Declare Independence From Your Student Loans

When it comes to declaring independence from debt, a lot of us are under the thumb of the same dictator: student loans. In fact, according to a recent report from the Urban Institute, one in five adults over the age of 20 are carrying student loan debt -- and more than half of them are worried about how they're going to pay it off.

Most advice on student loan debt focuses on how to avoid getting mired in it in the first place. For people in college, those tips can be very useful -- after all, it's worthwhile to know that the road to riches isn't paved with psychology degrees, and that private loans are fiscal vampires that will suck the money from your wallet and the joy from your soul. But once you're out of college, the die has been cast, the debt has been accumulated, and the checks start coming due.

Which leaves us with the question: If you're already packing a BA in English and five figures worth of student loans, what can you do to get on top of your debt, and get on track to a healthy economic life?

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Bruce Watson is DailyFinance's Savings editor. You can reach him by e-mail at bruce.watson@teamaol.com, or follow him on Twitter at @bruce1971.