Open the envelope

　　[B] This is the hardest thing to do. The bills come with the "Sallie Mae" or "Discover" logo onthem and you toss them aside, hoping to deal with them when you feel less besieged (圍攻). Youknow you started owing some amount- $20,000, $50,000, $100,000—and that the interest ispiling up, but you don't know exactly how much or how. When faced with heavy debt, many peopletry to avoid seeing the numbers.

　　[C] This doesn't work, even psychologically. Anyone who has let credit-card bills or mortgagebills pile up, 1reopened, knows that avoiding the envelope does not reduce your anxiety; itincreases it. As those envelopes multiply, they take over your psychological state. In horrormovies, it's like the monster in the room behind the door. You don't know what it looks like, but itkeeps you scared and immobile. So, open the envelope.

　　[D] Or, even better, log in online. All student loan providers have a web site where you can seewhat you owe, your interest rates, and your payment schedules. SallieMae. com is no-frills, but stillallows you to see your loans on one screen, including your interest rates. Discover. corn also has apretty basic site. Citibank has a more complex site. Get used to logging into these sites prettyoften; ff you need motivation, think of it as visiting your money while it's in prison.

　　[E] The websites all have one thing in common: they let you see how much you owe, and whatyour interest is, and they make it easy to pay-but they don't let you see how much your debt loadis growing. This is a major motivating factor in paying down your loans. Identify your loans

　　[F] Are your loans held by the federal government--usually through Sallie Mae--or through"private" lenders like Citibank or Discover? if you don't know who holds your loans, you can find outhere, at the National Student Loan Data System.

　　[G] Why do you need to know who holds your loans? This will make a difference to yourpayment options and your interest rates, if you have a federal loan, for instance, your interest rateis probably very low, around 32% ; ff you have private loans, the interest rates are likely to bemuch higher, around 48%. Federal loans also give you options like requesting forbearance (延期還貸) ff you're out of work or if your income is too low-handy for the times when you're down onyour luck.

　　Start seeing your debt in new ways

　　[H] The websites of lenders are often limited and only have basic information. To really tackleyour student loans, it can often be useful to visualize how much progress you're making. There areseveral ways to do that.

　　[I] One really useful new free site is Tuition. io, which gathers information for all your loans inone place. You can see your debt in colorful charts, play around with repayment plans, and, onceyou start paying your loans, you can see the numbers start to fall. That can be very motivating.

　　[J] For the same effect that you can customize yourself, try a Google Docs spreadsheet.There's a template that already exists for paying down loans; it has the unpromising title of "Loanamortization schedule by Vertex42. corn" but it has very handy calculators built in so that you cantweak your monthly payments to see how much progress you can make if you increase ordecrease your payments in any given month. If you don't like that template, just create a GoogleDocs spreadsheet with the categories you need: date; loan name/number; loan interest rate;starting loan amount ( including how much you owe on that date) ; payment amount you madeon that date; ending loan amount after that payment. After you have enough entries, you canstart creating graphs; there are few things more satisfying than seeing that graph move downwardas you pay off your debt.

　　[K] If you want to see your loans in a larger context of your whole financial picture, LearnVestis a great mobile app for iPhone. It gathers all your information income, loans, credit card debt bylinking to your accounts. It serves up useful graphs on your net worth, comparing your assets towhat you owe -and there's nothing more motivating than seeing a "minus" sign next to yourfinancial picture. LearnVest "also lets you track your spending, which may make it easier to seewhere to cut down on expenses so that you can put more into your loan payments. LearnVest alsohas a good website full of useful advice .Don't be afraid to scare yourself

　　[L] Student loans can often be scary and that's Why you should slay them. The more you seehow much you owe, and how fast your interest is rising, the more motivated you can be to fightback by paying those loans. One staffer, after she saw how much money she was wasting oninterest payments, increased her student loan payments by $ 75 a month.

　　[M] It can also be tempting to believe that your student debt is so big that nothing you do canever make a dent in it. That's completely untrue. Only paying your loans will shrink them. It will takeyears, true. It will take even longer if you don't pay, or pay the minimum. There's only oneoutcome of shirking your loans: ending up with bigger loans. Then you're in an even bigger bind. Noone is going to save you from student loans. Action counts.

　　Choose a strategy

　　[N] Any payment is a good payment, but a strategy can be very useful too. There are twoaspects to loans :principal and interest .Principal is how much you've borrowed ,and the interest iswhat you're paying every month for the privilege of having borrowed that money. Your goal is topay down as much of the principal as possible. Your chief enemy here is interest: it grows fast, andmakes the principal recede more distantly.

　　[O] So make sure you know the rank of your loans, in order from smallest to largest, andlowest interest to highest interest. Do whatever is possible to reduce the interest; as our columnistHelaine Olen points out, Sallie Mac offers you a 0. 25% reduction in your loan interest if you sign upfor an automatic debit ( 借方 ) plan--just make sure the money is always going to be in youraccount. If you don't want to do that, follow Helaine's other piece of advice: you're smarter to payoff the loans with the higher interest rate flint. This will create the biggest impact. Another popularstrategy is the "snowball" method, where you pay the most on the smallest debt owed. So if youhave a $20,000 loan and a $10,000 loan, the "snowball" method means you will start paying moretowards the $10,000 loan. You'll see it disappear faster. These two methods don't always gotogether; so try what feels comfortable. The important thing is to see and track your progress.

　　[P] If your income isn't enough, consider other methods of producing money: side projects, oddjobs, or selling things you don't need on eBay or Craigslist. For those whose parents can afford it,working out a joint payment plan can make sense. One graduate we know struck a savvy (精明的)deal with his parents: if he made the minimum student loan payment every month, they wouldcontribute $100 toward his student loans. That's $100 he doesn't have to cut from his ownbudget. As a benefit, making bigger payments will help you pay down the principal of the loan,since the minimum payments often only end up reducing your interest, which balloons back later.Even $ 50 more a month can help.

　　[Q] Here's an example: if you have a $ 20,000 loan, with a 4.2% interest, rate, you will end uppaying an extra $ 2,814 in interest alone over six and a half years. If you increase your payment byonly $ 50 a month, you'll cut that interest by $ 500 ; ff you can find a way to pay $ I00 more amonth, you'll save nearly $ 800 in interest. That's $ 800 more in the bank, and $ 800 less wantedon pointless interest payments.

　　Take it in stride

　　[R] Most Americans owe some form of debt; learning how to handle it is a lifelong process.Most of all, don't beat yourself up if you're not perfect at paying down your loans. Some of thesavviest financial players struggled for years with their own finances. We all learn in our own timeand we rind what works for us and what doesn't. Accept your own progress.

　　46. If you have a federal loan, you are allowed to pay back the loan later when you are fired.

　　47. LearaVest informs you about your spending so that you can see where to save money topay off your debt.

　　48. Even for financial experts, financial problems may have taken them years to deal with.

　　49. You are advised to start with the loans with the higher interest rate.

　　50. Many Americans are in debt and learning how to handle it will take a lifetime.

　　51. With Google Docs spreadsheet, you can create your own personalized debt graphs.

　　52. If you don't have enough income, you are advised to try other ways of making money.

　　53. Those student, loan providers' websites don't present the growth of your debt load.

　　54. The result of inaction to your loans is to bring about bigger loans.

　　55. When you toss away envelopes containing your bills, you actually feel more anxious aboutit.

　　語篇分析

　　46.If you have a federal loan.you are allowed to pay back the loan later when you are fired.

　　詳解 如果你有聯邦貸款，可以在失業時延期還款。

　　譯文 由關鍵詞a federal loan， later ,fired定位到原文劃線句。

　　47.LearnVest informs you about your spending so that you can see where to save money topay off your debt

　　譯文 LearnVest的消費查詢可以讓你看到應該在哪里減少開支，以便節省出更多的錢還貸。

　　定位 由關鍵詞LearnVest，spending，save money定位到原文劃線句。

　　48.Even for financial experts.Financial problems may have taken them years to deal with.

　　譯文 秘即便是金融專家，他們也可能曾經花費了多年的時間來處理財務問題。

　　定位 由關鍵詞financial experts，for years定位到原文劃線句。

　　49.You are advised to start with the loans with the higher interest rate.

　　【O】So make sure you know the rank of your loans，in order from smallest to largest，andlowest interest to highest interest.Do whatever is possible to reduce the interest;　as our columnistHelaine Olen points out，Sallie Mae offers you a 0.25% reduction in your loan interest if you signup for an automatic debit(借方)plan　just make sure the money is always going to be in youraccount.If you don’t want to do mat，follow Helaine's other piece of advice：　you're smarter topay off the loans with the higher interest rate first.This will create the biggest impact.Anotherpopular strate! is the“snowball”method，　where you pay the most on the smallest debt owed.Soif you have a$20，000 loan and a$10.000 loan.the“snowball”method means you will start payingmore towards the $10.　000 loan.You’ll see it disappear faster.These two methods don’t always gotogether;so try what feels comfortable.The important thing is to see and track your progress.

　　譯文 人們應該優先償還 利率高的債務。

　　定位 由關鍵詞advised，higher interest rate定位到原文劃線句。

　　50.Many Americans ale in debt and learning how to handle it will take a lifetime.

　　譯文 許多美國人都有債務，并且需要用一生的時間來學習如何處理債務。

　　定位 由關鍵詞debt，handle，lifetime定位到原文劃線句。

　　51.With Google Docs spreadsheet，you can create your own personalized debt graphs.

　　譯文 借助于Google Dos spreadsheet，你能夠創建自己個性化的債務圖表。

　　定位 由關鍵詞Google Docs spreadsheet，personalized，graphs定位到原文劃線句。

　　52.If you don’t have enough income，you are advised to try other ways of making money.

　　譯文 如果你收入不夠，可以考慮別的賺錢方法。

　　定位 由關鍵詞enough，income.making money定位到原文劃線句。

　　53.Those student loan providers’websites don’t present the growth of your debt load.

　　譯文 學生貸款網站不展示你的債務增長額。

　　定位 由關鍵詞websites，growth，debt load定位到原文劃線句。

　　54.The result of inaction to your loans is to bring about bigger loans.

　　譯文 逃避債務的結果是帶來更大的債務。

　　定位 由關鍵詞result，bigger loans定位到原文劃線句。

　　55.When you toss away envelopes containing your bills，you actually feel more anxious aboutit.

　　譯文 當你把裝有賬單的信封丟到一邊時，實際上會讓你更加焦慮。

　　定位 由關鍵詞envelopes，bills，anxious定位到原文劃線句。