Student Loan Debt

sweetsunnyc · April 2014

I am about to graduate with my Masters in May and, between this degree and a private undergrad degree, I have accumulated almost 60 k in student loans. I know that repayment time is coming up in the next few months and it is stressing the hell out of me. Between our mortgage, daycare, cars, credit cards, DH student loans....I don't know how we are going to swing it. I know that there are repayment options out there and I plan on researching that. Anyone have experience with high student loan debt and doing different payment options? Our combined salary is decent, but not exceedingly great. Any experience with this or good resources for me to look in to? TIA!

mb314 · April 2014

I consolidated my loans, and changed them to pay them off over 20 years v/s 10 years, and that made a huge difference in my monthly payment.

emberlee3 · April 2014

I went to medical school and I had almost $200K in student loans. I consolidated a big chunk at very low interest rate. Everything is set up on 20 or 30 year repayment. I hope to have it all paid off in under 15 years. Set up whatever payment plan allows you to afford your monthly payment. Pay off all higher interest debt first. Put all extra money toward extra loan payments. Stop carrying debt except for mortgage and student loan, if at all possible.

GreenMonkey1 · April 2014

You can contact a financial aid advisor at your institution to discuss repayment options. There are something like seven different options (with Direct Loans) with different qualifications as to who can or cannot access that repayment plan.

amywoods824 · April 2014

Talk to your student loan provider about the possibility of consolidating and repayment options. I graduated law school with about $160k in combined federal and private student loans. I consolidated and am on an income based repayment plan (federal) and graduated repayment plan (private). It's not fun, but at least it's manageable with the other household bills. Good luck!

junebugrbig · April 2014

mb314 said:

I consolidated my loans, and changed them to pay them off over 20 years v/s 10 years, and that made a huge difference in my monthly payment.

This. Plus my employer has a student loan repayment program where they helped pay for a portion of the debt so I wouldn't leave for 3 years. That helped a lot.

Amelia4 · April 2014

My husband and I both went to law school as well. We each ended up with about $100,000 in student loans. We lived a lifestyle of students for the first few years out of school, paid off the cars first, and then paid extra to student loans. With our balances we each consolidated and got on a 30 year repayment plan. We actually both paid ours off in less than 10 years, but it was a nice low payment in case something happened. And I echo the advice to not consolidate with your husband. I hope that you can get a repayment plan that works for you.

MommaP12 · April 2014

I have undergrad and MBA student loans sitting at about 32K total right now. I have a really low rate somewhere between 3-4% so I just make my monthly payment and don't think about it. We paid off our car last fall, this year I'm working on paying of the little bit of CC debt we have and then I'll go from there maybe making bigger payments on my student loan in 2015. DH has none thankfully.

mb314 · April 2014

FWIW, my student loan interest rate is so low that my financial adviser has told me to put any extra money i may have towards retirement rather than my student loans. if you get a good rate and have extra money in the future, I would talk to some one about the best way to use it

thedash · April 2014

We are another family of two attorneys (met in law school) so we had approx $300K in student loan debt when we graduated. We put them on income based repayment when we were both at non-profit jobs with low salaries. Now we make too much for that to help so we just send our monthly payments and plan to continue doing so until right before we retire. I used to get upset about the massive debt but we've realized it's better to put our money towards savings and paying off our mortgage (our only debt besides the loans) rather than the hope of paying our loans off in 26 years instead of 30.

We have accepted that we live in a townhouse instead of a bigger SFH because we send just under $1,000 to our loans each month. If we didn't have that we would move right now but as it is we will have to wait a few more years to upgrade housing.

JulyMomma2U2 · April 2014

I have ~120K in debt.. down to almost 95K now, after paying back for 4 years.. it's hell. Between all my loans, I pay ~$1000/mo, not including what DH pays for his.. I was desperate to get my payments lower (initial payments would have been ~$1400/mo) and did a reconsolidation.. however, the interest rate was still pretty high (6.25%).. and, I absolutely regret it. For the past 4 years, despite paying over $700/mo for that one loan, I've barely scratched the principal and instead have just paid down the interest.. so, now, if I chose to move the loan and see about lowering the interest rate, all that money I've already paid in interest is gone.. It was the absolute worst decision I made to reconsolidate. There are lots of programs out there to help adjust your payments and "modify" them based on your income (income based repayment), but they only apply for federal loans, and to be honest, your income has to be substantially low..

sugarbear0524 · April 2014

SandAndsSea said:

DH and I had 6 figures together when we graduated and had them paid off before we started a family. We lived frugally, way beneath our means, drove older cars, kept a budget, and put everything extra towards the debt. Every extra dollar we got, be it a bonus, raise, tax refund, etc., went towards paying off the lowest balance loan. Then, once that one was paid, the monthly payment was added to the next balance. Looking back, I can't believe we accomplished it, but I'm so glad we did! Also, we put the maximum amount with a company match into retirement accounts, but didn't max our contributions until our debt was paid off.

This! Also, take Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University as a couple. It will really help you get on the same page and set some goals. My biggest piece of advice is to get on a written budget that you both agree to and stick to it.

sweetsunnyc · April 2014

Thank you all so much for the advice and suggestions- I have been looking into options and I think that there are things out there that will work and not break us. We have very low credit card debt, we live in a small affordable home and we don't spend money recklessly- our biggest issue right now is that we have 2 high car payments (we pay about 800 for the cars combined) Big mistake that we purchased a new SUV when we found out that we were having DD3, but what's done is done. I would like to get these paid off and then concentrate on higher loan payments. And thank you sugarbear0524 for the Dave Ramsey suggestion. That is the third time this week that someone has mentioned him to me- I think it's a sign

88sharonlee · April 2014

One other thing to add if you have salliemae. I got the Upromise credit card and it pays money towards your loans.

I get 1% every month and there are many other ways to earn money but I honestly don't work at it I just use the credit card and every quarter I get maybe $20 paid directly to my loans.

It's not enough to pay if off but hey, every bit helps and over the years I've earned a few hundred dollars. If you really worked at it I'm sure you could earn much more- if you have time for that!

But only if you can be good with credit cards of course. I needed one (it's my only card other than debit) and I try to pay it off in full each month

jess9802 · April 2014

Another lawyer here. Between undergrad and law school, I graduated with about $120k in student loans, mostly federal loans, but a mix of private loans too. I consolidated my federal loans and locked in a 3% interest rate, and then deferred them for a year due to a relatively low-paying clerkship. At the time, there were private consolidation loans, and I consolidated all of my private loans. Both consolidation loans were put on 30 year payment plans. The federal consolidation loan is on an extended plan, and every two years the payments adjust upwards. The private loan is a fixed payment. It is at a ridiculous interest rate, more than 9%. Once I started at my firm, I began paying an amount closer to the monthly payment on a 10 year amortization, and have paid off a huge chunk of my principal balance.

It takes time to see progress - I've been out of law school for nine years and just last month I got my total debt under $100k. Only 21 more years to go! :P

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