How I did it: Worked my butt off everyday after graduation. Deprived myself of luxuries, social activity, and living in general. Stayed away from credit cards and made payments regularly. Earlier this year, I worked at a job that paid very little. As a consequence, I stopped paying off my loans. They started lowering my credit. So I worked out a deal to pay off the whole thing from savings I had made from previous jobs and with th help of my co-signer. It's a such a relief, but I don't think I'll be back to how I was financially for a while. But what is nice is that my credit rating is above average and especially how the economy is right now, it's easy to get a good credit card. I plan on doing that and using it for a year to buy and pay off my groceries. This will boost my credit to excellent and I can't wait to get started.

Lessons & tips:

1. Conserve, conserve, conserve. Don't fall into temptation and blow all your extra money.
2. Make those payment EVERY month and pay more than you should.
3. Mac and cheese and ramen noodles are your friends.
4. Don't be afraid if you go into default, just call them and work it out with them. That's what they are there for.
5. Try to consolidate if applicable (it wasn't for me)
6. Make a budget and stick to it. I used www.youneedabudget.com
   
7. Take up asmany side jobs and money making oppurtunities as you can. I'm luckily an insomniac, so it wasn't really a problem working two fulltime jobs sometimes.
   

Resources: www.youneedabudget.com

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Jan 02, 2009, 10:00AM PST | 0 comments | 1 cheer