Broke Grad Masters Science, Still Working on Student Loans

When I got back from my vacation this past weekend, I was excited to find a tube waiting for me when I got back home. Inside the tube was a piece of paper officially stating that I’ve mastered science. Sounds about right.

Photo by diluvienne

All joking aside, I’m really glad to be done with grad school. One can only handle spending so many years in school (unless you’re a tenured professor). I’m glad to be out in the real world now, and while I may have gotten a little sick of grad school, I’m never going to get sick of learning.

In fact, one of the reasons I started this blog was to motivate myself to learn more about finances while paying back my student loans. I think it has been pretty successful so far. Whether it’s researching material for one of my posts or just reading other PF blogs for fun, blogging has exposed me to a ton of resources that I would have never discovered otherwise.

I thought it’d be cool if I recap a few of the things that I’ve learned or done since starting Broke Grad Student and beginning to pay back my student loan debt.

1. Find a job

I actually did this a little out of order. Shortly after starting this blog, I got a job offer from the top company on my list of where I wanted to work. It was too big of an opportunity to pass up, so I accepted the job before finishing my thesis. Finding a job is definitely one of the biggest keys to success for paying back any type of debt.

2. Never give up

Getting a job at a place where I really wanted to work wasn’t easy. I had been applying to that company for over 2 years before I finally got my foot in the door. Similarly, I really struggled to finish off my thesis. I spent over 2 years working on it, and it really came down to spending some long nights after work finishing it off. Sometimes your struggles help you learn more than your successes, and my struggles have helped me appreciate the value of persistence.

3. Apply what you learn to other aspects of your life

There have been many moments in my life where I’ve felt like giving up on something. To tell you truth, giving up on this blog has crossed my mind a few times in the past. However, I’ve pushed through the hard times by remembering what I learned from my other experiences, and Broke Grad Student is still going strong. If I had given up, I would have never made it to a point where I’d even be able to consider paying back my student loans with the money I make online.

4. Pay yourself first

Since starting my job earlier this year, I’ve managed to stay on top of my student loan payments while, at the same time, putting around 15% of my salary in a Roth 401(k) and Roth IRA. I think the two biggest keys have been to continue living like a college student and to make saving automatic. With part of my money automatically deposited into my retirement accounts and my college living lifestyle, I’ve been able to save for my future, pay off my past, and still have money leftover for right now.

5. Keep learning

Probably the greatest thing that I’ve learned since leaving school and entering the real world is that we’ll never run out of things to learn. There’s simply too much stuff out there, waiting for us to learn about it. The people that we call experts and gurus are just people who know more about a particular topic than we do, but when it comes to everything else, they’re just as clueless as the rest of us. Find something that really interests you and keep learning about it. Pretty soon, people will be calling you an expert.

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