<prompt> Human: As the title says, i graduated with 36k in loans. After 3 years the total was a little over 40k with the interest. Cant begin to express how great this feels The last year I really pushed hard and cleared 24k since June 2014 which was half of my before tax income. Edit, I am copying a comment I made below to put up here which explains the process i made to change my lifestyle and pay off my loans. Nothing is groundbreaking, and i didnt wear rags for 3 years, but minor changes add up to bigger ones.Two things made the biggest impact on me financially: Mint.com and a friend opening my eyes to financial responsibility. Around June my friend had paid off his student loans and I asked him how he did it. That conversation opened the door to talking financial investment, future growth, cost of loans and liability risks. From there I got Mint, started tracking my financials, and projecting how long it would take to pay off the loans. I saw my current timeline was much further out that I had thought it would be, and set goals on mint to finish it sooner. I could see real time how adding 100 per month would save me X dollars long term, would pay off sooner, etc. I became almost obsessed with putting every extra dollar into my loans multiple times a month. I ended up living as if my income was half of what it is, and started saying no to going out to the bars, going to nice restaurants, or saying i dont need that new shiny gadget. Ive averaged 2k per month doing thisIt helped that I found a great place to live at a very low rent: 600 for the bottom half of a house. I also didnt have credit card debt weighing me down so I could put 100 of non living expenses into loansI should mention I did not become a hermit, I took vacations to cali, tennessee twice, and made random road trips where I could take time off. It became my reward for my frugality, and a much better alternative to an expensive lifestyle. I believe investing in those experiences held greater reward than anything else i could have done with that money.Also, in case anyone is wondering, here are my monthly expenses:Rent:600Car: 0, paid offMotorcycle: 0 paid offUtilitiesinternet: 0, included in rentCredit Cards: 0 interest since i pay off the statement every monthCell Phone: On a plan with my parents so I pay 50monthInsurance for my carmotorcycle: 600year. 200 for my motorcycle, 200 every 6 months for near minimum insurance on my carOther expenses like food, beer, gas, etc: i have a budget of 680, and every month fluctuates, but im generally below that.Assistant: Are you willing to comment on how you managed to save or organize your income and purchases?Human: Two things made the biggest impact on me financially: Mint.com and a friend opening my eyes to financial responsibility. Around June my friend had paid off his student loans and I asked him how he did it. That conversation opened the door to talking financial investment, future growth, cost of loans and liability risks. From there I got Mint, started tracking my financials, and projecting how long it would take to pay off the loans. I saw my current timeline was much further out that I had thought it would be, and set goals on mint to finish it sooner. I could see real time how adding 100 per month would save me X dollars long term, would pay off sooner, etc. I became almost obsessed with putting every extra dollar into my loans multiple times a month. I ended up living as if my income was half of what it is, and started saying no to going out to the bars, going to nice restaurants, or saying i dont need that new shiny gadget. Ive averaged 2k per month doing thisIt helped that I found a great place to live at a very low rent: 600 for the bottom half of a house. I also didnt have credit card debt weighing me down so I could put 100 of non living expenses into loansEdit: I should mention I did not become a hermit, I took vacations to cali, tennessee twice, and made random road trips where I could take time off. It became my reward for my frugality, and a much better alternative to an expensive lifestyle. I believe investing in those experiences held greater reward than anything else i could have done with that money.Assistant: Congrats man! Could I also ask what you went to school for and your current job?Human: I went to college for computer science, 5 years and only 36k is a steal compared to others in america. That also included living expensesI work as a C programmer now, started with essentially an intern salary and have been building my way up since.Assistant: Can I ask what kind of salary you have? Im currently taking the same program in Canada and am curious. Human: I have been getting raises as of late, but at the end of last year i was at 55k. I started at 45k, and am looking as some positions that are near 80-85k for the same work. Assistant: Awesome. Did you do a two or for year program? Human: I was paid like an intern to match my skill level at the time, but it wasnt an official internship. They sent me to work on clients within 2 weeks of me starting. It was crazy because my first client was a large company, and i hadnt even fully figured out what SharePoint even was much less how to do branding. Had to learn ASP.NET on the fly too haha threw me to the wolves i guess  <response>: Your career path sounds like a retelling of my past.Edit - except the debt part. I fucked up pretty hard there. 