Amount spent weekly at Starbucks = $20

Amount spent weekly on cabs = $30

Amount spent dining out each week = $150

Saving money on your student loans = priceless

Meet Katya. Katya recently graduated from college and, thankfully for her, is one of the lucky ones who found a job in her major. That degree, though, cost her plenty - and will continue to cost her, as her student loan payments are one of her largest monthly expenditures.

Despite having an income, like most recent graduates, Katya doesn’t have a lot of breathing room in her budget. At least, that’s what she thinks. So, we put Katya to the test - the WilliamPaid Challenge.

This experiment is based on the WilliamPaid Principal Principle: the fastest way to eliminate student loan debt is to cut out daily/weekly unnecessary indulgences and apply those savings directly to your student loan payments. It’s a simple concept - each additional dollar applied to your outstanding principal reduces the amount of interest dollars that you pay on what you owe. Doing this will save thousands in interest costs and decrease the years needed to repay loans.

Through our three-month WilliamPaid Challenge, Katya will document her journey to decrease her student loan debt by identifying those little unnecessary costs that add up to wasted spending (or, at least, not the wisest spending). Once identified, for three months, yes, 90 days, Katya will be cutting out these unnecessary things in her life on which she currently spends nearly $400 a week. She will then apply these saved amounts to her student loan principal balance.

Based upon her loans, if Katya followed the WilliamPaid Challenge by increasing her principal payments by $75 per month at the commencement of her loan repayment, we estimate that she would be able to save $2,765 in interest costs and pay back the debt in 31 fewer months.

Katya will be blogging about her experience on makecollegereality.com and here at www.williampaid.com. If you want to take the challenge with Katya, start by using WilliamPaid’s simple savings calculator to figure out what you can cut out of your life to save money. Then take a look at the student loan calculator to assess the impact that a little bit of restraint in your daily life can have on reducing your student loan obligations.

Good luck, Katya. We’re pulling for you!
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Follow Katya on makecollegereality.com as she documents her journey to decrease her student loan debt.

7/30/2010: The WilliamPaid Challenge

7/30/2010: Katya’s Challenge: Cutting Back to Pay Student Loans

8/04/2010: WilliamPaid Challenge Helps Renters Tackle Student Loans

Try it For Yourself
Use our Simple Savings Calculator to find out where you indulge yourself in areas you could be saving. Then, use the Student Loan Calculator to find out how much as little as $25 per month could save you on your student loan debt:

Student Loan Calculator                 Simple Savings Calculator
                           

The WilliamPaid Principal Principle: the fastest way to eliminate student loan debt is to cut out daily/weekly unnecessary indulgences and apply those savings directly to your student loan payments. It’s a simple concept – each additional dollar applied to your outstanding principal reduces the amount of interest dollars that you pay on what you owe. Doing this will save thousands in interest costs and decrease the years needed to repay loans.