Are you struggling to make your monthly payments on a mountain of student loans?

Maybe you're not struggling to make ends meet, but you just know you're wasting money on the loans you currently have.

Either way, student loan consolidation is one of the best ways that you can work towards financial security, independence and freedom.

By the time you've finished reading this article you'll know:

1. How You can Save Money By Consolidating Your Loans
2. What Type of Loan Will Save You the Most Money
3. How to Find the Best Deal on a New Loan

Sounds pretty good, right?

"What is Student Loan Consolidation? That Sounds Like Foreign Gibberish to Me!"

Basically, any loan consolidation is defined as using a single big loan to pay off multiple smaller loans. The benefits of loan consolidation are many, but here are a couple of the most notable ones:

* Save money with a Lower Interest Rate loan
* Save money with a Longer Repayment Period loan
* Save yourself a headache by consolidating your monthly paperwork

Obviously, you can see that in the right circumstances consolidating your loans is probably the very best thing that you can do for your finances. Below I'll tell you what type of loan is best for your situation.

"How Can I Save the Most Money with Student Loan Consolidation?"

What loan is best for you?

Most fresh college grads have absolutely terrible credit. It's just a fact of life that in college you're poor and bad at handling money. But you don't worry about it! Because soon you find a good job and start to rebuild your credit.

- Private Loans -

If you're already graduated and you have a solid income and you're NOT living paycheck to paycheck, then you should consider Private Student Loan Consolidation.

Basically, this is where you take out a loan with a private lender to pay off all of your federal loans. The benefits of a private loan are numerous, but really it just comes down to what kind of deal you can find. Many private lenders will even work with you to build a custom loan to meet your needs!

However, there is a downside: A private lender won't touch you with a 10 ft. pole unless you have good credit.

- Fixed Rate Loans -

If you're having trouble paying off your debt due to an extremely high interest rate on at least 1 or 2 of your current loans, then consolidating to a Fixed Rate loan can totally fix your problems.

With a fixed interest rate you don't have to worry about your monthly payments sky rocketing in the future...You pick an amount that you can handle paying on a monthly basis, and find a Fixed rate loan to meet your needs.

Note: In order to do this you'll have to figure out the weighted average interest rate of all of your loans. Basically this will let you see what your average interest rate is currently, so that you can find a better deal elsewhere.

- Talk To Your Current Lenders -

If you're really hankering to get out of debt and consolidate your loans, you shouldn't just rush off to find a brand new lender right away.

Many times if you contact your lenders you can get a better interest rate or restructure your loans. This is especially true if you've strengthened your credit substantially since taking out the education loan.

Who knows, you might even be able to consolidate all of your loans into one of your current lenders...Wouldn't that save you a lot of time!

It's Okay to Still Have Questions...

As you can see, student loan consolidation is one of the best ways to get out of debt and ensure your financial security for the remainder of your repayment period, however, you do have to kind of know what you're doing.

Otherwise you just risk putting yourself in a worse situation than you were in before!

Now listen, I understand that you probably have a few questions left...That's fine! Luckily for you, I've got the answers.