

Ask HN: How long did it take you to pay off your student loans? - wcarss

I'm entering my last-ish year of undergrad study, and I'm approaching 20k in student loan debt; I am optimistic about paying off my loans (a friend paid his in just under two years), but with all of these scary articles about the "loan crash" coming, it seems like it might be a harder thing to do than I expect.<p>note: I'm a CS student from a Canadian university, but I'm interested in US and other responses too
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AgentConundrum
I spent the summer following college (also Canadian, btw) doing a lot of
nothing, just generally failing to find a job. I moved to Halifax (from
Kingston, ON) for a job in October of that year and when the dust from the
move settled I owed about $22k ($6k OSAP, $10 CIBC Line of Credit, $6k Visa).
That job lasted just shy of three years, and when it ended I only owed
$4,349.16 (taken directly from the NSLSC website), so I paid off about $18k in
2y10m, for an average of about $530/mo.

As for the particulars:

* I went to _college_ , not university, so you'll likely get a better job than I did, faster than I did.

* Starting salary: $38k

* Starting rent: $840/mo

* I flew home around 3x a year, for between $6-800/trip

Advice:

* With each pay, I'd pay minimum payments for my line of credit (smaller interest), and throw everything else I had (except rent) at my credit card. This is important; if you owe > 1 creditor, pay down the highest interest debt first, and pay minimums to everything else. This way, you minimize the amount of interest you end up paying overall.

* If you're used to having roommates, you might want to consider keeping that arrangement for a while. Take advantage of "living like a student" while you're still used to it, even if only for a little while. You'll save a lot on rent, and you won't miss the luxuries you've never known. This is pretty much how Alexis and Steve started reddit, incidentally. They just kept on living like students to minimize expenses.

~~~
wcarss
Thanks for the high volume of info - this is exactly the kind of data I was
hoping to see.

The thread seems split between "<4 years" and "7-10 years", or close to. I am
curious whether it's primarily lifestyle choices, income mismatches, or what
that's causing the gap.

~~~
AgentConundrum
You're quite welcome. I didn't think a generic "I did it in _x_ years" post
was what you were looking for, since it doesn't really mean anything. At least
with some details you'll have a bit of context to compare with your own
situation.

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patio11
3 years. I hate debt, so I lived like a monk and sent a thousand back every
month. It was good preparation for my next job as the low salaryman and now
getting company off ground.

~~~
wccrawford
I did the same. But I seriously considered investing the money instead of
paying it back, and earning a bit off it instead. I would have -just- paid it
back before the stock market crash. I'm glad I didn't take the chance, and I
wouldn't in the future, either.

------
ronnier
I did the unthinkable and worked full-time for both my undergraduate and
graduate degrees. I walked away without debt. It was hard, but I recommend it
over taking on debt. There are other benefits, such as finishing school with
working experience and learning how to master time management.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
>I did the unthinkable and worked full-time for both my undergraduate and
graduate degrees.

Distance learning?

I've done an undergrad level diploma over 3 years with the Open University
(just over one-third of a B.Sc degree IIRC) by working 4½ days and studying in
my spare time. But I could never have done my undergrad degree and worked
full-time - lectures started at 9am, lab days in until 5pm, other days there
would be reading to do, presentation prep, course assignments, tutorials (oral
study classes with a postgrad or lecturer doing questions and going over
course materials). Do 9-5 (not that uncommon) and then do a couple of hours of
reading or essay writing; when do you have time to work for money?

~~~
ronnier
No, I went to class on campus every day/night.

<http://www.utdallas.edu/>

~~~
pbhjpbhj
You did classes day __and __night and had a full-time job? Can you define
"full-time job" for me. Also how many years did you take to get your degree,
in what subject?

~~~
SHOwnsYou
Working during college is not as daunting as it sounds.

I worked the entire time I was in school, the first year part time, the last 3
years were full time (40+ hours per week).

I graduated on time with a degree in Economics with as much of a focus I could
put on Game Theory and Statistics.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
>Working during college is not as daunting as it sound

I don't find your suggestion daunting. I find it ludicrous - how does one fit
in all their lectures and essay writing, tutorial assignments and work a full-
time job. Did you skip lectures. As I did a modular course I had both essay
assignments, tutorial assignments and lab work (programming, experiments,
etc.) as well as about 30 hours contact time (lectures mainly).

I suppose if I hadn't slept and had a flexible job that I could work at when I
wanted and without any hard deadlines.

Perhaps the key is the job you had, were you a life model of someone studying
in a library?

~~~
SHOwnsYou
I had a real job. No sitting in the library for me. I was a jack of all trades
type at my job. Some software development, but I dealt pretty extensively with
strategy as well.

I had very hard deadlines all the time. My job was 8-5 every day, but I would
usually have to leave for an hour or so 3 times a week for class. That didn't
really change anything, it just meant that I was working later than 5pm every
night and fitting classes in later.

It wasn't that hard. It helps that I don't stress about anything. But I would
like to point out that I was not obsessed about my grades like some people
tend to be. I carried a decent GPA through school, but nothing impressive. The
nothing impressive was partially a function of my own doing and partially my
heavy schedule. I was never pressured into getting great grades and never put
that on myself. Mostly Bs with some As was fine for me.

------
dangrossman
I accumulated $77,000 in student loan debt during the first three years of
college, and paid for the rest (another 4 years, two degrees) directly.

I paid off that debt before any of the loans entered repayment with the income
from my businesses I started while in college.

------
JacobAldridge
Note: I'm an Aussie, and the Aussie HECS (now HELP) system is a little
different. The government loans you the money; interest is charged at CPI (so
usually half that of commercial rates; my debt actually decreased at one point
when Australia measured negative CPI growth!). To ensure their debt, it is
compulsarily repaid as a percentage of taxable income - the higher your
income, the higher the percentage goes (and yes, this does create situations
where a payrise leads to a negative cash-in-hand outcome).

My debt topped out just over $20K. I graudated at the end of 2002, started
paying it off in 2003 (ie, my first salary was high enough for the threshold)
and it was paid off in mid-2009. I could have paid it off sooner, but the
system means there are usually better uses for my disposable cash (mortgage,
even cash deposit!). Still, it's good that it's gone. Good luck with yours.

~~~
cubicle67
Same here, but I was lucky enough to go through the system earlier, when
prices were lower. My degree (Engineering) cost me about $12k, about half of
which I was able to pay up-front at significant discount

~~~
JacobAldridge
Yeah, they changed the rules around the significant discount just as I started
paying it off, which was a nuisance. More so for my beautiful wife, who's
paying off a law degree (more expensive again) with no incentive to do so
earlier.

------
sirsean
I paid mine off within about two years after graduating, but later learned
that doing so wrecked my credit. (The credit score people want to see a long
record of payments, not someone who quickly pays off debts in full.) I felt
that it was better to pay them off NOW, rather than pay 10x as much over the
course of decades.

I'm sure if you have a credit card or something, you wouldn't have to worry
about that.

~~~
gcb
[citation needed]

do they really disclose that? That you would be better being a sucker for
credit?

~~~
jrockway
Do you want a high credit rating, or do you want money in your pocket?

If you don't need to borrow money, then you don't need a credit rating. In
this day and age, a house is no longer a given (since they have proven to be
extremely poor investments at times), so you don't necessarily "need" a
mortgage anymore. If that's your situation, then your credit rating means a
lot of nothing. You don't need a good rate on your mortgage. You need cash in
your pocket.

------
cperciva
Zero seconds. I received scholarships for both my undergraduate and graduate
degrees, and graduated several thousand dollars ahead.

I don't know what the numbers are elsewhere in the world; but in Canada over
40% of university students graduate with no debt.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Your scholarship paid course fees and living expenses for 4 (?) years, wow,
you must be good!

What's your subject? What was your dissertation title, which Uni?

~~~
cperciva
_wow, you must be good!_

I've been told that starting university at age 13 and winning the Putnam
competition support this hypothesis. ;-)

 _Your scholarship paid course fees and living expenses for 4 (?) years [...]
What's your subject? What was your dissertation title, which Uni?_

As an undergraduate student, I received a $20k entrance scholarship; about
half of that went to fees, and the remainder was plenty to cover my living
expenses since I was living with my parents. This was at Simon Fraser
University and I was studying mathematics. SFU doesn't have undergraduate
dissertations per se, but the paper I published in Math.Comp. is rather
equivalent: "Rapid multiplication modulo the sum and difference of highly
composite numbers".

As a graduate student, I received a scholarship worth tuition + about 700
GBP/month (the amount was adjusted for inflation each year) -- the total value
worked out to somewhere around $100k. This was at Oxford University (but the
scholarship was funded by the UK government) and I was studying computing. My
thesis title was "Matching with Mismatches and Assorted Applications".

~~~
maxklein
At what age was your peak, or do you feel it is still to come?

~~~
cperciva
Which peak? Peak of brilliance? Peak of knowledge? Peak of productivity?

I don't make as many new discoveries these days as I used to; but that's at
least in part because I know much more.

~~~
maxklein
Peak as you define it. Like comedians would speak of when they peaked, some
don't think they have peaked yet.

------
16s
US here. BS from large state technical university. I had about 18K in loan
debt upon graduation. Paid it off in 2 years. I could have drug it out for 30
years, but wanted to pay it off. I am glad I did.

------
stewiecat
Took me just about 7 years. Had ~27K in debt.

The key for me was locking in the low interest rate when I consolidated the
8-10 federal loans I had into one big one at 4%. Made the payments automatic
and threw in extra cash when I could. Once I was above the cutoff for being
able to write off the interest I started tripling and quadrupling the
payments.

In hindsight they should've been done with sooner, but I got into a really
expensive hobby after college (long-course and ironman triathlons) which ate
into my disposable income.

------
damoncali
I haven't and I'll take as long as I can do to so. The interest rate is so
painfully low that it's dumb to pay them off.

~~~
damoncali
Downvote if you like - it's simple mathematics. Money (especially government-
subsidized money) is damn near free today. Rushing to pay it back at near-zero
rates is foolish.

~~~
sanderjd
Don't know why people are downvoting you, what you say is very sensible and
financially completely right - if the interest rate of the loan is below what
you can get in interest on a nearly risk-free investment, then it is cheaper
to pay the loan as slowly as possible. Having said that, I disagree with you
that it is foolish to pay back loans as quickly as possible. Having no debt
makes it much easier to live with no income (without having to declare
bankruptcy). If that isn't something you aspire to then it doesn't matter, but
I would personally enjoy that very much and will continue paying very close to
the absolute maximum I can afford each month on my admittedly cheap loans.

------
jakevoytko
Finding a cheap place to live is essential! My first post-college apartment
was $960/month, utilities included. As a result, I completely paid $19,000 in
loans 11 months on a 61k pre-tax salary. Look for apartments in safe
neighborhoods that cater to fixed-income families and the elderly.

If the loan's APR is much greater than your savings account, keep a reasonable
buffer and dump everything else into the loan. Otherwise you're throwing away
money to interest. If you have the ability to pay into a specific loan right
now, put money into the one with the highest rate ASAP.

I imagine lifestyle is a huge factor. Groceries are my only large monthly
expense. If you have others, plan accordingly.

~~~
makmanalp
Even better, get a roommate and halve the price. Having a roommate doesn't
really require a college lifestyle. The more people you have, the more the per
person price reduces. So a big, nice place where everyone gets their own room
can actually be cheaper than what you pay.

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byoung2
I was lucky enough to go to a public school (UCLA), which cost less than
$5000/year at the time. I was able to come out debt-free, which is huge,
considering some of my high school friends have over $100k in debt.

~~~
Ad_Astra
Curious, when did you attend? Current fees alone are close to $11,000/year at
the UCs now. Nonresidents have it even worse.

~~~
byoung2
1998-2003. The fees started at $1300/quarter or $3900/year, and ended at
$1400/quarter, or $4200/year. As a California resident, I got the much lower
in-state tuition.

Here's a chart of the fees from back then:

1998:
[http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/archive/fees/1997-98/Winter98F...](http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/archive/fees/1997-98/Winter98Fees.pdf)

2003:
[http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/archive/fees/2002-03/Winter03F...](http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/archive/fees/2002-03/Winter03Fees.pdf)

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lleger
Louisiana has free in-state tuition, so I'm graduating with an engineering
degree debt free. Sure, my institution isn't as highly rated as the others I
got into, but they just weren't worth the premium — especially for a degree
like engineering which is essentially standard across universities.
(Graduating from a top 10 school could easily set you back $200k.) Which is
great, because instead of working to pay off the debt in school or worrying
about taking a job right out of school, I can take my time and crank away on
my startup. Win-win.

------
lutorm
I have about $60k in debt from the Swedish student loan system, which is paid
back as a percentage of your income. After 15 years of graduate student,
postdoc and academic staff jobs, I just this year managed to pay off more than
the interest... At a normal academic pay progression I doubt I'll ever pay it
off, I just think of it as a small extra tax every year until I turn 65 and
the state forfeits the remaining balance. (They've since changed the system,
the terms for repayment are not so generous any more.)

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elptacek
I graduated in 1993 with roughly 45,000 USD in college loans. I sent in my
last payment in the summer of 2006. Since I had a year before I had to start
paying them, that's about 12 years.

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jjcm
I graduated about two weeks ago, and I currently have 5k left in loans. I
should be able to get that paid off before the end of the year. Total tuition
costs over the 5 years I attended college were ~$133,000 USD (including
housing while I was living in the dorms my first two years). It is possible to
pay for most of your school as you go along. I was fortunate enough to have my
parents pledge $40,000 ahead of time. The rest was mostly paid for by either
myself or by scholarships. I started working full time after my sophomore year
at a job that a "tuition assistance" program that paid you more if you were
going to school. A lot of large companies have these (although sometimes there
are strings attached, such as requiring you to work for x amount of time after
you graduate) and I'd highly suggest looking for them. Also, I hunted down
scholarships in my free time. I got about $52k in scholarships - many of which
I won because I was the only person who applied for them (although the largest
was an academic one for good marks in high school). Sure you'll be required to
write an essay, but think of it as an essay that's making you $500. $250 an
hour is well paid work.

You'll be able to pay it off, just start now. That's my advice.

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redguycornell
Accumulated around 50 K in Debt while doing MS in CS, from Cornell. Hoping to
get around 85K $ a year job [median salary for 2009 for CS], should be able to
pay of entirely in couple of years.

Though hoping to become a wall street Quant, then will be able to pay in a
year alone.

Had under graduation in India , where Tuition was 500$ a year, still got a
scholarship which made sure i need not pay even that amount. I make more in my
internship in a week than what I paid to university as a tuition.

Hoping to be able to do some charity by paying for tuition of poor Indian
students in two years

------
Aqua_Geek
A lot of it depends on your other obligations. If your student loans are your
only source of debt and you land a decent job after graduation, I think it's
very doable to pay off your loans quickly. However, if you have a car payment,
credit card payments, expensive hobbies, etc and you're only making minimum
payments on your loans it's obviously going to take longer.

I would recommend you find a loan amortization calculator. Most should have
the ability for you to enter an additional monthly payment and see its effects
on how long it takes to pay everything off.

------
dmoney
About 7 years. I owed about 12K after graduation and just did the default
payment (which would have taken about 16 years, but it was low). Later I
borrowed another 12K or so for a car. After year 6 the car was about 1/3 paid
off. At that point I read "Vagabonding" which put the idea in my head that
debt could be an impediment to freedom. I got a higher paying job. By the time
I got around to looking into increasing the monthly payments, I realized I had
enough saved to just pay off the loans in one swift stroke.

------
ultrobast
UK here. 7 years & counting. Haven't had a statement in ages so I'd have to
guess roughly 5 more years before I clear it.

I am paying the barely-above-interest monthly rate though.

------
ashconnor
I'm on track to graduate with no debt. This is due to my father's 50% staff
discount at the university I attend and a government grant which covers the
rest ($2500 per year).

I am also working 1 day a week during term time and 4 days a week during
summer/breaks which I am investing in my startups.

The isn't an Oxbridge university but it is redbrick; that matters less here in
the UK than it does in the US though.

------
EliRivers
It's been a decade and I'm still paying (although I didn't have to start
paying them back until about 3 years after leaving university). Since I
studied in the UK, my student loan on leaving (after 4 years) was around 8500
UKP (I was in the last entry year that didn't pay fees), which is a pittance
compared to what some of you chaps ending up borrowing.

------
bluesmoon
I can't answer for myself (I studied in India and my tuition was $100 per year
which I more than recovered through participation in software competitions).
My girlfriend, however, studied in the US, and also had a 20K loan which she
managed to pay off before graduating by working the regular 20 hours a week
allowed to international students.

------
il
I started my business to pay for beer and food during college. Fortunately, it
grew rapidly, and I was able to pay off all my loans(about 25k in debt) before
I graduated. Of course, living like a frugal college student with low expenses
helps tremendously. If your startup does well, you'll be able to pay off your
loans in no time.

------
tricky
My loans were subsidized (stafford) and locked into a VERY low rate for 10
years. I could have paid them off quickly, but my plain old savings account
had a much higher rate of return than what the loan cost.

It took me 9.5 years to pay them off (I got emotional and just paid off the
last 6 months to be done with it.)

------
nkassis
I started paying back this year, at my rate, almost 10 years but I expect to
ramp up the payments in a few years.

------
Pistos2
I did Comp Sci at a major Canadian university. I used OSAP or a bank loan for
each year of study. I've never put in a lump sum. Paying only regular monthly
payments got me finishing maybe 10 or 11 years after graduation.

------
PatHyatt
2 years for my own undergraduate. However my girlfriend just graduated with
40k worth of student loans last August and we'll have it paid off by the end
of the year.

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exline
less than one year. I had a job the last 3 years of college and was able to
cover all the bills. I had a couple of small grants plus some student loans. I
took the loans for an emergency cash fun, just in case. I invested it in the
market, and cashed out when I graduated and payed back the loan.

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jlees
I started university in 2000 and still haven't even started paying my $20k UK
student loan back. _shrug_

------
mkramlich
I have a startup that will be doing it's part to help ensure that no student
will ever have to take out college loans ever again. Early/stealth mode still,
however.

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leed25d
about 2 years

------
lotusleaf1987
A lot of these responses are such outliers compared to the people I know in
real life. Most people take a lot longer that 3 years. Most of these responses
are going to skew your definition of norm.

~~~
wcarss
Are the people you're referring to computer science people, or professionals
in a different capacity? And do they face manageable debt (10-30k) or a larger
(50-150k) sum?

~~~
lotusleaf1987
It all depends, I could answer yes to all of those questions.

