Reply #8: Try this: [View All]

[LiberalEsto]

Pay an extra $10 or $20 a month in extra principal. This will save you money on future interest and help reduce the principal. If you can manage to pay more, do it.

People sometimes do this with home mortgages to build equity faster. I've been doing it with my older daughter's loans for about a year and I can see the principal is decreasing at a faster rate.

Also, get an amortization schedule for the loan so you can get an idea of how much principal and interest you are paying each month. At some point you'll be paying more principal than interest, and the balance will drop much faster.