<prompt> Human: My parents divorced when I was ten, and a court order said each parent had to pay for half of my college out of pocket. My father took the next eight years to prepare for that, while my mother got re-married and had three kids. When I went to college, my dad stood by his end of the order. My mom, on the other hand, helped me get loans. Every semester, new loan. I dont feel like I was cheated by my mom, everyone gets loans it seems. But I dont know anything about finances, and Im beginning to think she didnt do things correctly...I wasted no time in college. Four years, comp sci degree, job.I make a decent chunk of change for a just-out-of-college kid. 69,000 before taxes and benefits and whatnot. My takehome is about 1500 every two weeks. I even saved up about 8k before I had to start paying my loans off last December.So I have four loans, each at 11-12. Two from Sallie Mae, two from Discover. Each one is about 18k, with a minimum payment of 350 each per month. Thats 1400 per month. Is that just me, or is that absolutely absurd? I need money for other things: rent 600mo, food 200mo, gas 150mo, tolls 100mo, car insurance 100mo, cell phone bill 50mo.And now my cars radiator just cracked, and a tire popped in the exact same week. Theres another 2700 down the drain.If I lived as frugal as could be, thats still next to nothing. But Ill face it, Im not a frugal person. My social life has been dead since living here, so I like to go to the bar with my roomates at least once every two weeks.My 8k savings is no more. I now have 20 in the bank because I just had another 700 pulled from my accounts this morning. How is it that my friends who all took 5 years and no parental help are thriving, but Im barely afloat? How can I make my payments smaller?  <response>: Those interest rates are absurd. 75K in loans is tough, but certainly doable. Your problem is the interest rate. At 3-4, those would be very reasonable burdens. I would try really hard to refinanceconsolidate those loans. 