Anyone repaying their student loans yet?

[tec699]

I just found out that I have $40,000 in student loans, and I still need 3 more semesters till I graduate. What I'm in the process of doing is that I'm consolidating all of my loans thru Sallie Mae so I can keep my payments down a bit. I figure when I graduate next year I'll have close to $50,000 that I'll have to pay back.

So my questions are...

1) What can I expect my monthly payments to be on college loans that total $50,000? Rememeber I'm consolidating so the payments should be cheaper since I'm going to send a payment to one company instead of 2 or 3 companies. Also.. Sallie Mae offers 4 payments plans, so I guess I'll need to check which one will suite my needs.

2) How many years till your allowed to payoff your loans? Is it 10 years? 20 years? Would it be in my best interest to pay the loan off in a longer time frame as opposed to a shorter time frame?

I guess thats it. I'm definitely not looking forward to paying off my school loans, but I guess I have no choice.

thxs..

 

[Vette73]

Don't consolidate right now unless you are ready to pay. When you consolidate, unless they have some sort of extension, you have to start paying when you do it.

 

[phatj]

What college are you attending and did you receive any financial aid at all?

 

[vtqanh]

Originally posted by: tec699
I just found out that I have $40,000 in student loans, and I still need 3 more semesters till I graduate. What I'm in the process of doing is that I'm consolidating all of my loans thru Sallie Mae so I can keep my payments down a bit. I figure when I graduate next year I'll have close to $50,000 that I'll have to pay back.

So my questions are...

1) What can I expect my monthly payments to be on college loans that total $50,000? Rememeber I'm consolidating so the payments should be cheaper since I'm going to send a payment to one company instead of 2 or 3 companies. Also.. Sallie Mae offers 4 payments plans, so I guess I'll need to check which one will suite my needs.

2) How many years till your allowed to payoff your loans? Is it 10 years? 20 years? Would it be in my best interest to pay the loan off in a longer time frame as opposed to a shorter time frame?

I guess thats it. I'm definitely not looking forward to paying off my school loans, but I guess I have no choice.

thxs..

Depends on the amount that you owed, there are several different plans to choose, it can range from 10 years to 20-25 years. Or you can stay in school forever and don't have to pay (you need at least 6 credit hour every semester though)

 

[tec699]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Don't consolidate right now unless you are ready to pay. When you consolidate, unless they have some sort of extension, you have to start paying when you do it.

Thats not true, because I consolidated my loans a couple of years ago. And when I did I was granted new forbarance and deferment terms. So the forbarance that I used up was given back to me because I consolidated.

And with Sallie Mae you don't have to pay immediately. I can use the in-school deferment forms when I go back to college in the fall. So the consolidation works for me because I keep all of my school loans with one company.

 

[tec699]

Originally posted by: phatj
What college are you attending and did you receive any financial aid at all?

I'm attending Rowan University in New Jersey. And those loans are all from financial aid.

 

[StageLeft]

You can use this to calculate your student loans, even though it says it's for mortgages. If you owe $50k and have a 6% loan (they are low in canada and I presume student loans are low in US also) to pay it in 10 years will cost you $555/month. To pay in 20 it's $358 or $329 with a 5% interest rate.

In regards to payment schedule it depends what the interest rate is. If it's 4% I'd consider it in your best interest to spend as long as possible paying it off. The reason being if you approach finances responsibly that's a very low loan rate and the money you save by paying it off in 20 years vs. 10 years could be invested in something with a higher than 4% return.

What's your degree in and do you anticipate solid employment once the degree is through? That's a very hefty student loan

 

[TwinkleToes77]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Don't consolidate right now unless you are ready to pay. When you consolidate, unless they have some sort of extension, you have to start paying when you do it.

I consolidated my school loans and as long as you are still in school they get deferred until 6 months after you finish.

 

[tec699]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
You can use this to calculate your student loans, even though it says it's for mortgages. If you owe $50k and have a 6% loan (they are low in canada and I presume student loans are low in US also) to pay it in 10 years will cost you $555/month. To pay in 20 it's $358 or $329 with a 5% interest rate.

In regards to payment schedule it depends what the interest rate is. If it's 4% I'd consider it in your best interest to spend as long as possible paying it off. The reason being if you approach finances responsibly that's a very low loan rate and the money you save by paying it off in 20 years vs. 10 years could be invested in something with a higher than 4% return.

What's your degree in and do you anticipate solid employment once the degree is through? That's a very hefty student loan

I'm a special education major. And yea... the enployment rate for male special ed majors is extremely high. Males are in high demand and will be for some time. Put it this way.. In my special education 2 class last year their were 28 students. Out of those 28 students guess how many were males? Only 2! Me and this other male. The rest were all female. All of my core special ed classes are female dominated.

And... the average starting salary in NJ for teachers is $34,000. Not bad.

 

[flot]

Ok, a few comments:

1) You JUST found out you have $40k in student loans? Was that a surprise somehow?
2) Males are in high demand in your profession? That seems very odd.. How is that possible? Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen.
3) A starting salary of $34,000 isn't terrible, but you're talking about $550 a month student loan payments on a ~$1900 a month paycheck. That is a pretty serious dent in your income. You need to start taking a serious look at your finances and figuring out what you can afford to spend on what.

Most people "normally" pay off student loans over a 10 year period. There are some other options which may be a better decision for you considering your debt-to-income ratio. However, the longer you have the loans, the longer they'll present a problem for you.

 

[The Sauce]

I have $55K at 6.25% (consolidated waaaay too early) over 30 yrs repay period and my payment is right around $400/month.

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: flot
Ok, a few comments:

1) You JUST found out you have $40k in student loans? Was that a surprise somehow?
2) Males are in high demand in your profession? That seems very odd.. How is that possible? Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen.
3) A starting salary of $34,000 isn't terrible, but you're talking about $550 a month student loan payments on a ~$1900 a month paycheck. That is a pretty serious dent in your income. You need to start taking a serious look at your finances and figuring out what you can afford to spend on what.

Most people "normally" pay off student loans over a 10 year period. There are some other options which may be a better decision for you considering your debt-to-income ratio. However, the longer you have the loans, the longer they'll present a problem for you.

number is 2 easy. No guys want to be as special education major. Like the amount of people in England that want to be school teachers or police officers...........they are in big demand......

 

[jagr10]

Makes me happy i chose to go to school part time and work part time. My total loan after 3 years is only $2500 right now. I borrowed in my first year and decided not to after that. Because i'm part time though, they take $25 or something similar every month and it goes towards the loan remaining.

 

[flot]

Well, for reference, my student loans were about $22k, and my starting salary out of school was more than twice that. If you're approaching a 1:1 student loan to yearly salary ratio, (or worse than that) I'd say you're setting yourself up for some financial hardships, unless you're in a profession (doctor, lawyer) where you can clearly see yourself making a LOT more $$$ later in life.

If you're not in that kind of situation, then you'd be well advised to start aggressively paying those loans off, becuase later in life as you want to do more things (buy a house, buy a new car, etc) they will still be lurking over you and can cause problems.

I'm all for owing money - sometimes it is the best way to reach a goal - however, you have to be careful and realistic in what you can and will be able to afford. When I graduated 3 years ago I figured I would have my loans paid off by now - not even close.

 

[tec699]

Originally posted by: flot
Ok, a few comments:

1) You JUST found out you have $40k in student loans? Was that a surprise somehow?
2) Males are in high demand in your profession? That seems very odd.. How is that possible? Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen.
3) A starting salary of $34,000 isn't terrible, but you're talking about $550 a month student loan payments on a ~$1900 a month paycheck. That is a pretty serious dent in your income. You need to start taking a serious look at your finances and figuring out what you can afford to spend on what.

Most people "normally" pay off student loans over a 10 year period. There are some other options which may be a better decision for you considering your debt-to-income ratio. However, the longer you have the loans, the longer they'll present a problem for you.

1) I allways knew that I had a large amount of financial aid that I was going to have to pay back. Since I'm still attending college my loans were all defered so I didn't bother worrying about them. I'll have to pay them back anyway, so why bother? Also.. I usually check once or twice a year on the total of my school loans. Last year I knew that I was in the $34,000 range. I'm just suprised I'm at $40,000 so quickly. Man.. time flys.

2) Males are in high demand in special education because:

a) The profession is female dominated because guys usually go into other fields such as computers, law or accounting. Males are in short supply.
b) How many children are fatherless in todays age? The numbers are actually quite high. The male teacher can act as that father figure to the child that's fatherless. And that's so imporatnt... Especially in urban areas where 75% of those children don't have fathers.
c) Males can control (physically) behavioral and emotional children better then women can. If a behavioral child needs to be restrained do you really think a 125lb women teacher can control a 175lb 11th grade student? I seriously doubt it, so that's where I may be of use.

And that's only a some of the reasons why Males are desperately needed in Special Education. As I stated earlier, my classes are female dominated. You really have to have the patience to work with children who have disabilities. And in my opinion most males don't have the patience. Also you have to love to work with children. How many males like to work with children, 7 hours a day and 10 months out of the year?

3) Is that salary for 12 or 10 months? Remember teachers have Summers off, so my pay is going to be condensed. Well.. unless I choose to get a paycheck during the summer, but I doubt I'll go that route.

 

[flot]

Well, in most industries a lack of one gender does not by itself create a demand. But I'll concede that that may not be the case in education.

As for #3... I think you're looking at about $550 a month for 10 years on your loans. "year" defined as a payment every month. While your salary may be "condensed" to 10 months, how are you planning on coming up with the $550 a month in the summer??? Most teachers I know have (wisely) opted to take their salary over a 12 month period. That offers some financial stability that is nice to have - and then if you work another job during the summers, all of that is "free money" that can be used for whatever.

I realize that you've got a year of school to go, but you should definitely start thinking about these things. $34k is NOT a lot of money to live off of in the real world, and you're being pretty flippant about a $50,000 debt... I was pretty flippant about the debt I had racked up in college as well, and if not for a few lucky breaks (to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars), I'd still have it - and I'd never be able to buy a house, or a new car, or...

 

[XMan]

One possibility as well, is to take one or two classes a semester to continue your deferment, and pay what you can on your loans.

I only owe about 6K on my loan, which I also consolidated through Sallie Mae. I went to a state college (Purdue) though and not a private school. I was also working full time at the time, so I was able to pay a lot of the stuff without borrowing.

 

[vi edit]

One possibility as well, is to take one or two classes a semester to continue your deferment, and pay what you can on your loans.

I think you have to be considered "full time"(12 credit hours) a semester to defer your loans.

 

[XMan]

Ahhh, okay, I didn't know there was an hours requirement. Still, that would only be 3-4 classes depending on what you took. My loan payment is less than a hundred bucks, so it was a moot point to me, but around 400 - - - holy cow! That's like a car payment.

 

[UglyCasanova]

The one thing the state of Louisiana did do right was create TOPS. If you take certain classes in HS, make above a certain GPA, and have a fairly decent ACT (no 12's) then the state basically pays your tuition. This is good because on top of that I also got a small academic scholorship, so really I am getting a free ride through college. The problem is that too many people are getting into college because of this and it seems alot of them don't belong there.

 

[Ylen13]

no don't have any loans evertying is being payed by my parents.

 

[tec699]

flot...

Your saying $550 for 10 years. Well what if I want to take 20 years to pay off my school loans? I'm figuring if I go this route my payments will be a bit more manageable. If I can get my payments down to $350 a month for say 20-25 years I'll be happy.

 

[enis083]

This is what I learned about managing my money...

Live with your parents for a few years. If you get to live rent free, you can make larger payments on your loans/credit cards.
Don't buy a new car unless you absolutely need to.
Don't make ignorant purchases (new home theatre, PC...)
And don't run up a huge credit card debit. Those take forever to pay off.

 

[flot]

Tec - I'd imagine if you took 20 years to pay off your student loans, then yes the payment would be closer to $350 a month.

However, think about that for a while - do you want to still be paying off your STUDENT LOANS when you are 45 years old??? 20 years is a very, very long time.

 

[Hector13]

Originally posted by: jagr10
Makes me happy i chose to go to school part time and work part time. My total loan after 3 years is only $2500 right now. I borrowed in my first year and decided not to after that. Because i'm part time though, they take $25 or something similar every month and it goes towards the loan remaining.

and it makes me happy I went to a public school and came out debt free. $50Gs is a lot of money to have hanging over you the second you graduate...