Take inventory of your student loans

Congratulations! You’re a graduate now, so it’s time to start making some big decisions. One of those decisions revolves around what to do about your student loans. You can always choose just pay the minimum balance on each and every loan, or you can do yourself a favor by consolidating all of your loans and making one payment.

Before looking into consolidation, make sure to take an inventory of all your student loans. Researching for good student loan consolidation information can come later.

No doubt you’ve been buried under your student work load and haven’t really kept track of all of the loans. Good news: For all of your federal loans, you can search the National Student Loan Database System (NSLDS).

For your own security, you’ll be asked to provide unique identifying information such as your Social Security Number. Also, just like using an ATM, you’ll also be required to obtain a PIN number. If you don’t already have one (issued at the time of your federal student loan allotment), you can easily get one at the Federal Student Aid Web site.

Once you have your PIN number, you can easily log on to the Web site to view information on loan and/or grant amounts, outstanding balances, loan statuses, and disbursements. Once you have a solid idea of what your loans look like, and what you owe, you can move on to creating a realistic budget.