Mike Dominguez is the first to admit he should have gotten on top of his student loan debt earlier. “Looking back, I could have done a lot of things different,” says Dominguez, 33, who lives in Austin, Texas, and recently started a business with his father, selling goods and professional services to government entities. Dominguez has $71,000 in student loan debt from earning an undergraduate degree at the University of Texas at Austin. He hasn’t paid off a dime of his balance yet and cites living too extravagantly in his 20sand taking on low-paying internships as obstacles. But his credit score is still healthy, and he’s still in good standing with his lenders, who have helped him refinance and consolidate and defer the loans. He feels optimistic that he’ll eventually pay the loans off. Someday.