How have you been dealing with your student debt?

Student debt can feel overwhelming, especially when you first get out of school and have all of it to pay. It can make you feel hopeless and like you’ll never dig your way out of the hole you’re in. It’s kind of depressing reading countless stories from people online who have put their lives on hold and spent every waking moment working to pay off debt, putting off retirement savings and home ownership.

There are many ways to deal with student debt, but let me tell you my story. Hopefully it will help you feel better about your debt, and show you that student debt doesn’t have to stop you from dreams like owning a home and saving for retirement!

I started out with $50,000 salary and $38,000 in student loans. I found a cheap place to live right out of college and took advantage of my 6-month loan grace period to pay as little as possible on my loans and save all my extra money for a down payment on a house. I purchased a four bedroom home 10 months after graduating. Yep, that’s right, I added a $200,000 mortgage to my debt! But it wasn’t time to start feeling overwhelmed and strapped for cash! I started renting my extra rooms and tenants have been paying for me to live in my house for free ever since!

Along the way, I met my significant other who made way less and had way more debt than me and we ended up joining our income and debt. Now we make about $110,000, with $68,000 in student loans, $19,000 in credit card debt, and my mortgage. I don’t lose sleep at night over this because I have a plan to get it paid off without torturing myself and waiting to start my life. I refinanced my student loans to low rates, I put all of the credit card debt on cards with 0% interest with a plan to pay them off before the 0% interest promo ends, tenants still cover the mortgage, and I’m maxing my retirement and health savings (HSA) accounts.