If paying off your student loans appears to be miles away, or worse, absolutely unlikely, hang on for just a minute. Yeah, it may feel completely difficult to pay off the student loans, but it doesn’t have to be. You should make a decision to pay off student loans easily, whether you are going to graduate from college soon or you have been waiting to push some student loans to the curb for a decade. First, let’s set certain expectations. No magic solution exists to pay off the student loans.

There is no special secret to tell or away in 30 days flat to help you get rid of it all. It will not happen immediately. Yet you can get on a fast track to dumping your student loan debt for good by taking a few steps. It takes patience, hard work, and a great deal of sacrifice to pay off your student loans, but it’s definitely achievable!

Although you’ll undoubtedly need to make some short-term compromises to pay off your student debt more easily, once you’re loan-free, you’ll reap the rewards and be pleased that you put some additional time (and funds) into paying off your loans early. You can be free from debt quicker than you can imagine if you remain inspired to pursue any of these strategies. To help you pay off your student loans sooner, here are 10 innovative payoff plans.

Pay More than the Minimum Payment

Paying more is the easiest and fastest way to pay off student loans. But that’s better said than done still. Any payment you will spend over the minimum would allow you to clear your debt from the student loan faster. Only make sure that your debt servicer adds the extra payments to the balance of your loan. And over time, increase the extra amount you’re paying, as the situation allows. To see if increasing your monthly payments will influence the overall cost of your debt, you can use a student loan repayment calculator.

Avoid Certain Repayment Plans

For those unable to repay their debts, government repayment plans such as income-based repayment can be a saving grace, as they can help you prevent federal loan defaults. However, if you want to pay off your debt more efficiently and have the budget to do so, repayment plans will potentially work against you. By lengthening your loan period, most repayment plans lower your monthly payments. So you may end up paying more interest overall, particularly if you do not qualify for loan repayment, and it will take you longer to get out of under your debt. So, if you’re just working to pay off your student loans more easily, avoid repayment programs that stretch your terms of payment.

Use Your Job to Your Advantage

There are a few ways that your day job will help you pay off your debts, too, speaking of jobs. In return for working in a service capacity, a variety of positions grant student loan repayment. Some civil servants, physicians, attorneys, nurses, employees of charitable organizations, employees of government departments, and automotive workers may be eligible for student loan aid or forgiveness, so review whether the career aspirations are compatible with the requirements for each forgiveness program. As part of their compensation plan, certain employers have started to provide student loan assistance, so it might be worth taking this into account as you prepare for the next career or ask your current employer if they provide this service. Even if it is not specified, if you expect student loans to be a huge burden on your finances, it may be worth negotiating something into your compensation package.

Refinancing Your Student Loans

For borrowers with decent or excellent credit and comparatively high-interest rates, student loan refinancing is an increasingly common option. You effectively combine your student loans into one as you refinance, by taking out a new loan from a private lender and using it to pay off your initial loan. This encourages more borrowers to negotiate better interest rates when they are more financially stable than they were in the first place when they took out the loan. Bear in mind that you’ll no longer have access to federal services such as income-driven reimbursement or student loan forgiveness if you refinance your federal loans.

Enrol in Autopay

When you apply for automatic loans, several loan servicers give an interest rate discount of 0.25 per cent. This is a small sum, but over the duration of your loan, it will add up to some big savings. Plus, autopay is normally a positive concept, since it reduces the risk that by forgetting a payment you will get into trouble. Chat with your servicer about any offers on interest rates that you may benefit from.

Start a Side Hustle

Having more money is one way to pay off student loans quicker. However, you will not always get a bonus or a new position on the spot. So, with a side hustle, begin by increasing your revenue.  Having a side job doesn’t necessarily mean driving for Uber or Lyft. Often it just means doing something easy like selling your discarded things on eBay or Craigslist, starting a dog walking business, or delivering with Postmates or Grubhub. About once or twice a year you can even rent out a room or your entire residence on Airbnb and put that money into student loan payments.

Cut From Your Budget

The last thing you should do when it comes to paying off your loans to finally get your foot in the door is to minimize your monthly expenses whenever possible. If it’s $50 less per month because you cancelled cable or $200 in spare cash per month that you didn’t spend dining out, check for extra wiggle space in your budget, and put that for your student loans.

Make Extra Payments Whenever You Can

Think about making more payments, in addition to spending extra on your monthly bill. When you find yourself with extra cash, this can be especially easy. When you have paid less interest, saving more amount on your debt will now pay off down the line and thus have more money to invest what you choose.

Make Bi-Weekly Payments

Paying the bill bi-monthly is another creative way to make more contributions to eliminate your debt. Simply split the bill in half and pay the amount every two weeks, instead of making one payment a month. And if this looks like it won’t do much, every year this solution applies an additional charge to your loans. This can make a big difference, particularly if you pay off a large balance.

Payoff Capitalized Interest

Interest that is not paid off is capitalized interest. The interest adds to your balance, allowing you to pay more, overall, on your student loans. Usually, if you’re either at school or under deferment or forbearance, interest accrues. But if you make deposits per month as the interest accrues, it will be less and thus quicker to pay off the student loan debt as you will avoid capitalization. Alternatively, working on paying down the accrued interest will help lower the balance immensely while you’re already in your grace period.