When a storm rolls over the Colorado Rockies you can see it coming from miles away. The billowing clouds are a visual representation of the impending doom that’s about to rain down (quite literally) on the plains to the East.
Out on those plains there are cows grazing that see the storm coming, and because cows want nothing to do with standing in the rain, they begin walking, trotting, then running the opposite direction. As they run to the East, the storm eventually overtakes them and they continue running with the rain. The effect being a prolonged bout of hanging out in the storm.
The buffalo, on the other hand, also grazing in similar fields, see the storm coming over the mountain range and begin running headlong into the storm. The buffalo, bold in their approach, end up being in the rain for a fraction of the time the cows were. Instead of running away from the problem, they run straight into it.
So when it comes to paying back student loans, are you a cow or a buffalo?
When we produced the documentary Broke, Busted & Disgusted about the rise of student loan debt in America, we interviewed a young man named Justin who buffaloed his way through his loans. When Justin graduated from a state university with $32,000 in debt, he said it never occurred to him he had no money, instead he looked at it as if he had -$32,000.
With $600 to his name and no job prospects, Justin turned to TaskRabbit.com and began accepting random jobs like data entry, bookkeeping, furniture assembly and user testing. Each of the jobs paid in the neighborhood of $75 a piece and he would work 6 days a week taking 3 or 4 tasks per day.
Every two weeks Justin would send his hard-earned money to the student loan servicer knocking down one loan at a time until it was completely blasted away. Within 8 months, he had completely exhausted all $32,000 in debt saving himself over $22,000 in interest in the process.
His reasoning — paying off the debt early made him feel like a “free man”.
Another graduate we interviewed who didn’t make the final cut in the movie was named Rachel. She graduated with about twice the amount of debt that Justin had, but chose to take the path of the cow when dealing with her loans. Despite working full-time shortly after graduation, Rachel decided to take a deferment on her payments for a year to get her feet under her. (You might say she began to see a storm brewing in the distance and ran away from it.)
When asked about her financial situation, Rachel said she was making ends meet just fine, but didn’t want the added burden of student loan payments in her budget just yet. The result could be a seriously prolonged payoff period if she continues to run away from the storm instead of into it.
If you’re just able to make the minimum payments on your loans, that’s totally understandable. Hopefully over time your income will grow as you elevate in your career. And when it does, send as much of it to your student loans as you possibly can.
In the meantime:
- Consider tacking on a side-hustle and making extra money specifically for debt reduction. Whether that’s driving for Uber, writing articles as a freelance writer, waiting tables, or painting homes.
- Minimize your expenses to the smallest level. Take your lunch to work. Drink at home with friends. Find free entertainment in your town.
- Partner with your friends who also want to blast away debt. Debt payoff is far more fun with friends who cheer you on.
Here’s the challenge: tackle your debt as swiftly as possible. Yes, it sucks. Yes, it hurts to send more in. But not nearly as much as 20-30 years of making payments until you finally wipe it out, exhausted from the on-going strain of the debt.
So go on with your bad buffalo self and run headlong into the storm… you’ll be glad you did!
