Paying off student loans

Night_Sprite · April 2010

For those of you who have paid off student loans. How aggressive were you with it?

J&K10910 · April 2010

I have just a small amount, and I'm making minimum payments for now while I finish paying my CC because I have a fixed interest rate on the SL that is pretty low. But when I'm done paying my CC in a couple months, I'm putting everything I can spare into get my SL paid off just to be done with it.

Night_Sprite · April 2010

I've never had debt and H has a lot from doing undergrad on his own. I just don't know exactly how we want to proceed.

polichik · April 2010

For workers in the mental health field (MFTs like me, social workers, etc.), California has started a program where they'll pay $10k of your student loans every year if you work with an underserved population. They'll pa up to $50k, which is the amount that I have in loans.

So, we're going to set up the 30-year extended repayment plan so as to pay as little as possible, and I'm going to let CA take care of my loans for me

J&K10910 · April 2010

Well do you guys have a monthly budget? That's how I figured out how large of payments to make. Made a budget and figured out how much I could spare with some cushion and spending money left over.

FYI, if you don't already know, student loan debt is considered "good debt" versus something like credit cards which is bad debt. But if you have nothing else to pay, and you can spare the money, I'd make as large of payments as you can swing, just to get it done with. You can always pay less in the future if you needed too, or more, or whatever.

polichik · April 2010

Just saw your 2nd post.. Mine wasn't helpful to you at all!

If we didn't have that option, we'd set up the 10-year plan and pay off as much as possible without making too many sacrifices. I have a serious loathing of credit and needing to pay interest, so I'd want to be done as soon as possible.

One of my friend told me that she views SLs like a utility bill. You assume you're going to have to pay it every month and set aside money for it. I know that some people are paying off loans for several decades, and it makes sense to just accept it as one more bill you need to pay.

Brie2010 · April 2010

I've just come to accept that ours will suck 30-40% of our income for the rest of our lives.

We pay as much as we can, which is usually the minimum. We threw a little extra that way from our tax refund, but we're struggling just to pay what we can.

Night_Sprite · April 2010

H calculated it, and if we snowball the current debt and accrue no more, we'll be done in late 2013. It just seems so far away.

J&K10910 · April 2010

Dude, depending on how much you have, that's not that long. Especially for student loans.

FutureMrsTR · April 2010

I'm not much help because I only had one small loan and the payment was only $50/mo. I just made a big payment to finish it a couple of months ago. I definitely treated it as my least important bill to pay off because the interest rate was so low and like pp said, it's not considered bad credit.

Brie2010 · April 2010

I hate you all.

SarahPLiz · April 2010

My balance was relatively small compared to people that went to Grad school, and my interest rate hovered between 1.5 and 5% since I started repayment in 2001. My payment has never been more than $120, so I just made that payment every month no matter what the required payment was, since it was often less. I paid off the last bit with my tax return this year (over a year and a half early). I use that $120 to pay off other debts faster.

So i wasn't really aggressive, but I was making a higher payment than required. I understand that my payment was not significant in relation to others' payments, though.

kate51485 · April 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_paying-off-student-loans?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:0017de5e-7da6-4c98-95ef-5ebe6c667e66Post:61dbf28c-072f-4430-a7ef-d33de98af1b8">Re: Paying off student loans</a>:
[QUOTE]H calculated it, and if we snowball the current debt and accrue no more, we'll be done in late 2013. It just seems so far away.
Posted by Night_Sprite[/QUOTE]

Oh you're sitting pretty. Trust me. I'd kill to be done paying by 2013.

Trifury2007 · April 2010

I created an amortization schedule to reduce the payment period from 10 to 7 years when I first graduated but then got a big bonus one year and decided to pay them all off just to be done with them. Based on my budget cutting 3 years off the plan was the most aggressive I could be while still being able to have some fun.

Night_Sprite · April 2010

It's kind of shocking to me that 2013 seems so good in loan land when I don't think it seems nearly so good.

FutureMrsTR · April 2010

Yeah, 2013 is really good for most student loans (I don't know when you started paying them). I know that I got lucky with grants and stuff, but most people take at least 10 years to pay theirs off and often much more.

SarahPLiz · April 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_paying-off-student-loans?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:0017de5e-7da6-4c98-95ef-5ebe6c667e66Post:f75fe06c-4d7d-4615-bde2-b8fa10f87ba5">Re: Paying off student loans</a>:
[QUOTE]It's kind of shocking to me that 2013 seems so good in loan land when I don't think it seems nearly so good.
Posted by Night_Sprite[/QUOTE]

I can see that, but it becomes part of your normal monthly budget. You get used to living within those means. Then when they are paid off, its like getting a bonus each month, which you can save or spend..

andyandhillary · April 2010

*looks at loans and weeps*. I wish mine would be paid off in 2013. Try 2019. yeah.

btrflykate1230 · April 2010

I wish mine would be paid off by 2013. FI and I have, ohh, $140,000 in student loan debt. We'll be paying it off for QUITE some time. I think we're due to be done in 2020? 2023? Something like that.

maggyruth · April 2010

FI's will be paid off in 2019 (10 years) and it's a considerable sum each month (like, more than our rent will be). And THEN we decide we're going to send ME back to school. We were hoping we could afford to do the monthly payment plan, but you gotta eat, ya know? Thankully I'll be going to a state school and will be able to claim residency status for the decreased tuition, but still...I'm looking at 6 years of school at about $11k (minimum) per year. And lets not get into professional years.

Of course, that will still be considerably less than FI's loans...but that's what you get for getting your MBA and JD at a private university.

2013 is NOT that far away...

ZoeTheDog · April 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_paying-off-student-loans?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:0017de5e-7da6-4c98-95ef-5ebe6c667e66Post:53b8ec66-1aed-4ddf-87f0-98f01de001a0">Re: Paying off student loans</a>:
[QUOTE]*looks at loans and weeps*. I wish mine would be paid off in 2013. Try 2019. yeah.
Posted by andyandhillary[/QUOTE]

::puts arm around Andy:: Me too!

zippityb · April 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_paying-off-student-loans?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:0017de5e-7da6-4c98-95ef-5ebe6c667e66Post:51e06185-c4e6-426a-9227-1368ff461efb">Re: Paying off student loans</a>:
[QUOTE]For workers in the mental health field (MFTs like me, social workers, etc.), California has started a program where they'll pay $10k of your student loans every year if you work with an underserved population. They'll pa up to $50k, which is the amount that I have in loans. So, we're going to set up the 30-year extended repayment plan so as to pay as little as possible, and I'm going to let CA take care of my loans for me :)
Posted by polichik[/QUOTE]

How in the hell can broke-ass California do this?

polichik · April 2010

Nationally, the program also exists, but you get $50k paid off after 5 years, instead of $10k for every year. It's the same amount, but they distribute it differently.

SnShne322 · April 2010

My first round of loans (from my first year of college I did) I had 5K in loans and it probably took me about 3-4 years to pay it off. I wish I had been more aggressive.

This time I will have about 10K when i'm done with my bachelors in 2011, but I'm pumping as much as I can on them now while I'm still in school. It's probably not realistic for me, but I'm going to try to have it all paid by the time I graduate. Any "extra" money I have along with some tuition reimbursement I get from work goes on the loans.

Paying off student loans

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