That ' s how I ' ve felt for the past 56 years . I moved back home right after college and have been there ever since . I ' ve only worked low paying jobs . Nothing in my situation has changed . I ' m the same person I was 5 years ago . That bothered me . I realized what I needed was to be independent . I considered moving out , but if I did that I would barely be able to afford having my own place and paying off my loans . So I have gave myself a year to pay off as much of my loans as I can . While this year itself has sucked majorly , I have been making so much progress . Since I am trying not to spend money , I ' ve gotten really creative how I spend my down time . I ' ve hiked more this past year than I probably have my entire life . I ' ve learned how to make a pretty cheap meal plan . By Jan , I will have paid of 22 K of my loans . And I have plans this spring to finally move out .