I'm almost FREE!! $60k in the past couple years. Student Loans |
- I'm almost FREE!! $60k in the past couple years.
- 10 Year vs. 25 Year Student Loan Repayment
- Do I have to repay loans if I'm in an MS program?
- Is it hard to get a cosigner's name off a private loan once you graduate from school?
- What should I do with my federal loans?
- PSLF pay-ahead problems? Please explain.
- My Ibr payment is almost triple what it was last year. What can I do about this?
- High loan amount REPAYE question
- Changing Loan Repayment Plans
- has anyone had luck negotiating a lower interest rate other than the one offered on a student loan refinance?
- New to loans
- How to know whether PSLF is worth it?
| I'm almost FREE!! $60k in the past couple years. Posted: 17 Oct 2019 02:59 PM PDT First, I want to thank you all and the community. I've learned so much from reading all the success stories, questions, and answers from Betsy. They propelled me forward in the student loan debt journey and kept me motivated along the way. This might sounds like bragging but I don't care.. I worked my ASS off and I am ECSTATIC to say I've ALMOST there! I've paid off $60k in the last 2 years of hardcore applying myself AND having some fun along the way. How I've done this: 2 jobs for 3 years, earned raises and new jobs, thrown every extra bonus & side job money at the loans. The nitty gritty: I've basically lived paycheck to paycheck with a 4-5 month EF in a HCOL area. I worked 2 jobs (desk and service) and routinely worked 55 - 60 hours / week. My salary rose from $35k - $40k - $50k - $60k to now at $65k (promotions, raises, job changes, etc) and I threw every bonus and extra side-job amount I made at the loan. To note, the side job pay also rose in this time frame as I climbed the ladder there (service industry). My interest at the beginning was roughly $13 / day and seeing this written down hurt. For 1.5 years I paid minimum and blissfully ignored my debts. Towards the end of 2017 I made an amortization schedule and plotted out balances, payments, etc. and could see how much a difference of $x / month could make. January 2018 I wholly applied myself and set out to rid myself of this burden. I attacked the highest interest rate first (avalanche) to save the most money. Eventually I had a good DTI ratio and refinanced. I used NerdWallet and applied with a few service providers but ultimately ended up with a local servicer with a great fixed rate (but high account restrictions). My loans were a mix of Federal and Private and they steadily dropped from ~$75k to $50k when refinancing. Income was roughly the same amount then. After refinancing, my payments made more of an impact and I paid min on everything else to get rid of the private loans. I think it's important to have measurable objectives and an amortization schedule. I could SEE my loans going down. I changed my goals and expectations throughout. I adjusted to the "college life" while not in college. I never bought the newest phone or fancy clothes. I made a budget and stuck to it but I had some wiggle room to stay sane. I paid the cheapest rent I could find, cooked most meals at home, rarely drank, took whatever leftovers from work I could, etc. My hobbies are uber cheap and mainly outdoors (rock climbing, hiking, camping) and I enjoy them. Granted I'm not finished yet but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel… I'd rather sacrifice now to live better later. Of course, there's no silver bullet – I make more, spend less, budget and keep track. It's determination and it takes time. Keep grinding. [link] [comments]  |
| 10 Year vs. 25 Year Student Loan Repayment Posted: 17 Oct 2019 10:24 AM PDT My wife recently graduated with approximately $200,000 in federal student loans to pay off. She says there are two tracks to pay it off: 10 years and 25 years. Same interest rate. Obviously paying it off in 10 years comes with the higher monthly bill, but less money spent on interest over time. She says it's something like $1,800/month for 10 years and $1,200/month in 25 years. I am pushing for 10 years just to get it over with and save money in the long term. She wants to sign up for the 25 years, but pay extra each month (essentially pay the 10 year amount). That way if we fall on tough times we don't owe as much per month, but we still pay it off in 10 years. Potentially dumb question, but does this work out? Like, if we sign up for the 25 year loan repayment but pay the 10 year loan repayment every month, will we be done in 10 years? Or is there some reason we would end up paying more. Just want to make sure we aren't missing anything. This assumes equal interest rates which I'm going to have her verify. [link] [comments]  |
| Do I have to repay loans if I'm in an MS program? Posted: 17 Oct 2019 07:41 PM PDT Title pretty much says it. Right now I'm on income based repayment, not paying anything. I want to live on my own again, so I want to take on a few part time jobs if possible (I couldn't find full time employment that would pay worth a damn even with my degree; there's just a lot of competition). I also want to start paying down my student debt while I get my MS online (already accepted the offer, haven't enrolled in any courses yet) also, but I want to know if I'll be obligated to pay monthly payments with an MS. This is going to put me around 45k further in debt with private loans, so I want to be paying that off fairly quickly as I go to mediate the damage. My undergrad debt was all federal, so I'm less worried about it. Thanks so much! [link] [comments]  |
| Is it hard to get a cosigner's name off a private loan once you graduate from school? Posted: 17 Oct 2019 07:40 PM PDT I'm considering taking out a small private loan to help pay for college. My scholarships and federal loans are already used up and I still owe about 2000 for the rest of this year. I have an okay credit score depending on which site you use to look at it. It was close to 720 or something like that a month ago, but the federal loans I just received seemed to drop it some. I had previously applied to some private loan companies, but got denied without a cosigner for most of the major ones. One site approved me but had a 13% interest rate. My credit is very new, with my oldest account being a year and a half old. I'm 20 years old. My question is this: if I got a private loan and my mom cosigned it, would I be able to refinance and get her name off the loan when I graduate nursing school in 3 years? She doesn't mind cosigning, but I don't want her name attached to my loans. I want to get her off as soon as possible after graduation so I won't pull down her credit score. She is still paying off her own student loans from college. How hard is it? Also, anyone have any advice on getting private loans in my own name with such young credit? [link] [comments]  |
| What should I do with my federal loans? Posted: 17 Oct 2019 08:17 AM PDT I realize now that I spent too much time waiting to get on top of my loans. Right now, I have about $200,000 in federal & private student loan debt after going to school for a healthcare-related degree. I initially switched my federal loans to REPAYE because I wasn't able to get a full-time job immediately after graduating, but now I am earning $100,000 gross. Next year, I am planning on getting married and will be starting a new job with a gross salary of $150,000. My partner will likely earn somewhere between $60,000 and $80,000. He has no debt. My goal is to pay off the loans as quickly as possible (and I will not eligible for a 10-year PSLF because I do not work for a nonprofit). Here is my debt breakdown:
Should I switch to a different payment plan for my federal loans? Should I refinance any of them for better interest rates? I already recently refinanced my private loan, so that interest rate is much improved. [link] [comments]  |
| PSLF pay-ahead problems? Please explain. Posted: 17 Oct 2019 01:19 PM PDT In several of the posts I have been reading there seems to be a possible problem if you pay extra on your student loans and are working toward a PSLF forgiveness. I'm confused about why paying ahead would cause a problem. Can someone explain? [link] [comments]  |
| My Ibr payment is almost triple what it was last year. What can I do about this? Posted: 17 Oct 2019 08:59 AM PDT My ibr payment has gone up significantly from last year. My income has not really changed much. What can I do about this? [link] [comments]  |
| High loan amount REPAYE question Posted: 17 Oct 2019 04:10 PM PDT Hi all - quick q to make sure I understand REPAYE. Let's say my monthly payment just to cover interest is $2400 (all loans are federal and combination of subsidized and unsubsidized). Based on my income, REPAYE required payment is $1000. So, there is $1400 in interest payment remaining ($2400 - $1000 = $1400). But, REPAYE covers 50% of that ($700). If I wanted to, could I pay an additional $700 to make sure total monthly interest is paid each month and do I have this all correct ($1k REPAYE payment + $700 Fed Subsidy + additional $700 payment from me = $2400 monthly payment to cover total interest)? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 17 Oct 2019 11:43 AM PDT I will do my best to ask this question, there are parts of it that I don't fully understand, though. For some background information, I graduated from graduate school in 2015 with about $133,000 in (various types of) Federal loans from my undergraduate and graduate studies combined, and my husband graduated from graduate school in 2011 with about $25,000 of federal student loans (from undergrad and grad combined). We both got jobs pretty quickly after graduation, and by the time I got my first job we were making a combined income of about $110,000. When I first started repaying my student loans, I was paying them back on the standard repayment plan (about $1300/month). Then, in 2016 I had my son and we were faced with 1) increased health insurance costs (we needed to go on a family plan instead of an employee + spouse plan), 2) mortgage payments since we had been living in a small, 2 bedroom apartment when I found out that I was pregnant and we needed more space and 3) daycare costs. We were eating into our savings just to make the payments and needed some relief, so for most of 2017 we went on the REPAYE plan (payments of about $650 per month). By the end of 2017 I quit my job for a new job that automatically offered me $13,000 more per year than I was making at my previous job, and my husband gets annual raises between 2-4% at his job, so we felt financially stable enough again to go back on the standard repayment plan. Originally I was going to have my loans paid off by 2025. After going on REPAYE, they now estimate that I'll need to pay until 2028 (current payments back on the standard plan are about $1400 per month). I understand that paying less for most of one year will increase the length of my repayment period, but it seems a little crazy to me that it increased it by 3 years. Does that seem reasonable, or does it sound like someone messed something up? We also tried to figure out with Nelnet before going on REPAYE if the minimum payments would at least be enough to cover our monthly interest so that it didn't capitalize, and they told us that it SHOULD be enough to cover the interest... so they never really gave us a definite answer. I realize that I'm not providing all of the specific info, like all of my specific loan amounts and their interest rates, I didn't know if anyone could tell me based on this general information if that sounds accurate... Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 17 Oct 2019 08:45 AM PDT i am working with sofi, but if navirefi offers lower has anyone had luck telling sofi that navi offered lower and sofi lower their interest rate? hope that makes sense. thanks in advance. i plan to begin refinance this week or next im also open to tips you have learned and things i should ask and look out for? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 17 Oct 2019 09:42 AM PDT So, I just got accepted for transfer at a Cal State (yay!) but I'm fairly certain I won't be receiving any financial aid. I've been looking into loan options but generally don't really know where to start. I've also JUST recently started working on my credit (I know, I should've started way earlier ;-;), so I'm pretty worried that will affect my chances of getting a loan as well. I guess my question is, does anyone have any advice? Maybe tips on things I should do/avoid? Thank you!! [link] [comments]  |
| How to know whether PSLF is worth it? Posted: 17 Oct 2019 01:21 PM PDT I'm having trouble calculating and weighing the pros and cons of PSLF. Currently at about $60,000 in loans, making $52k before taxes. I expect my pay to increase more rapidly than the 5% expected on the fedloans repayment calculator (close to 8% per year, after an 11% bump my first two years). I have relatively low monthly expenses, and would anticipate being able to dump slightly more than half of my take-home into loans after making employer match in a 401a. Due to the nature of my job it is unlikely I will leave the government/nonprofit sector, so some freedom could be nice. Mostly I just want these loans gone as quickly as possible, but I'm not sure if this is worth it in the long run if I can get them forgiven at 10 years. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Advice, articles, and general discussion pertaining to student loans.. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment