I want to try and make a thread where people can give advice on paying off college debt. debt from college loans is more common than ever before. I'm a 21 year old that just graduated from college may 20 2011. I have had a job since that day too. I have been paying mine off in amounts higher than I need to be and still saving good money. I want to eventually quit my job and plan to travel and play poker and or start hobbies for more income. I plan on doing artistic welding and blowing glass eventually when the time comes. I am looking for a relatively larger van such as an e150 or conversion van, smaller bus or an RV around similar sizing. Hopefully some of you can help, feel free to ask me questions and I hope I look forward to getting good advice. I guess my main concern is if I do this traveling I will almost absolutely have to quit my job. I just want to be fully prepared with income to do this it have the best plan and advice that will make this situation more practical and thought out. I'm worried about not having enough to pay off loans, finding reliable daily driver vehicle to live in if I decide that way. I have my passport but well still have to worry about staying in countries for certain time unless I can somehow obtain a visa. Or if I decide to try and stay at peoples houses or some type of community house rental group online where I can find shelter. I also worry about having my money and available for paying my way as well as bank roll for poker not tied up in banks or limited by this. Although I'm sure the banks transfer minder well etc.

Any things I could be doing to help prepare for this?

Any advice on paying loans off with best budgeting (amount saved, spent and paid back)?

Anything I could invest in or do to help with alternative sources if income?

Sorry if I have typo's this is from the Droid app, any questions on why I'm trying to say or words I'll do my best to rephrase or edit them.

Cliffs: Recent grad, employed, repaying more than minimum on student loans, has aspirations including buying a van. No financials included, wants budgeting advice.

OP - If you want some kind of sensible help, you need to include pertinent information (amount of debt, interest rates on your various types of debt, income, expenses, etc). And it would help to weed out the irrelevant information so people can read it.

Make 17 an hour

Monthly spending:

Spend 200 for rent
200 on two loans (400) total
53 on phone bill

My combined total loan debt is down to about 21,xxx from 32,xxx. Interest is 6.8% and something in the 8% range. The highest payment is 78$ a month on the one loan and the other shows I owe nothing because I'm ahead. I still pay 200 each loan.(mentioned above) . I can gather more specifics when I can get to all my paper work. I've been saving about 800 a month on to of all this and still taking care of living expenses, food, gas etc. any further questions I'll have to wait to reply on specifics when I'm able to read off of my paperwork.

I'm confused by your plan.

You went into debt to get some kind of education-- you never actually tell us what your degree is in or how much student debt you have-- and you have a job of some nature which might or might nor be a good job.

You seem to not enjoy employment and wish to be a bum who travels the world couchsurfing which is fine if that is your thing but you probably should have done that between high school and university. Doing it now might really **** you over but that really depends on what your degree is in which you fail to mention.

Making money from hobbies is rather delusional. You might be able to make money from poker but again you don't ever tell us if you have any poker experience or if you are a winning player.

Buying a van is strange. I've never met someone who wanted to buy a van. Do you plan to live in the van while travelling? Why would you buy a depreciating big ticket asset that you can't take with you before travelling?

I'm a welder with a bachelors in welding technologies. I changed majors from Web applications and development. I'm certified with a couple of certs and was vet good with computers. Adobe suite and video editing. Very good at photography and I have blown glass for a couple months now. My job I said I make 17 an hour and I posted about my loans and debt

LOL @ welding degree.. how far in the hole are you for a "welders degree"?

man they will sell kids anything these days... These are on the job training skills, not college degree skills. Also there is nothing wrong with that. I met a girl who told me she has a degree in "Front of house Merchandising" WHAT?!... Now we sell degrees for hanging clothes on racks too.

It's out of hand, college has become a big business.

I disagree completely with this. In this market, no one is going to hire you to be a welder with no experience and train you on the job. Maybe that worked in a good employment market, but this type of technical degrees is not a complete waste of money. You may not need a full bachelors (and could easily be overpriced and not a good idea), but you need something to stand out from the hundreds of other applications that they are going to get.

To the OP, if you seriously want to do this, then you should first pay off all loans, pay off the van in full, and have a decent savings (like one year of expenses - which should be low). Also, before you quit the job, start working these hobbies part time to determine if you can make money from them. I think it will be a tough life and bet that once you start living like a drifter it will be a lot less fun than you imagined, but you are young enough to try it if you really want.

I'm actually not sure how ignorant you are when it comes to the science and processes used in welding. you didn't read the complete part of thus thread if your asking how much my debt is because I have posted it. I'm trained and way more knowledge than your standard hillbilly redneck welder, with cnc programming, many processes, impeachable behind theory, drafting classes, metallurgy classes, blueprinting classes, weld inspection classes and non destructive testing trained. I'm sure you think it's a laughing degree and just a labor job. Welding is an art and has way more than most people think about it. If you don't actually know about it don't write it off as some joke. you seem to come across as that's all it is but I'll still be willing to listen to advice but it seem you have wanted to put more time in to running m me down that offering any useful words.

Well if you're making $17 an hour, it can't be that useful of a degree. Doesn't really matter how "hard" it is or how much you know about it imo. If you can't use it to make money then it is a useless degree unless you just learned for the fun of it, in which case it was a huge amount of money to spend for "fun."

Just met a guy today was head of welding dept at Lockheed Martin (worked there for 20 years), has wife and children and was sending his daughter to out of state college. Not really sure where the hate for OP is, he has stated his goals, income, debt, expenses. FFS, this is business finance investing not critique someone's personal desires. Take the personal attacks to NVG or something.

OP -
as for college debt, I try to discourage people from solely paying down the student loans. Instead, a good mix of paying down debt and building equity somewhere else (stocks/bonds, for example) and padding their savings. The main two reason this is more prudent are:
1.) The long term return on the investments you make today have historically been higher than the interest rates on your student loans. This is not guaranteed to happen going forward, but if history echoes, it is a reasonable expectation in my opinion.
2.) If you only focus on paying off student loans, and something (ANYTHING) unexpected happens to you in the interim, you will have absolutely no equity, and will be forced to take on more debt at a higher interest rate.

How much longer do you intend to work regularly? 6 months? 6 years? 16 years?

I think 34k/yr is close to the average salary new graduates can expect (depending on location of course)

6.8% after tax ROI guaranteed is much better than I'd expect OP to get investing given the amounts of money he is using and his knowledge.

What's the interest rates on the student loan? Is there a chance you can get a job that will pay off your loans for you?

Silent knight don't worry about the trolls in this forum. There are a lot of them. Welding is a good, blue collar career. You will move up in wages after a few years of experience. At my job welders make $24.50-$26.50+ and they're always looking for more welders. Just stay determined.

What exactly are you expecting OP to get on his investments then?