<prompt> Human: I dont really know if this has been talked about before, but this is just an ephipany I had that Id like to share.I graduated with a good amount of college debt, and after 5 years being out of school I still have as of January 2016 over 5 years left. Ugh. Thats paying my minimum, 350, plus helping my mom out with 200 towards their part of my loan I couldnt convince her to give me the rest of the loan in their name, Im very lucky but also very guilty. So thats 550 out the door per month. I saw that as a huge burden, a weight Ive been carrying since graduation.Here is what occurred to me yesterday. I make 70k a year, with around 44.4k of that being take-home. Thats a good chunk of change at least in comparison to the loan. That, and my half of the rent is 425. So why is this college loan such a burden if Im making pretty good money for my age? So, I wondered to myself, can I pay it off in a year? Well, after doing some basic spreadsheeting I found that the answer is yes! I would have to literally cut ALL luxuries in my life down to zero, but the truth laid right there on the screen. With basic home-made foods, no vacations, no more padding of my emergency fund now sitting at a pretty-comfortable 6.5k, drastically reduced car maintenance fund well see about that, and very few meals out I think I can do this.On the car ride home from work, I thought about what this meant. Wouldnt I be unhappy? Isnt that why we work so hard?I dont think so. In fact, I think this might revolutionize the way I, a recent well 5 years ago college grad, perceive and manage money. Rather than just blowing it on things and meals, I will learn to appreciate every dollar I have or spend. And as someone with aspirations to one day start a company, I think this will help me drastically with managing money professionally. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that living poor for a year might be one of the best things that could happen to me. And at the end of it, my loans would be gone!TL;DR if youre living any luxuries at all, consider living poor for a while. Not only will you have extra cash at the end, it might change the entire way you look at your life - both financially and personally.  <response>: I did this. At 25 I had nothing to my name, other than a 20k student loan. Got an admin job, saved 13k in a year and a half 36kpa gross, nz so no health costs, rent was 90 a week, income after our equiv of a 401k was 1000 a fortnight - saved 50 of my income, lived a very frugal life. Moved from admin to contracting, went to 60-70kpa, with fuel, cell etc counted under costs. Did a few more fun things, overseas holiday but cheaply, etc, but maintained a similar lifestyle. Its 8 years later, and my net worth is 200k now. I have a mortgage free house, multiple investments and a very large emergency fund that I need to diversify. One of the biggest things that helped me, which not everyone has, is a hatred of consumerism, its just not for me. I can see how its an addiction for some though. The easiest way I found to rationalise purchases is to have a fuck it budget for things like coffee, eating out etc, but after that justify your purchases by hourly rate if you were on the minmum wage which for my country is 14.25 an hour. Would I work an hour for this sandwich, cake and drink? Hell no. 