Pay Off Your Student Loans Early (and Save $1000s) With This Super Obvious Solution

There’s no way around it: Student loans suck.

And sometimes they’re so massive, paying them back can be completely overwhelming.

Even if you’re bringing in decent income — and especially when you’re not — it can feel like you’re throwing money into outer space without ever making a dent in the seemingly insurmountable number.

That’s kind of how Douglas Hicks felt after graduating with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado — and $50,000 in student loans.

Though he had a good job, he had the same dream many of us do: to buy a house.

He wanted to reduce his student loan payments so he could afford a mortgage, but felt hindered by the giant number.

That is, until he stumbled across a website for people just like him.

With its support, he’ll finish paying off his loans sooner than anticipated, not only allowing him to buy a house, but also saving him more than $9,600 in the end.

Keep reading to find out about what kicked him into gear…

Where These Grads Found Motivation… and Hope

When Hicks decided he wanted to buy a house, he started looking into refinancing his student loans.

During his search, he came across a website called Student Loan Hero.

The site prides itself on its wealth of free information — from tutorials to calculators — all available to help you wade through the muck and monotony of paying back your student loans.

“It’s kind of a support group for me,” Hicks explains. “They send you a weekly email with stories of different people and how they paid off their student loans. It’s a way to keep me focused on the long-term goal of paying off my loans earlier.”

Without Student Loan Hero, he thinks he “probably would’ve lost focus.”

“I’d have found something else to put my extra savings money towards, as opposed to student loans,” he explains.

“It’s kind of a weekly reminder to keep up the fight.”

Julie Fulesday has a similar story: She had about $55,000 in loans after getting her MBA at the University of Pittsburgh.

“These loans, they’re [equal to] a mortgage payment; they’re two car payments,” she says. “It was killing me that I was paying such heavy interest. I was always looking to shorten that process, and to save some money.”

So, like Hicks, she was delighted when she found Student Loan Hero.

“It provides hope,” she says. “I think when you find a community undergoing some of the same experiences you are, you realize you’re not the only one.”

With the help of the site’s tools and guides, she plans to pay off her loans four or five years early. She especially likes reading about the “couples who have found such creative ways to save and be frugal” because “there’s always something that gives you ideas.”

Her savings: $10,000 – $12,000.

As for what she’ll do with the money, Fulesday says: “I would envision there may be a baby in the house by that time.”

“I hear children can cost a lot,” she adds with a laugh. “But I can tell you that the month I don’t have to pay student loan debt, regardless of what we’re doing in our lives, there will be a big celebration of some sort.”

Could Student Loan Hero Save You Thousands?

If you’re in the same boat as Hicks or Fulesday, refinancing your student loans could end up saving you a significant amount of money.

Exactly how much depends on the lender you choose, as well as a number of other factors like your loan profile, career, income and credit score.

“Student Loan Hero gave me a list of different consolidation plus refinancing options,” Hicks explains. “It was a good way to do a side-by-side comparison without having to go to 100 different websites… It saved me a ton of time over researching individual companies one at a time.”

“I thought it gave you a pretty objective point of view from what’s out there in terms of consolidating and refinancing,” he says.

Not only did it save Hicks time, but as mentioned above, refinancing his loans also is going to to save him thousands of dollars.

If you’d like to learn about your options, check out this list of six banks to refinance and consolidate student loans.

Your Turn: How do you stay motivated to pay your student loans?

Sponsorship Disclosure: A huge thanks to Student Loan Hero for working with us to bring you this content. It’s rare that we have the opportunity to share something so awesome and get paid for it!

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When Thrifty Met Spendy: Love, Money, and Financial Compatibility

If you’re fighting with your sweetie, there’s a good chance it’s about money. A study by SunTrust found that more than a third of couples experiencing tension in their relationships said money was the reason. That eclipsed the No. 2 response, annoying habits, by 10%. And even worse, arguments about money early in a relationship raise a couple’s risk of divorce more than fights over any other subject.

Interestingly, while couples with large gaps in their credit scores are more likely to part ways later on, it also turns out that savers and spenders are more attracted to each other than they are to those with similar financial leanings.

As Valentine’s Day and the inevitable engagement announcements approach, you may be wondering whether you should give every prospective mate a financial compatibility test to see whether you’re a good money match. Can a frugal saver ever really be happy with a splurger? Will someone who’s content to scrape by annoy a go-getter who’s always searching for a money-making side hustle?

I’ll answer from a personal perspective, as a saver who married a spender: I like to think so, but it does take some work. Below are five time-tested strategies to help nip money arguments in the bud, maintaining marital harmony in the process.

Tip #1: Maintain Perspective

There are a lot of factors contributing to our financial identities, many of them stemming from circumstances beyond our control. Depending on a person’s background and upbringing, money can symbolize different things to different people.

I come from a fairly frugal line of Midwesterners. Hand-me-downs and home-cooked meals were the norm; there wasn’t a lot of “keeping up the Joneses” mentality where I was raised. We just made do and that was that. My parents divorced midway through my childhood, making things even tighter, but I managed to scrape through college and grad school without much debt thanks to scholarships, grants, and work-study jobs.

My husband’s parents immigrated to the U.S. in the late ’60s, and while they toiled at blue-collar jobs, projecting an image of wealth was important to them — they wanted friends and family back home to know they’d “made it” and were doing OK. Whatever they had went toward the best for their children. My husband was funneled into the Ivy League, and though he did well, he has the student loan debt to match.

To me, if you’re fortunate enough to have extra money, you put it away for a rainy day. It’s safety and security. To my husband, it represents a payoff for his hard work, and because of that, he sees no reason not to enjoy it.

That’s not to say we can’t change our habits now, but in moments of mutual financial exasperation, it helps to remember that we’re not deliberately trying to annoy each other — we’re simply reverting back to what’s familiar.

Tip #2: Talk About Your Game Plan

It’s hard to talk about money, but it’s crucial to get on the same page before misunderstandings arise.

A financial game plan means more than sitting down and hashing out a budget (though this is definitely an important part of the process). Experts say it should also be about prioritizing your main goals and planning how to best achieve them. It’s also figuring out what the biggest sticking points in your plan might be, and tackling them specifically.

For my husband and I, our major goals are threefold: saving enough for a comfortable retirement, funding college savings accounts for our sons, and staying out of credit-card debt.

So far, we’ve done pretty well with them, but one of our sticking points is whether to send our kids to public or private school. My husband has fallen in love with one private school in particular, but I don’t think we have room in the budget without radically reshuffling our priorities.

Our compromise? Go public, and put money that might otherwise go toward private school into our kids’ college savings accounts so that it can grow and benefit them down the road. If the need arises — if public school somehow fails to meet our kids’ needs — then private school could become our Plan B and we’ll be better prepared financially for it.

Tip #3: Exploit Your Partner’s Strengths

Sometimes it’s hard to acknowledge that someone with a very different viewpoint may, every once in awhile, be onto something. But coming from different perspectives can actually make a spender-saver relationship well-balanced and strong, experts say.

My husband, for instance, is a stickler for quality goods. But if we had my way, we’d skimp on a lot of things in order to save some extra cash. Of course, that doesn’t always pay off in the long run. So I’ve come to accept and even welcome his mantra (“You get what you pay for”) when it comes to at least some important purchases that we hope to have for the long haul, like furniture.

It’s also worth noting that few people fit neatly into stereotypical boxes. My husband loves to splurge, but he’s also a major hustler who’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever known. I’m a saver, but I also don’t obsess over every dollar and probably am not as proactive about money as I should be. So while our dominant financial personalities are at odds, we still manage to find and appreciate the similarities, too.

Can a saver and a spender still live frugally ever after?

Tip #4: Consider Keeping Separate Accounts

Many couples automatically merge bank accounts when they get married. But some experts say keeping at least some of your finances separate can help nip arguments in the bud.

My husband and I have maintained separate checking accounts, but merged our savings. It might not work for everyone, but it’s a happy medium for us — we each manage our own day-to-day spending without micromanaging the other, but deposit a significant chunk of our respective incomes into the joint account for major bills, long-term goals, and our safety net.

Most importantly, we don’t “keep score” regarding who pays what. To successfully maintain separate accounts, you’ll need to decide who’s responsible for what: My husband, who makes more than me, gets most of the biggies, like our mortgage and utility bills, and he’s responsible for paying down our credit cards whenever we charge something. I pay a few little things, like preschool tuition, my student loans, Netflix, and a couple of miscellaneous other accounts, but my biggest job is padding our savings.

Tip #5: Learn to Compromise

Most happy couples know that finding common ground is the key to a strong marriage — and it’s really no different when it comes to money. Compromise is key.

Indeed, we’ve learned to give each other a bit of a pass in certain areas. My husband is a passionate “Star Wars” fan, and he’s determined to pass that love along to our sons. They have more shirts and light sabers than I care to count, but as long as things don’t get too crazy, I look the other way. He also has a penchant for crazily patterned golf pants, and even though they’re threatening to take over his closet, I let it go.

And my husband knows that even though I’m typically a tightwad, I’ll happily spend on travel and, to a lesser extent, home decor. As long as my purchases don’t significantly impact our long-term goals, he obliges, knowing I’ve paid him the same courtesy.

Are You a Spender? A Saver? Take Our Quiz

Are you a banker type? A hustler? Prone to splurging? If you aren’t sure what your dominant financial personality is, take The Simple Dollar’s Money Personality Quiz below. Make sure your significant other takes it, too — it could be a good jumping-off point for some candid conversations about how you view money, maybe preventing some arguments along the way.

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Love Don’t Come Easy, But Cash Can: 10 Creative Ways to Make Money on Valentine’s Day

Face it: Not everyone is super stoked about Valentine’s Day.

While the impending day of romance offers a world of promise to besotted lovers, it can loom over lonely singles like a dark cloud of lacy hearts and syrupy-sweet Facebook posts.

If you’re feeling the latter, we’ve got the perfect way to save the day from feeling like a total bummer: Make money!

Take advantage of the lovesick holiday and put some cash in your pocket.

Even if you’ve got a date, you could stand to profit this year if you’re flexible. February 14 falls on a Sunday, so if you can shift your plans elsewhere in the weekend, you might be able to double the benefits of the holiday.

Try these tips for making money on Valentine’s Day:

1. Sell Gift Cards

Whether you’re free on the 14th or not, profit by selling an unused gift card now. Help someone shop for the perfect gift or plan a classy night out on a budget.

This is a great time to unload gift cards you have left over from the holidays — or still floating around from last year.

On a gift-card exchange site like Raise, you can sell your unused gift cards for near face value. That turns your unwanted gift into cash!

2. Be a Hair Stylist or Makeup Artist

While it’s not quite the occasion a wedding or junior prom may be, a big date night means people will want to look pretty.

You could earn more than $20 an hour helping them make it happen!

If you’re already a professional hair stylist or makeup artist, prepare for a surge in business on this lovestruck weekend.

For amateurs, this may just be a way to make some extra money on the side. Charge a small fee, or barter to exchange favors, helping friends or family members prepare to paint the town a sultry shade of red.

3. Be an In-Home Chef

You may be well-versed in the culinary arts, already successfully working as a private chef or just looking to make some extra money on special occasions.

If you’re comfortable in the kitchen, offer your talents as a service for the night.

If you’re already in the business, you could command a higher fee on Valentine’s Day due to potentially higher demand.

If you’re just getting started or prefer to keep cooking a hobby, reach into your network for lovebirds who might want to splurge on a romantic dinner.

4. Take Stock Photos

Taking stock photos while people are on dates might sound creepy, but stay with me.

Valentine’s Day will be a unique opportunity to capture photos of packed restaurants or other venues.

Dining rooms will be beautifully lit and decorated, setting the mood for a romantic night. Patrons will be dressed to the nines and smiling a little more than usual — hopefully.

You can sell stock photos of happy people dining out for a plethora of uses throughout the year.

Note: you may need a model or property release, depending on the content and intended use of the photographs.

Also, restaurant owners or managers reserve the right to ask you not to take photographs on their property. They may not take too kindly to you showing up unannounced on a busy night.

To avoid conflict, contact businesses ahead of time to ask permission. Or, find areas where people are gathered outside.

In warmer climates, look for busy streets with lots of outdoor dining areas. In cooler places, find opportunities for iconic rom-com shots, like ice skating.

5. Set Up a Photo Booth

If you’re still not convinced on the stock photo thing, consider selling your photography skills directly.

Set up a photo booth, or just hang out with your camera near a popular date spot, and offer to capture the romantic moments.

6. Drive With Uber or Lyft

A busy night out for consumers means high traffic times for Uber or Lyft. If you’ve been thinking about driving with a rideshare service, this could be a good time to start.

As long as you know your city well, a busy night can give you a crash course in the work.

If you’re already a partner and don’t have a date, take advantage of your free time to profit from surge pricing!

7. Babysit or Take Care of Pets

Take the load off parents: Offer to watch their kids while they go out for a romantic evening.

You could make $50-$100, and chances are, the younger kids will be sleeping most of the time you’re there.

And for those friends who think of their pets like kids? Offer pet-sitting services so they don’t have to worry about getting home early.

You could earn $40 an hour just stopping by to put food in a bowl or take the dog for a walk.

8. Deliver Food

Sign up with a service like Dapper Deliveries to be a freelance food delivery driver for those who prefer to… stay in.

As with other contract services, how much you earn depends on how many deliveries you make and how fast you work.

But Dapper states the average pay-per-delivery — including a delivery charge and potential tips — is $8.

9. Sell Romantic Gifts

We’re suckers for small, sweet gestures — so roses sell like hotcakes on Valentine’s Day.

Join the crowd and have some fun providing a tiny spark of romance to the special evening by supplying them. Partner with restaurants in your area, or hawk gifts on the street.

And be creative! Roses may be overdone, but what about stuffed animals or chocolates?

Or put your talents to work offering to draw caricatures, put on a quick show or play a love song.

10. Work on Your Passion Project or Side Hustle

Want to steer clear of the mushy love stuff altogether? Maximize your me-time on Valentine’s Day to make progress on your personal projects.

Holidays are a killer time for creative work! Everyone who would be vying for your attention via email or social media is occupied with other plans, freeing you to focus.

If you’re not happy about being alone on Valentine’s Day, put it to use.

Channel your disappointment, sadness, anger or boredom into something creative that will grab everyone’s attention in the morning.

Just edit out any bitterness before it goes public, and you should have a masterpiece.

Your Turn: Will you be putting your free time to work for you on Valentine’s Day?

Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links. We’re letting you know because it’s what Honest Abe would do. After all, he is on our favorite coin.

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more.

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