Student loans - bane of existence

Student loans are the plague. More of a parasite, really. You finally make good money and where does it all go? Well six months after graduation, it gets sucked away by a parasite weighing tens of thousands of dollars. Check out the amount of interest you're paying per payment. Sometimes the majority of what you're paying is interest...the stuff that didn't even pay for your degree! I started throwing down a bit of my check after my first payday....aka before the interest kicked in. It did help a bit, but what helps the most is staying on top of the loans. Even if you put an extra $50 bucks on each loan payment, you'll be tackling the beast much faster and pay less interest in the long run. Try not to set up auto-pay. That way, once a month, you have to evaluate how much you can really afford to put down...and hopefully that is more than the minimum payment. It'll suck for awhile, but then again, you're used to living like a poor college student. In the long run, you'll be incredibly glad you did it.

It's different for everyone. This is just what I found works for me.