Savvy Spending: Cutting Back on Buying Coffee Could Lower Student Debt

News Beat

Students may be curious about how they can not only pay the interest on their student loans, but how they can also pay down their student loans faster. After a student loan’s grace period is over, it goes into a Standard Repayment Plan. This is the standard plan each student uses to pay their loan off in 10 years. The Standard Repayment Plan creates a fixed payment amount based off of your total amount of loan debt and repayment term for 10 years.  Most people stick to the Standard Repayment Plan; however, there are many students interested in paying their loans off early. By paying a little more each month, you can cut down the total time you will be paying back your loan, and end up paying back less interest over time. Interested in seeing how much you will need to pay each month to pay off in a shorter time period? Try checking out a student loan calculator to estimate how much you could potentially save by paying off your loan in a shorter amount of time. For example, try using the calculator from CNN Money. This particular calculator allows you to put in your loan amount, desired monthly payment and your interest rate. The calculator then informs you how much your payoff period would be along with your interest paid over that time. So, how do you find the money to pay off your student loans faster? One way is to start by brewing your own coffee at home. It can save you hundreds of dollars, and according to a survey conducted by Braun Research on behalf of Accounting Principles; half of Americans choose to buy their coffee at work every day, which costs about $20 a week and nearly $1,000 a year. Think of the savings you’d have by simply brewing your own coffee.  There are also many ...

Read More