Student Loans – How Nurses can Pay them off Quickly

Nurses graduate with a larger amount of student debt than the average college student by as much as $15,000. Average college students have around $35,000 in student debt, whereas nurses have as much as $50,000 in student debt.

While it seems like a huge number for a profession that’s all about helping people, nurses can pay their debts off faster with a few simple steps.

How to Pay Student Loans off Faster

If you have a goal to pay your student loans off faster than the minimum payments allow, consider any of the following steps to get you started. You can even combine a few of the steps to make the most of your money.

1. Make extra payments

There’s never any penalty for making extra payments. Make them once a year, every month or whenever you can – there are no rules. Get a bonus at work? Apply it to your student loans. Earn a tax refund? Don’t spend it; instead, invest in your student loans. If you’d rather, add an extra amount to your payment each month, even if it’s $10, $20, or $50 a month to your regular payments, you get out of debt faster.

2. Make bi-weekly payments

Split your monthly payment in half. Let’s say your payment is $300 each month. Instead, pay $150 every two weeks. You pay the same dollar amount each month, but when you pay every two weeks, you make one extra payment each year because there are 26 bi-weekly payments in a year. You get yourself ahead without doing anything.

3. Check with your employer

Some employers help with student loan debt. Whether you work in a specific department that needs help or you volunteer, there are opportunities for help with student loan financing that many nurses can take advantage of. When you look for a nursing job, ask about student loan assistance to see if it’s one of the benefits they offer.

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