I just graduated college, I have $120,000 in student loans and $13,000 in credit card debt.I just got a job (graduated in May 06') and my salary is 37,500... not much.

I tried consolidating my student loans (which are all PRIVATE) and the lowest interest rate even with my 715 credit score is 10.25%.

Anyway, the monthly repayment for 25 years is $1100/MONTH which is obviously nothing NEAR what I can afford to pay.

With my new job, Ill be making about take home about $2000 a month. Take out rent, car payment, food, credit card payments and essentials Im not left with much. My current monthly bills minus credit cards is $1300 (rent car food, etc). That leaves $700 a month to pay student loans and credit cards (which are monthly minimums are around 300!! ).

What should I do about this student loan debt? I feel incredibly overwhelmed and I can't even sleep at night. I know bankruptcy will not fix anything and probably just make things worse since the student loans can't be discharged.

BTW I have absolutely no help from parents (1 deceased, and mom is broke). Im completely on my own. I need to know what the best thing for me to do is. Thanks.

Well considering the max rate currently on student loans is 8.6% then it doesn't make sense to consolidate or that you can't get a lower rate. My daughter just consolidated some of her loans at around 6%. So I wonder if these are actually student loans or just loans you took out to pay for college costs.

What you might try to do is negotiate a variable rate or ballon payment on your loan, so you can get your payments more affordable until you can raise your income.