Free From College!

This isn't a Starcraft II post so feel free to skip it if you are only here for the strategy tips.  If  you would like to read a little more about the blog owner, feel free.

Well it's official, I recieved notification the other day that I am free from college (hooray, 6 years later and I got me my 2 degrees in Computer Science, a bachelors degree in CS with a Math minor, and a Master's Degree in CS with a concentration in Software Engineering).  I am excited since now I have more free time to work full time and browse the web in the evenings without having to worry about homework. 

Unfortunately, it also means that I need to pay off student loans.  I was lucky and my student loans don't add up too high from college.  I worked part time in a law office doing some web design stuff which was kind of neat since I often overheard our receptionist setting up appointments with various call ins.  People have the strangest problems ya know?  Everything from collecting money on flood insurance, asbestos damage to houses, car insurance claims, outstanding debt collections... you name it and somebody somewhere is suffering from it!

Back to my original grip about student loans, does anybody know of a good way of consolidating my debt?  Most of the loans I took out were interest free for the first couple of semester (subsidized is what they are classified as, Stafford loans), but after my sophomore year they only subsidized half of them for a single semester, and completely unsubsidized from there till my 2nd year of grad school.  This is unfortunate for me since I paid off interest as best as I could during school, but now would like to consolidate the remaining date into some monthly payment plan. 

Compounding my money issues is that I am now apartment hunting (anybody know of a good place somewhere Sunny like San Diego or elsewhere in California, Arizona (phoenix would be nice)?  I am getting sick of the snow on the east coast)  I looked at a couple places locally and they suffer from water damage and in general are just run down.  Car insurance is thankfully low here though as is property taxes -- probably won't be so lucky on the west coast but we'll see.

Thanks for listening to me rant, more strategy posts to come soon!