retire

A lot of Americans are over-burdened by the student loan debts now than ever as the number of students who have applied for student loans has increased. There are different types of student loans and some loan stipulations provide you with funding enough to live off your student loans. The option of living off student loans has increased the possibility of more students getting the chance to study.

The student loan burden has however had a major impact on the way Americans save, spend and live their lives. According to the Federal Reserve Board of Washington, DC, an increase in student loan has led to a significant decrease in home ownership.

It is imperative to determine if it’s better to pay off student loans or buy a house. A study by Nerd Wallet has estimated that students who graduated in 2015 will have to delay retirement until the age of 75 or majority will be forced to remain unretired because of the student debt burden.

This leads me to wonder how can you creatively pay off your student loans to better your financial future.

A story on a creative loan repayment strategy

How To Pay Off Student Loan Debt

I love this story about Ray Laureano from Student Loan Hero. Ray and his wife decided on a non-traditional plan for debt repayment:

Casino game app win real money. “Conventional financial advice says that if you follow the debt avalanche repayment strategy, you make the minimum payments on all of your debt and put any extra money toward the debt with the highest interest rate.

For Ray, that approach didn’t seem effective enough. Instead, he talked to each loan servicer and entered the lower-interest loans into forbearance; in other words, he paused payments on those loans.

With his other debt payments on hold, he put all of his extra money toward just one loan with the highest interest rate. When that loan was fully paid off, he tackled the next highest-interest debt, and so on.”

This is definitely unconventional and goes against what I would typically do (I’m old school).

What are our favorite creative ways to pay off your student loans?

Our 10 Creative Ways to Pay Off Your Student Loans

If these alarming statistics are anything to go by, a majority of American families will struggle to achieve financial freedom in their earlier years. To reduce such possibilities, there is a need to find creative ways to pay off student loans debt. It’s quite amazing how much flexibility you have once you completely repay off your student loans.

Let’s explore 10 clever ways to pay off student loans.

1. Establish a clear debt payoff plan

This may seem pretty simple. If you want to resolve debt issues, the first thing you should do is to create a realistic plan. Having a plan in place is crucial as it will help you to make the right choices in regards to your finances.

Your financial statements can be a way to determine your financial position. You can use personal financial ratios to compare different elements on your personal financial statements and establish the way forward. The personal finance ratios help to determine your financial status in terms of how much debt you owe and what your current net worth is.

Ensure that you consider your financial position when creating a suitable debt payoff strategy.

Utilize the free personal finance and wealth resources tools available to create a budget and to check your progress. For example, FinAid offers a free Student Budget Calculator which can help you create a budget.

You can use Personal Capital to fill in your information and a budget will be created for you and they will send you the progress updates to keep on track. Once you have a clear plan in place, it will be easier to see the progress you make with different creative ways to pay off student loans.

Programs That Pay Student Loans

I usually pair my Personal Capital with WeVest as well. Wevest has an awesome feature that shows your debt-free date based on your interest rate and monthly payments. By combining these both together, I end up monitoring my personal financial ratios effectively.

2. Prepay down the principal amount

Another creative way to pay off your student loans is to first pay off extra principal whenever possible. Sign up to earn money online. This will help you to reduce the interests you will pay over the life of the loan. Since interests are calculated based on the principal amount, when you reduce the principal amount, it will automatically translate to lower interest payments.

It’s amazing how many people do not know that you can prepay your student loan debt. As you maintain an automatic debt repayment strategy, you can watch your credit score increase as the timeliness of your payments improves and your history of payments is established.

Try using a service like Credit Sesame to monitor the improvement of your score over time.

3. Pay off variable debt with high-interest rates first

Just like in any other debt-payoff strategy, clearing the loans with the highest interest rates first is a creative way to pay off your student loans. This is because interests can accumulate and you may end up paying a lot more.

In most cases, the student loan rates from the private lenders usually fluctuate and can hike to an extreme level at some point. So it is prudent to pay them off and handle the federal loans gradually since their rates are stable.

See Related: How to Pay Off Student Loans on a Teacher’s Salary

4. Pay more than the minimum balance on an automatic basis

The repayment on your student loan may be long, maybe 10, 20, 25 years or more. This gives you the advantage of paying lower monthly payments and can be good when facing financial hardship.

However, your financial situation would improve if you can afford to get rid of debts as soon as possible. It can reduce the amount of money you spend on interest in the long run and help you get rid of debt sooner.

Try to increase your monthly payments. It doesn’t have to be an equal amount each month. Look for ways to save more and to increase your income.

Determine how much you’re able to save and how much extra bucks you can create and use it to pay a higher amount than your minimum balance. You can save a lot by cutting your spending and unnecessary expenses like a gym membership, drink tap instead of bottled water, eat at home not out, cut the cable cost, and use public transport, among others.

Earn Money Online To Pay Off Student Lkoans