<prompt> Human: EDIT: Wow. I am overjoyed with the amount of feedback I received from you all! Thank you so much! This debt is the only major stressor in my life my life is great, otherwise!--getting tips and recommendations on how best to tackle it has already eased my mind. I look forward to updating you on my progress! Until then, Ive made a few edits below for clarification purposes. Original Post: Long time lurker, follower, and knowledge absorber. Since becoming an avid lurker of this sub a little over a year ago, Ive attended to my personal finance situation as best I can and would like your opinion on how I am doing and where I can improve. Id also appreciate if you refrained from negative feedback regarding my decision to take on this much debt through undergrad and grad school. Trust me, I give myself enough negative feedback for all of you. Also, please forgive any formatting issues, this is my first post! nbsp; Relevant information: 29single, US I do not have a car payment and I do not pay for rent. I also do not contribute to a retirement plan, at this time. In November, I will be required to start contributing to my employers 401a retirement plan. My goal is to create a decent emergency fund first. nbsp; Edit: I will now cap this EF out at 6000 and use the 300 towards eliminated the Navient student loan. Ill also look into moving this to an account that with a higher interest rate. Current emergency fund: 4,600 I put 300month towards building an emergency fund. Eventual goal is to have an emergency fund of about 6 months of expenses, which is 10,700. I do not include the 300 as part of my monthly income. I consider this part of my paycheck as untouchable money. Its kept in a savings account with a local credit union at 0.01 APY and automatically deducted out of my paycheck. nbsp; I work in a career field that is growing and will be working towards a higher position with a higher salary throughout my career. Meaning, my salary is anticipated to increase, albeit slowly. nbsp; Monthly Budget nbsp; Income: Monthly income after deductions: 2,275 Deductions include: Social security, fedstate taxes, health insurance, and employee parking nbsp; Expenses Groceries: 250 Electric: 55 Gas apartment: 30 Internet: 30 Cell phone: 78 EDIT: I will be looking into Ting or Republic wireless--thank you! Gas car: 200 Car insurance: 89 Gym: 40 EDIT: This will drop to 25 next month. And will be dropped completely in September. Entertainment: 150 Furniture: 20 0 interest for 20 months Credit card: I try not to accrue much credit card debt. If I accrue cc debt, it is a small amount and is paid off in full each month. I also utilize some of my emergency funds to pay off, if necessary. Example, this month I needed to update my eyeglass prescriptionthe 100 cost to do so was put on my cc and I will use my emergency fund to pay that off. nbsp; Total Expenses: 942 nbsp; Student Loans Federal Loans: 84,330.87. Monthly payment 235 interest varies between all loans. I am currently utilizing the Income Based Repayment Plan. Im also employed by a non-profit organization and given my career choice, will likely stay in the governmentnon-profit sector. Thus, I will hopefully be taking advantage of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and will be federal student loan debt free by 2023. nbsp; The below are private student loans and do not qualify for Income Based Repayment or Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Navient: 8,973.57 at 8.25. Monthly payment 105, but I pay 150 since this is a high interest rate Aspire Student Loan A: 17,619 at 2.4. Monthly payment 115 Aspire Student Loan B: 3,284 at 4.43. Monthly payment 24 Aspire Student Loan C: 8,414.79 at 4.43. Monthly payment 61 Chase Student Loan A: 10,598.59 at 5.1. Monthly payment 80 Chase Student Loan B: 36,577.92 at 8.25. Monthly payment 345, but I pay 400 since this is a high interest rate EDIT I will stop overpaying on this one and move my payment towards Navient to knock out Navient first since theyre the same interest rate. Total Student Loans: 1,063 nbsp; Each month there is about 270 left over between total expenses and total income. Most of the time, part of the left over money is eaten up by an oil change once every three months, credit card debt, unexpected cost, or simply and stupidly over spending. If theres anything additional left over it gets added to the following months overpayment on the 8.5 loans. nbsp; What I do to save money: Pack lunch, daily Carpool to work I live 55 miles from my work. Saves money on parking and gas. Cook dinners at home during the week If Im running errands, Ill often pack snacks to avoid buying a snack out RSVP no to as many trips with friends, weddings, bachelorette parties, and birthday and dinner outings as possible without losing friendsfamily over it Bring a flask to the bar so I dont pay for drinks. I generally limit myself to 15-20night. Or host friends at my place, go to there house and simply hang out. Suppress my desire to travel sigh Go to yearly doctor check-ups as a preventative measure both for health and cost reasons. nbsp; Future goals 10 years: Have the ability to travel without breaking the bank Support a family housing, kids, dogs and not have my loans be a burden on my familys finances or living Have a decent retirement fund given the short period I will have been contributing by then nbsp; Okay rpersonalfinance, if you have gotten this faryoure amazing! What are your thoughts and where can I improve? Thank you!  <response>: You might want to consider working temp jobs or a second job to get your income up. 10 years is a long time to live like this. 