4 Extreme Ways To Pay Off Student Loans

You're ready to start your adult life, but educational debt is weighing you down. Here are 4 extreme ways to pay off student loans and get on with life.

According to LEND EDU, if you're part of the Class of 2017, you're likely to graduate from college this year with a debt burden of around $26,000 if you attended a public school and $31,000 if you went private.

That's a large chunk of money to have to repay. Most students will jump on the hamster wheel and commit themselves to monthly payments of +/-$350 for the next 15 to 20 years.

What if you wanted to vanquish that debt now though? What if you committed the next three or four years to completely eradicating it? It would require you to get extreme.

The best way to pay off all that money is to find a job with a decent salary and then funnel everything you make towards the debt.

Here are four extreme ways to pay off student loans quickly.

1. Move in with Mom and Dad

If you've got a good relationship with your parents, talk to them about moving back in for the next years and your plan to pay off your debts. If they'll take you in and feed you, you won't find a better opportunity to look for a job in your field (which is likely to provide you the highest possible paycheck).

This may not seem extreme, but after several years away at college on your own, committing to move back in with them will likely be more of a challenge than you think. Even if your relationship is great, you've gotten used to doing things the way you like to do them and moving back home is likely to create a little friction.

2. Become one with Mother Nature

Jobs that provide room and board, or seriously subsidize it, can sometimes make up for a lower salary. If you've always enjoyed the outdoors, now could be a good time to look into the National Park Service. Pay isn't high, but the cost of living is subsidized in the very popular parks and free in some others. This allows you to fork over most of what you make to put a dent in your student loans.

If you find you love being a park ranger, you can qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which forgives the balance of our loan after 10 years of on-time payments. Ten years can seem like a long time, but if you wind up enjoying the job, it'll fly by. Even if being a park ranger in the long term isn't your idea of the perfect future, you can get ahead by paying extra on your loans with the income from the job -- and you'll have a unique resume talking point once you rejoin the rat race.

Paul, a Yellowstone Park Ranger in the mid-1980s, recounts the job as a "magical summer" that he used to pay tuition for the next year. We all know that there aren't many summer jobs these days that'll let you pay a year's tuition, but if you work your way up from the starting minimum wage pay, supervisor positions at the large parks can pay up to $80,000 a year.

3. Change the world

Joining the Peace Corp allows you to help out mankind and it can have a positive effect on your student loans balances as well.

Several federal loans can be deferred during your time of service with the Peace Corps. Also, many income-based repayment plans will calculate your payments as $0 per month during your service, since your income is so low.

This is especially useful if you signed up for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. If you have a Perkins loan and you serve for four years, you could have 70 percent of your loan given.

4. Sail the Seven Seas

Cruise ships are really mini floating cities. The odds are good that there's a place for you in a department related to whatever you actually studied. If you were a computer science major, there are IT techs onboard. If you were a nursing student, there is a medical department. There are also many secretarial roles, basic housekeeping, bartenders, and wait staff. There are engineers, electricians, carpenters, and plumbers. There are youth staff who look after the children and cruise staff who host events. If you find the right line, you can really do any of these things.

Some of the less skilled roles like housekeeping and food and beverage positions are often filled by people from Third World countries who will work for much less, but some cruise lines have different rules.

For instance, Norwegian Cruise Line offers a cruise that only goes to the Hawaiian islands. Because it never leaves America, it has to employ people who are legal to work in the United States. Due to this, many positions often filled by folks from other countries are available to Americans.

Remember

There are tons of reasons these ways might not work for you -- or they just might not be things you're willing to do  -- and that's fine, but some people willing to think a little outside the box, spending their twenties paying off their student loans through unique jobs or even a little extra time with mom and dad can be a win-win proposition.