This article from Marketplace provides some stunning facts about people in my age group. (Millennials are defined as mid-thirties to current junior in high school.) With the propensity we have for signing up for an absurd amount of debt, and the current job market for college and high school graduates, it's entirely likely that a lot of us will never see the debt-free light of day.When you're just starting out of high school, a student loan of $30k to attend the high-caliber school of your choice seems reasonable, if not justifiable. After all, just about anyone can make $30k or more a year, right? Not for us! This generation is the first to have to struggle (and struggle, and struggle) to find jobs in a market that is saturated with middle-agers and post-retirement age adults who are forced to work because of the recent dip in the economy (or their own inability to save for retirement). A lot of us are taking jobs for less than we're worth, in a field we don't like, just to be able to pay the bills. When you graduate and the student loan start coming up due, you can find yourself stretched beyond your income trying to make those payments. What to do??
First and foremost, do everything in your power to avoid those debt traps in the first place. If you don't have credit cards, you don't have credit card debt. Simple! If you can't survive on what you're making, it's time to find a different job, add another job, or stop spending as much on non-essentials as you probably are. And avoid student loans like the plague they are. Even if you don't qualify for scholarships and grants, anyone can afford a state school (or better yet, a community college) working 20 hours a week at minimum wage. Suck it up and live with your parents while you go to school. Would you rather live with them when you're in college, or strike out on your own, find out you can't afford it, and then be forced to move back in with them to avoid living on the street?
Second, when the mess is already made, don't be afraid to ask for help. Yes, credit card debt is embarrassing. Yes, being unable to pay your student loans can destroy your credit. But if you don't get started cleaning up after your mistakes, they are never going to go away. Ignoring the bills because you're afraid is only going to hurt you.
The most simple, easy way to begin digging yourself out of the debt pit is to start with a budget. Keep track of all of the cash and debit/credit/check transactions you make in a month, and use that as your starting point. List everything you spend money on. Start with the most important and work your way down- housing (rent/mortgage), utilities (power, gas, water), food (groceries, not going out to eat), phone bill, internet, toiletries (shampoo, toilet paper, etc.). These are your essentials. Well, having internet can be considered essential, but if you're just using it to look at pictures of cats and watch music videos, you're probably better off cancelling it and saving the money. List how much you spend on nonessentials- eating out, cable-satellite, movie or video game rentals, etc. These are the things you can cut out if you have to. Don't whine- you're not going to die if you can't go to the bar once a week with your friends. Find something cheaper or free to do with your time.
The next step is listing all of your debts, smallest to largest (least-owed to most). List the total amount owed on each, their individual interest rates, and the minimum payments. Include the payoff dates, if you want. Include any car loans, student loans, credit cards, personal loans, everything. Are you able to make the minimum payments on everything each month? I hope so. If not, it's time to start cutting back on those nonessentials I mentioned earlier. If you're not paying your car loan because you need to have 250 premium channels, you're doing it wrong. Now, if you have extra money in your budget after everything is said and done, add the extra to your minimum payment on the smallest debt (the one you owe the least amount of money on) each month. Even if it's just $50, anything is better than nothing, and making just the minimum payments is the best way to ensure that you're paying on these debts (plus interest!) for a long, long time. Bad idea.
Here's an example. Let's say you have a car loan of $2400, one credit card with a $1250 balance, another credit card with a $4500 balance, and a student loan of $13,000. The minimum payment for the first credit card is $75, the second credit card is $120, the car loan is $140, and the student loan is $350. Let's take a stab in the dark and say that you have an extra $100 each month. Tack it on to the credit card with the $1250 balance, making the monthly payment on it $175. Pay just the minimum on everything else. When that one is paid off (after 8 months, assuming an interest rate of 15%), DON'T CHANGE YOUR SPENDING HABITS. Take the $175 you were paying on that credit card, and add it to the car loan of $2400, the next smallest debt. When you pay that off, take the $315 you were using and put it on the next debt, the credit card with the $4500 balance. When you pay that off, take the $435 and add it to the monthly payment on the student loan. See how it works? This method is called a debt snowball, because as you pay each debt off, the 'snowball' of available money to put onto the bigger debts grows, like how a snowball rolling down a hill accumulates more snow as it goes down.
That's the best, fastest, and easiest way to get rid of your debt. If you keep at it, you can be debt-free in several months to several years, depending on how much you owe. You can do it, don't be scared.
-Before you begin paying off your debt, you should have a small emergency fund in place. This will keep you from adding to your debt if something should happen, like a sudden car repair or dental work. This is VERY IMPORTANT.
-If you come into some money, like a tax return, inheritance, or something else, throw it onto your smallest debt. Don't tell yourself that you deserve a treat, and splurge it all away. You can treat yourself when you pay off a loan, and when you're completely debt-free, as long as these treats don't add on to your debt.
-To pay things off faster, make some money- get a part-time job, sell some stuff, things like that. Any extra money you get, use it to pay off your debt.
Well, there you go. It will be tough, but you can do it. Imagine what you'll be able to do with all the money you'll save when you're done! Motivation is key!
~Disclaimer: This plan for paying off your debt is the same one as outlined in Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover" book, just shortened to save time. I highly recommend that book, as it outlines step-by-step what you need to do in order to get your financial life in order, in much more detail than I can go into in a Tumblr post. Dave Ramsey is a personal hero, and I'll probably end up touting a lot of his wisdom over time on this blog. You can find his books and radio show at http://www.daveramsey.com/
~PS: I am not a hyprocrite. I have no student loans, but I do have several credit cards that I pay off every month to keep my credit score high. The key there being that I don't charge more than I have in my bank account at any given time. Credit cards can be a tool, and like all tools, it depends on how you use them.
I used http://bankrate.com/calculators.aspx/ to determine how long it would take to pay off the first credit card in the example. <3