<prompt> Human: Ive known for a while that Im in serious trouble with my student loans, but since I can barely afford my minimum payments each month, I figured Id be okay. Turns out, loan calculators tell me I will never be debt free. What can I do?Loans Sallie Mae: 19,057 8.25 private loans - paying 200mo FedLoan: 105,285 6.625 a combo of unsub and sub loans - paying 415mo AES: 4,002 2.91 Gate loan - paying 50mo Income 64Kyr benefits Expenses Rent: 680month Electricity: 30month average Internet: 45month Cellphone: 50month Netflix: 8month Groceries: 250month Cabs: 125month Zipcar: 35month Entertainment: 100month Dining out: 50month Clothesshoesetc.: 100month mostly for profession Savings Retirement total: 11,410 8,783 vested Sad savings account: 400 Other things: Im 28, unmarried, no CC debt, no car...anything else that would be helpful? My last question is, should I take out my retirement to get these high interest loans cut down a tiny bit? Thanks in advance for ANY serious advice. Ive been following this thread for a while, and cant seem to find advice thats already been given to others that directly correlates to my situation, so I felt this was okay to post even though it is a common topic. EDIT: Thank you everyone! Moral of the story-- I need to seriously track my spending, keep to a budget, and put much more toward my big FedLoan each month. Hopefully youll see an update from me in the future as a success story. : Assistant: Everything youve listed there adds up to 2138 yet you state that your take home is 3,342month. Where is that extra 1200 going? You could have the entire AES loan paid off in four months! Human: Youre right, Ive thought about trying to get that AES loan out of the way. Honestly, I guess I need a better way to track my expenses. I just went back through the last 4 months of my bank statement, and its not consistently one thing or another. Sometimes its an airline ticket, sometimes its a gift for a friend who had a baby, other times its a bridesmaid dress. I guess I need to buckle down big time and stop spending on anything unnecessary.  <response>: Absolutely. There are several excel trackers on the sidebar you can use, or you can make something from scratch that works for your needs. 