I feel for the young person in the second letter. My husband and I graduated from college four years ago and we both have student loans to pay off. Yeah it's a pain and it doesn't allow you to save very much (if any) extra money for the future, but I agree with Prudie in her saying that this person shouldn't ask his parents for help in paying off these loans. I've come to understand that paying off your college loans are as much a part of the college experience as going to college actually was.

There are a few things this person can do to help make paying these loans a tiny bit less painful (hey, shelling out money every month is painful no matter how you slice it):

1: Consolidate your loans if you haven't already done so. If you have a Federal Stafford Loan, you can (and should) consolidate your 4 years (or more) worth of loans (each year represents a new loan) into one loan. That'll save at least $100 a month.

2: Some lenders (at least when I did it 4 years ago) give you the option to extend your loan period. The normal period for a student loan repayment is 10 years. For some reason, I managed to extend it to 20 years, which dropped the amount I have to pay each month. I have no intention of taking 20 years to pay it off, but the option is there if necessary. A similar option that I also took was to make interest-only payments for the first 3 years (I could have gone longer, but opted not to). That allowed me to put my money into other things (a car, a house, etc.). You just have to keep the thought in the back of your mind that this will not last forever and the payments will go up.

3: Ask your lender for a deferrment or forbearence. Yeah you have to have a really good excuse for this, and you have to provide proof that you really can't meet your payments at this time, but it's possible. I don't know if this would help in this person's case though.

I agree - there are definitely other options to help ease the burden of student loans. I feel bad that my parents took out their own loans for my education in ADDITION to my student loans (I went to a pretty expensive school). They handle theirs and I handle mine. I requested forbearance my first year after college because I was doing a non-profit internship abroad (read: virtually $0 salary). Since then, I've consolidated and reduced my monthly required payments.

Also, to the LW: you're bound to only go up in your job/career so you'll definitely be making more money in the next few years while your loans will only go down. Spend and save wisely now while you can. Financial advisors are always saying that new grads should continue to spend their money as if they were still students - at least for a little while until you get a good financial footing. Save what you can and put it into a high interest savings account (like ING or Citibank) and DON'T touch it.

You'll keep yourself afloat and soon enough be more than comfortable. It just takes a little practice and discipline. Good luck!

I took an extension and paid it off fairly quickly. I stayed at my part-time job that I had in college and worked there on weekends. I did this because I'd accumulated pay raises being there for four years. It worked out pretty well. I also carried no credit card debt at that time. The CCs will kill us before a low rate student loan at 8 percent.

Thank you for writing this. I was too aggrivated at the whiny LW to reply yet. I think most college students these days have some level of student loan debt when they graduate. I was $60k in debt. I deferred (financial hardship) for 2 years, then did a 1 year forbearance. Once I had my entry level position, I consolidated all my loans into one long-term payment plan. I still don't make enough to contribute much to savings, but I'm not demanding my parents help pay my payments either.

It almost sounds like the LW still wants to be a kid with no responsibilities rather than a college educated adult.

60K? Wow! I was only at 40K. I went to a state school and I probably went to school before you did. I graduated in 94.

Mine's a story of woe and immaturity. LOL! I went to state school too, so most of my loans were used to support myself and my family while I finished up my degree. Like a lot of poor college kids, there wasn't much thought of the future repayment amount. Just how much can you give me now to pay my bills?

An important life lesson my kids have already been taught!