<prompt> Human: Hey reddit,nbsp;Intro: Been really debating whether or not to write this post since I have been following rStudentLoans and rpersonalfinance for the past few years and I know how you guys can be. EDITED FOR PF SLIGHTLY STRICTER RULES Today though I am ready for your beating, maybe something good might come from it.FOR PF: I am also posting this here in hopes to get ideas for whats outside of just focusing on the loans. My parents might be willing to help if there is a good suggestion. Someone I talked to mentioned home equity or something like that. I have no clue which is why I am turning to all of you.nbsp;Background Info: Im 22 and graduated with a Bachelors in Science last month 082015 from a well respected private college from a program that is well known in its field of work across the country. The one tiny ray of light in this whole story is that I managed to have a job offer signed before I was even half way through my senior year. It pays pretty good for starting position, its about standard for my field of work. Downside to my field of work is it pretty much caps out at a senior position with 8-10 years of work at 85k-100k. And unlike most people with the amount of loans I have, I am not going to be a doctorlawyer who will have the salary to comfortably pay for this.All of my student loans are currently in their grace period until 0216. Also currently my credit score is 740, I made sure to focus on that well I was in school hoping it would help.nbsp;Financial Info: Heres where the story gets fun. Let me lay all the numbers on you real quick and no, that wasnt a typo, I didnt accidentally hit an extra digit.nbsp;IncomeCurrent Money- Salaried at 45,000yr or nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;2,745.70 a month after taxes and stuff.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;3,000 in my savings account. Currently saving about 1000 a month until my grace period is over.Expenses- Rent is 400month living at homenbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Car Insurance is 80 a monthnbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Gas to get to work is 60 a monthnbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Other random things like prescription and gym is about 50 a monthnbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Two credit cards I used for building creditliving expenses in school currently 900 total but will be paid off before my grace period is over.nbsp;Student Loans: Now no one go dying on me well reading this gargantuan screw up I started digging myself into before I knew better.Tuition at my school was between 42k and 46k by the time I graduated. I received around 2,000 in money from the school, grants, etc. I had no money saved up, I had no college fund, no rich great aunts, no suit case of unmarked bills under my bed. But for real, I have no idea how some of my classmates chalked up the money for this school. The second highest person I could find at my school said they had 45k in loans and my school claims the average grad has around 20k. Where they hell do all these people get 110k and how did I miss that presentation.nbsp;Sallie MaeNavient- Navient 1 Navient 2 Navient 3 Sallie 1 ---------------Balance 29,527.13 34,428.00 43,586.26 38,405.68Interest 9.625v 7.875 v 8.500v 8.500vPayment 384 427 540 476Term 10y 10y 10y 10yFederal- Loan 1------Balance 28,098.29Interest 6.5vPayment 295nbsp;Summary: Summary------Total Loans 171,400Monthly Loan 2,122Income 2,745.70 After expenses 33.70And chances are over the course of a month that 33.70 is going to be used up somewhere for something unexpected.nbsp;Current Options:1. Fake my deathrun away- Only thing thats stopped me from boarding the first flight to somewhere warm is co-signers on my loans.2. Bankruptcy Lawsuit- Looked into this, with enough cash for a lawyer you can try to take the student loans to court. Unfortunately I am not employed at a iHop and Im not a single parent of 4 kids. Not trying to knock anyone whos in this situation, its just honestly who seems to be able to pull this off. Its seeming the least amount of work to fix my issues though so maybe time to start on that. Unfortunately my co-signers would all get hit with the bill again so Id prefer to take option 1 if I were to go this route.3. Rate Reduction Plan- Came across people talking about this on Reddit. Tried calling Navient about it and the woman got all pissy with me that I even tried to discuss my loans with them well they are in grace period and there is nothing they could do until February. But for real, she actually started having an attitude with me just for asking, if I didnt get so pissed off at her for that I would have stayed on the line till I was chatting with the CEO and she was packing a box. Probably should call back soon and see if someone else will be a little more friendly.4. Refinancing- Tried every online application I could find. Citizens only allows 90k for bachelors. Earnest said good luck, Lendkey denied me in about 10 seconds, DRB after winning the award for the worlds oldest website and longest form to fill out I got tired of doing stuff for them and havent uploaded documents yet. Going to stop by a few banks this weekend to see if any of them have any ideas.Sofi is the only one who has even come close to accepting me. Main issue is that they are requiring a co-signer for the loan. As of right now I am having some issues with that but its been my main focus for a few days now. With Sofi my monthly payment would be 960. That I could kind of actually afford.nbsp;Conclusion: Well you are still here so I thank you for taking the time to read this. If I seemed to be a little rudeteasing any of youthis sub-reddit know its only out of jealousy that probably all of you are financially smarter than I am and actually have financial freedom.The main frustration for me at this point is realizing that I should not have gone to this college. It was way above what I or my family could afford. Unfortunately back in high school, when everyone was telling me to go to college I wasnt informed enough to have any idea what I was doing. They just kept writing me tuition checks and said have fun. I completely blame myself for just not having a clue. They all told me I could do what I wanted once I finished school. What a joke that is I just get to live in my moms basement and be broke.And also I fully intend to pay for every penny that I said I would. I am not looking for some backdoor solution to weasel my way out of my obligation. Thats not who I am. I simply want to be able to afford to live even if that means me paying 300,000 over the course of 40 years.nbsp;I also want to add that whats really put me down with this whole situation is I had two goals for after college. 1. Start my own company in my field of work. Luckily for me it can start small and fairly cheap, just online based with a few thousand to get started. My issue would be trying to survive off the income well dealing with a giant never ending bill. Even if I became homeless and ate ramen 3 times a day I would still need almost 1,000 a month if I can refinance. Ive already kind of started working on this goal with a classmate I graduated with, unfortunately I cant really contribute to helping start it when I have 30 left over a month.2. Or move to Europe within 3 years. Either Netherlands or France. My degree has a lot of opportunities over the pond and I spent a semester traveling and living in Germany and I can honestly say I cannot stand living in the states since Ive been back. Issue with this is with exchange rates and cost of living I dont see it being possible. Plus just needed to save money to cover moving there is going to be hard.nbsp;So Reddit, be brutishly honest with me, how screwed am I? Got any ideas? Any ways of lowering payments outside of refinancing? Anyone want to co-sign for a hard working, motivated individual? Haha, Ive seen how you guysgals talk about co-signers and thank god your not my family. Or maybe you should have been so I wouldnt be in this mess. Any recommendations for maybe even planning for my two goals?nbsp;Thanks for reading,Joshnbsp;P.S. This grace period is the most annoying thing on earth. NavientSallie Mae will not even talk with me once they see my account is still in grace. They wont even let me opt out of it so I can start working with them on trying to fix my loans. So now I am stuck here for 6 months with no idea what my payments will actually be and no way of trying to work with Navient to try and fix it. LIKE WTF! Dont you want my money! I want to start paying you sooner! I thought thats all you cared about, money!nbsp;TL;DR: I had ZERO financial knowledge. I now know I made a huge mistake and about 1 financial knowledge. Making 45k a year. Have 171k in student loans. 83 of monthly income is spent on student loans. Want to run away somewhere tropical? Suggestions?  <response>: Sorry no advice from me... But dont beat yourself up too hard, a lot of people make these mistakes and the difference is that youre thinking about it early enough to make a plan. Acknowledging that you made a mistake is a good first step. Good luck 