Student Loans! It is THE best feeling in the world to pay them off!!!!!

alternate months. pay more to your loans one month & treat yourself the next. :)

Sounds like you've found a way into a shiny new MacBook.

or just support the arts somewhere.

I suggest that you contribute the money to MY student loans.

i like the every other month deal, it's a good compromise. how exciting...i can't wait until i pay something off like car or loans. it'll be quite awhile.

No way ... full steam ahead, pay off the loans, baby. Being debt-free is one of the greatest ways that you can pre-love your man ... it's (as Rachel would say) <i>very sexy</i>.

Sorry, but I've never seen that perspective in print and think it needs to be represented ... it's a rarely known fact among females.

you DO remember you're talking to an accountant here, right, lance? debt ain't sexy to me, either.

and i certainly hope you do realize the reverse is true, gender-wise.

if your student loans are consolidated at a low fixed rate, then i wouldn't worry too much about paying more on top of what you normally owe. student loans are relatively cheap debt.

using money wisely isn't necessarily about not having debt, it's about how you manage and leverage debt.

there are a lot of ways you can invest extra capital and earn a higher rate than what you're currently losing by not paying off debt more quickly. (e.g. saving money for a down payment on buying property in an underpriced market, investing in mutual funds, etc.)

<student loans are relatively cheap debt.>

muahaha! thanks for my laugh of the day. that topped the comment i received last night at the bar. i 'spose if i cracked $50k/year, my $40k in debt from college & grad school might seem relatively cheap.
and lance, no wonder i can't find a man. i certainly don't want to impose my debt on anyone else. maybe by the time i'm 62 and have finally paid off my loans, i'll find someone.

Look, $40k is peanuts compared to the debt i have with my debt + my wife's (undergrad+grad+law school) debt. I'm not trying to belittle your debt situation; I'm just stating the fact that student loan is relatively cheap debt when considering all the options of what you can do with your money.

There are lots of people who have no understanding of money and do dumb things like retain credit card debt at 22% while making feeble attempts to put away money into a savings account that only returns 1% (which in reality is -2.5% because of inflation).

Debt is not a bad thing. Everyone takes on debt because they believe whatever they're taking on debt for is worth it. No one has to go to college if they don't want to, but it's general knowledge that over a life time, the benefits of having a college degree far outweigh the short term pain of borrowing money and paying interest on it.

peter - welcome to unleashed.

as painful as the interest is on my five-figure debt, yes, student loans ARE relatively cheap. BIG emphasis on the relatively. thankfully it's the only debt i have [credit card is paid off monthly. be smart, people!].

mar - someday our debts will be paid off... just in time to make payments to nursing home care! :)

just so you know, i wasn't saying i disagree. it still made me laugh if only for my own personal situation. i know i could have gone to my local university & lived at home like daddy wanted me to, but compared to the things i've experienced as a result of going to a private college (& then grad school), the debt is minuscule.

and modgo, perhaps we can pick up men in the nursing home. ;)

better yet, MEN can pick US up. ;)

Yeah- thanks for the laughs folks!

sarah! how ya doing by da u.p., eh?