Yikes, eye-opening to see all the fellow law school grads out there with so much debt. I graduated law school with around $80K in student loan debt. Fortunately for me, I graduated in a very up legal market and obtained employment right away. Since then, it's been a slow and steady march to pay them off. I've benefited from a couple circumstances that helped to pay them down -- first, for 6 years, my employer paid a portion of my student loans under the federal Attorney Student Loan Repayment Program, which helped knock down the principle. Second, working in the public sector resulted in forgiveness of the $7500 of Perkins Loans I had, after five years. Finally, consolidating my Stafford loans (subsidized and unsubsidized) years ago to the federal Direct Loan program has helped tremendously in this low-interest rate environment. Direct Loan payments are calculated based on a formula that involves 90-day T-Bill rates, once each year on July 1. I've gone from a payment high years ago of @$420/month, to current payments (at 2.35% interest) of $177. This has enabled me to basically triple my monthly payments. Payoff -- still @$26K left -- should be in about 4 years.
I was also of the "fake it 'til you make it" school back then. Figuring I'd have a high-paying job out of law school, I racked up around $10K of credit card debt. When that high-paying job failed to materialize and I went to work in a low paying government job (while also having those $420/mo student loan payments, + another $50/mo. Bar Study Loan -- man, was that stupid), times were hard. I had to go into forbearance for a year on my student loans. When I finally said, "enough is enough" and knew in my heart that I would no longer use a credit card to finance any more purchases, I took out a fixed rate personal loan to pay off that credit card debt. Took me 3 years, but I got rid of it, and haven't carried any since (been about 12 years now).
Ah, but having strung my girlfriend along for many years (ahem, 16) before asking for her hand in marriage, I felt obliged (okay, she insisted) to make it up to her by buying her a gaudy 2-carat, high-quality diamond ring -- to the tune of @$15K. Yep, massive fucking Hulk-fisted facepunch appropriate here. And of course, I didn't have $15K -- only had around $2500 -- so what did I do? Yep, went to see my banker again for a $12.5K loan. Oh, the stupidity. But I paid it off, while also saving $15K for our wedding ceremony (a $40K affair for which her parents kicked in the balance). Again, sigh.
Despite all these mis-steps, I managed to contribute to my 401K from the very beginning (16 years ago), up to the employer match, and each time I got a pay raise, I increased my contribution and learned to live without that money. Eventually, my salary went from paltry to pretty fucking good, and before I knew it, I was contributing the IRS max (and increasing it to the new max every time the IRS bumped it up).
And so now, I find myself solvent and in a position to retire sometime between age 53-55 (I got a late start on education and career because of a 6-year stint in the military). And this website has fired me up and helped me to see a ton of fat that was still in my "budget" (I use that term very loosely) and to take steps to cut it out.
So take heart those of you who've made past mistakes. Especially if you are young(ish) (I was 32 when I graduated law school with a decidedly negative net worth), you have the time and energy to make it up. Just being on this website says that you are serious about doing something to better your financial condition, and that bodes well for your prospects.