<prompt> Human: Hi all, Im just stopping in as I just found this subreddit recently. Im currently a year and a half out of college now, in a job that pays me 35k a year, with 87,000 dollars of school debt, and a 10,000 dollar car loan. I am making enough to get by not a luxury by any means, but just constantly seeing these payments I have to make in come in month after month and taking away everything Ive saved up is hard. I stare at these giant numbers wondering if theyll ever go down, or if I am going to pay them the rest of my life. Im an athletic trainer, I feel as if my company takes advantage of kids who just graduated and given them lower paying jobs. Havent received any sort of raise yet either after the end of the first year.I guess Im just trying to figure out, how can I make this better? What can I do to make these loans go away quicker with out paying more and more money that I dont have?Just trying to get my head above water..Assistant: No raises every year is the equivalent of getting a paycut every year because of inflation. Human: Ive heard that before, I just dont really know how to ask for a salary increase without them getting hostile about it. Do I try to schedule a meeting? Do I email them about it? How much do I ask for? Ive had other jobs state the salary is 42k, thatd be nice to put towards loans. I just dont know how to get it started without fing it all up.  <response>: If they dont give you yearly raises automatically then that means they dont value you as an employee. Start putting your resume out there and see if you can find a higher paying job. If you love your job then maybe schedule a meeting to discuss your performance and bring up wanting a raise. Most places have quarterly or yearly performance reviews so you could also wait until one of those meetings. 