How can you manage student loan payments?

• Sign up for autopay. Falling behind on your student loan payments can lead to late fees, and if you were to become truly delinquent, you could face even bigger troubles, such as wage garnishment. To avoid these problems, you can enroll in autopay, in which you move money automatically from a checking or savings account to your student loan provider. In addition to staying current on your loan, you might earn a .25 percent rate reduction, which is offered by many lenders and loan services to those who enroll in autopay. 
• Refinance your loan. With a steady income, a reasonably good credit score and a manageable number of other debts, you might be able to refinance your student loan and reduce your interest rate, which will enable more of your monthly payments to go toward the principal. 
• Look for employer benefits. Some employers — typically the larger ones — offer student loan repayment help to employees, so check with your human resources department. 
• Make extra payments. If you feel strapped just making your regular student loan payments, you may not be able to make extra ones. But if you can afford to add to your payments consistently, you could pay off your loan earlier than you had thought. But just because you make an extra payment, the money doesn't necessarily go toward reducing your principal — student loan services generally apply payments first to late fees and then to accrued interest. If you pay online, you should have an option to apply extra payments to the principal. Your loan servicer could also provide you with other ways of paying more toward principal.
• Choose a payoff strategy. If you have multiple student loans, and you can make more than the minimum payments, you may want to be strategic in how you pay off your loans. You could choose the "snowball" method by getting rid of the smallest loans first — a technique that can give you feelings of momentum and satisfaction. Or you could take the "avalanche" approach by first going after the loans with the highest interest rates. Either route could save you more money in the long run. 

MCLA Class of 2024 Told 'This Is Your Time'

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:22PM / Saturday, May 11, 2024

Commencement speaker Shannon Holsey shares some advice from her father: 'My dad always said if you're not hitting a few guardrails, you're not going fast enough.' See more photos here.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts awarded 175 degree and certificates at the college's 125th commencement ceremonies on Saturday. 

 

Keynote speaker Shannon Holsey, president of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans, said past graduations have occurred during periods of peace with little fanfare. But not so for the class of 2024. 

 

"Your class has come of an age and a moment of great conflict in our nation and for the world," she said. "A rare inflection in points in history where the size and scope of the challenges before us require that we remake our world to its renewed promise. That we align our deepest values and commitments to the demands of the new age. It's a privilege and responsibility afforded a few to a few generations. And for that task that you're now called to fulfill is huge."

 

Holsey told the class not to wait to share their opinions or ideas or to shape the world. Punctuated by applause at several points, the Native American leader said this is a world that "aches under the weight of violence, instability and threats to global order" and invests more in wars and weapons than education and health care. 

 

She referenced the experience of her own nation, dispossessed from the very land that she stood on and reduced from thousands to hundreds as they were forced to move farther west.

 

"This day of all days, is one of my birthright and seems most fitting that this place is a perfect space to celebrate and honor my ancestors who sacrificed so much to be here," Holsey said. Past leaders had seen education as a countercheck for "adapting and understanding a complex system that wasn't necessarily designed for indigenous people."

 

"I have learned that diversity in human experience gives rise to diversity in thought, which creates distinct ideas and methods of problem solving. The power of differences can make us smarter and more creative. If we accept the differences are OK," she said. "The world doesn't need more people trying to fit in like a cookie-cutter sameness."