Wishing all my readers a very Happy New Year 2009! How did you enjoy your Christmas party and what are your plans for New Year eve? Good to see you all going great!

Well what about New Year Resolutions? Did you plan to have one? Wondering what kind of a resolution is appropriate at this point in time? As teenagers your first and foremost priority will be to enjoy your new year’s eve and party hard all through the year. True, I understand your spirit; you should enjoy life! Even I love that. But you see I also have the responsibility of reminding you few things which you can’t but go without it. I can see faces !!!

Come on students cheer up and welcome the New Year with a lot of enthusiasm and hope to do well in studies, and set a goal to pay off your student loan liability. While the first one is about studying the second resolution is about repaying and planning for the same. Here are a few tips that can help you.

Tips for planning and repaying your Student Loan

• Repaying the loans taken for completing your education should be repaid on a priority basis.
• Take stock of all your educational loans and make sure you know when the repayment begins.
• This enables you to know the entire loan liability and the monthly commitment required to be met.
• Knowing you monthly liability helps you in analyzing whether the repayment ability will suit the requirement.
• Look for options which will help you lower the cost of loan and provide you flexibility to repay.
• Consolidation option helps you consolidate the various loan liabilities into a single commitment by repaying all the existing loans. As per the new federal rules you can consolidate only once.
• Ask for lender’s discount which will help you lower cost during your grace period.
• Saving money is the most and best solution to all your financial needs. Lowering cost of loan, saving by way of discounts, improving credit score that will offer further discounts, reducing expenses for future savings thereby reducing the need for further loans are ways to meet your commitment on time.
• Having a flexible repayment schedule will help you make payments on time, improve your credit record and thereby avail reduction in your prevailing interest rates.
• Educate yourself on the various options, choose the best deal and prepare well in advance.

The real challenge lies in executing a plan that will help you realize your goal. Try it and do share with us your experiences.