• When you are working you are making money to go towards all of the things that would otherwise add to your college loan debt.
• When you are working you are getting experience that will help you secure a better job after college therefore allowing you to pay down college loan debt more effectively.
• When you are working you are not spending money.

Here are some types of jobs that can help add to your bottom line and not he bottom line of the source of your college loan debt.

Jobs that tip:

Many service type positions will put you in a position to earn tips.  If you work in the restaurant field you will earn great tips and customer service experience which will line you up for a great job down the line to help pay down that college loan debt.  You should try to be a waiter/waitress as that will give you the most amount of tips.  Remember you can’t prove how many tips you earn.

Get a proper job during the summer:

Another mistake that I made during college was not having a meaningful summer job.  I worked at a marina for 30 hours a week which did nothing to help me and my college loan debt situation.  Try to find a job that is in line with what you are studying.  If you can’t find a job like this you should volunteer extra time in that type of a setting so that you can network and gain experience thus setting you up for a job the following summer.  Having a job in line with what you are studying will likely pay more than another more service based stereotypical summer student job.  This will help reduce the amount of college loan debt you need for the following school year.  This will also help towards setting you up with a proper well paying career after you graduate thus helping you pay down your college loan debt more efficiently.

Also, try to work in a job in line with your studies while you are at school.  This could mean working for the faculty, being a teacher’s assistant, or being a research assistant.  These jobs will help you network with your faculty, give you better experience, and you will learn things that will help you with your studies.  All of this spells less college loan debt in the long run.

Internet Marketing:

You are already spending a ton of time on your computer you may as well spend more or focus your efforts to be more productive.  You could set up a blog about something about the college you are attending and leave flyers around campus with the website.  Write valuable content for your target market and watch that traffic role in.  You can monetize your site by putting adsense, amazon, eBay, and other types of ads on it.  This could be some nice residual income while you are at school.  You could even make a site or blog about your studies therefore sharing what you learn and ensuring that you are learning.  There are a few people out there who make enough money blogging that they don’t have to have any college loan debt whatsoever.  It is work, so if you can find a way to combine your studies with your blog you will be making money while learning and succeeding at school.

Hopefully this advice will help you keep your college loan debt to a minimum while setting you up well for the future where you can pay your college loan debt off more efficiently.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, College Loan Debt, Jobs

1. Plan ahead and limit yourself

If you limit yourself to a certain amount of outings per week you will be able to save money that otherwise would be coming off of your college loan debt.  You have to be realistic.  Don’t limit yourself so much that you are not going to follow through as this will lead to more college loan debt.  3 or 4 nights per week should be reasonable.  Try to plan ahead for the week and set up a social and academic schedule.  By being able to plan ahead you should be able to avoid spontaneous bar nights which significantly add to your college loan debt.  A good tip is to plan ahead for the cheap nights at the various establishments or go to a pub where you can share pitchers of beer.  Local establishments are fully aware that students have college loan debt and have cheap nights to get them through the door.

2. Buy drinks from the store, not the bar

Binge drinking is usually what people engage in while at college.  If you are going to adopt this style of partying you cannot afford to start your evening at the bar.  This is one of the quickest paths to college loan debt.  What you need to do is buy your drinks from the store and start at home or at a friends home so that by the time you get to the bar you only need to nurse a few drinks to get you through the rest of the night.  This will help keep the college loan debt to a minimum.  The benefits of drinking with friends before going out is that you can actually here what they are saying, you can choose the music, and the seats are more comfortable.  Plus, you can make the drinks the way you like them, not the watered down version from the bar.  You don’t need extra college loan debt because of watered down drinks.

3. Only bring cash and id to the bar

So you’re ready for your night on the town after a significant amount of pre-drinking.  ONLY bring cash and id to the bar.  If you do not, the amount of college loan debt you accumulate will be astounding and you likely will not remember how you even got it.  By leaving the ATM card and especially the credit card back  at the house you will be saving yourself a world of college loan debt and credit card debt.  Just think about how many times you are out and all of sudden you want to buy a round for everyone because you’re smashed.  People tend to get really generous when they’re feeling the effects of a strong night of binge drinking.  This will prevent you from buying everyone pizza on the way home or other incredibly impulsive decisions that will pile on to your college loan debt.

Hopefully these tips will help save you a lot of money.  If I had heeded this advice when I was in college I likely wouldn’t have spent the equivalent of tuition on going out.  Live and learn.  I’ll live so you can learn.  College loan debt sucks and the less you have the better off you will be.

Technorati Tags: College Loan Debt, Partying, Tips

1. Party Hard

Let’s face it college is about partying.  If you don’t find the right balance you not only will not do well in school but you will accrue a huge amount of college loan debt.  This can be a huge challenge as there are many people who do not have to worry about college loan debt out there partying and it makes if hard to not join them.  College loan debt and consumption of booze (and other substances) are directly proportional to one another.  On the other hand the amount of brain cells you come out of college with is inversely proportional to your amount of college loan debt.

2. Not Knowing How to Cook

Hey what’s for dinner tonight?  Let’s order a pizza.  Sound familiar?  This will add to your college loan debt almost as much as your partying will.  Not knowing how or what to cook will lead you to the prepared food sections of the grocery store or to the fast food places around town.  Not only are these meals unhealthy but they are extremely expensive and will pile on to the bottom line of your college loan debt.

3. Having a Significant Other.

When you are trying to woo you are going to accumulate college loan debt.  It is a fact.  It also doesn’t stop, ever.  All of your eating out all of sudden tripled in cost because now you are paying for two and at nicer places – this should add significantly to your college loan debt.  Don’t forget birthdays and all of those insignificant I got you a two week and three day anniversary gift!  Say hello to more college loan debt.

4. Not Working.

You may think that your college loans will be affected by your extra income.  Not having a job means that every penny you are spending is adding to the total of your college loan debt.  This is not good especially if you are engaging in some of the above mentioned activities.

5. Not studying.

If you are not studying what are you doing? The answer is adding to your college loan debt.  The less amount of focus you place on your studies the more focus you are going to place on social endeavors which cost much more money than going to the library.  If you treat your studies like an almost full time job (6 hours per day) you are less likely to accrue a substantial amount of college loan debt.  Also by not studying you are less likely to be successful when you get out of college thus not having a good enough job to start repaying your college loan debt.  Therefore you will be living with your parents while trying to impress possible lifemates.  Not good.

If you avoid doing these mentioned things you should be able to keep control of your college loan debt to just tuition, rent, and books.  But you are human aren’t you?  It is extremely difficult to avoid participating in any of these activities and keeping your college loan debt to a minimum.  Check out the tips category for some pointers on how to get through school without additional college loan debt.  If you engage in these activities you will most definitely be in the market for college loans consolidation plan.

Technorati Tags: College Loan Debt, College Loans Consolidation, Student Loans