This article is part 3 of a 3-part series on what students can do if they’ve left college with student loan debt.  You can find the  first two very important articles in this series here and here.

Every year, frightening numbers of students finish college with $30,000 – $90,000 in student loan debt – and then find themselves completely unable to find employment that pays enough to cover their student loan payments.

Many of these 20-somethings work as nannies, restaurant servers, and cashiers, jobs that barely pay enough to cover rent and groceries.

What can be done about this?  Simply not paying is not an option. (You can read about the scary consequences of student loan default here.)

If you’re a former college student and you find yourself in this position, here are 5 strategies that will help.

This article is part 2 of a 3-part series on what students can do if they already have student loan debt.  To read the very important article that was part 1 of this series, click here. To read part 3 of this series (the one about student loan forgiveness), click here.  

In the first article in this series I explained the 7  important things that student loan borrowers need do immediately after leaving college.

I didn’t have room in that article for this very important to-do item:

This article is part 1 of a 3-part series on what students can do if they already have student loan debt.  To see parts 2 and 3 of this series, click here and here. 

You recently left college for the working world, and the freedom feels great.

But wait.

Have you left college with any amount of student loan debt?

If you have, it’s important to do 7 things as soon as possible after you stop attending college classes.

(If you’ve been out of college for years and you’ve never done these things, do them now.)

1. List every debt you owe on one clean sheet of paper.