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webcams for christ (since this accidentally rolled over to a new page): $20k + 8k + 14k = $42k  Anyway...Run the numbers on what your payments might look like, cross-reference against expected salaries in your chosen field, and see what sort of DTI (debt-to-income) that'll leave you with (you can ball-park net salaries with something like http://www.paycheckcity.com/calculator/salary/ and salary data can be had from any number of sources: BLS, salary.com, trade magazines, et al. -- nb: be wary of income predictions from schools themselves as it in their ultimate financial best interest for you to sign on for loans to go there). Honestly, and I sincerely and deeply hate to be a wet blanket when it's something you clearly care about, most of the musicians/musical-career people I know are barely kind of getting by. (Maybe the picture is a little brighter for academia... which is depressing, because most academics I know are incredibly depressed about the state of academic careers.) I don't know how that much debt would work out well added to that picture. That's just anecdotal observation on my part, but seriously take a long hard look at what you think your budget will look like once you finish your path and see if the rough monthly payments on all that are feasible. Good luck, whatever path you choose!
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May 12, 2013 07:21
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Pro-PRC Laowai posted:They didn't have any morals when they bribed congress into giving them their status, so there's really no obligation to care.
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May 12, 2013 22:06
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FRINGE posted:This is an important philosophical/political point, and it makes debt-moralizers extra irritating.
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May 13, 2013 00:32
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swenblack posted:It is unrealistic. You currently make $100/yr combined, so if you live on that lifestyle and put the remaining $200-$300k/yr ($100-$160/yr post tax) towards your $360k student loans, you'll be able to do it fairly easily in 3-4 years. However, since you're asking about IBR and tax breaks you don't qualify for (you make too much money and you can't claim them if you file as married filing separately), I think you'll end up spending all the money on things like Lexuses and nice houses rather than paying off your loans. Not exactly sure if you're implying something based on your question, but both of us have been paying off loans with IBR for years - 2 for her, 3 for me. About 300$ a month or so. We definitely qualify for, and currently use IBR. And the amount continues to grow, despite payments. Sigh.
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May 13, 2013 05:49
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Cozmosis posted:Not exactly sure if you're implying something based on your question, but both of us have been paying off loans with IBR for years - 2 for her, 3 for me. About 300$ a month or so. I think he means that by the time you're making your post-residency income, you won't qualify for those tax breaks. The amount you can deduct starts phasing out at a MAGI of $60-75k for single filers and $125k-$155k for joint filers. So enjoy it while it lasts because you'll never see that deduction again in 2 years if your income prediction for her is true. Also, you cannot take the student loan deduction if you're married filing separately, so that part of your plan falls apart. The amount continues to grow under IBR because you're only paying $300/month. I'll have over $200k in student loans to pay off too, and the minimum payment on the 10 year standard payment plan is around $2400/month. There's no way you can expect to make headway on your loans at $300/month. swenblack is right. When you get that uptick in income, keep living like residents and don't change your lifestyle. Just dump that extra money into your student loans if you want to pay them off quickly.
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May 13, 2013 19:19
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Ancillary Character posted:
Yeah, I know why. Its just sad to wave bye bye to 600/700 a month between us just to barely tread water.
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May 13, 2013 22:01
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Dik Hz posted:I think turning this thread into a moral debate about debt and congress is a really bad idea. Why don't you take this poo poo to D&D? There's even a thread for that. (Admittedly it hasn't been touched since January, but it's still open.)
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May 14, 2013 02:19
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Cozmosis posted:Yeah, I know why. Its just sad to wave bye bye to 600/700 a month between us just to barely tread water. Dik Hz fucked around with this message at 03:03 on May 14, 2013 |
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May 14, 2013 03:01
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Dik Hz posted:But it's not going *poof*. It's money that is directly increasing your net worth. Yep. Compounding interest really sucks when it's working on your debt.
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May 14, 2013 03:26
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Cozmosis posted:Not exactly sure if you're implying something based on your question, but both of us have been paying off loans with IBR for years - 2 for her, 3 for me. About 300$ a month or so.
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May 15, 2013 01:31
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I'm currently on the Income Based Repayment and Public Services Forgiveness programs through fedloan.gov. At $188 per month for 120 payments, that totals roughly $10,000 less than what I owe. I have a fair amount of savings at ~$20,000 for being a goon who still lives at home. Is it possible to make those payments every day for the next few months to pay off my entire balance, or am I restricted to making the income based payments once per month?
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May 15, 2013 15:41
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I had this question myself. I checked their website and it seems pretty clear that any payments you make in excess of the monthly will not count towards your 120 payments. I would link the appropriate source but phone.
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May 15, 2013 16:43
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Question about repaying student loans. From what I understand, the loans I took for each semester of school are counted as seperate loans and billed / paid on their own each month. Also, that the unpaid accumulated interest from one loan does not spill over into the others. Since I qualify for IBR, any unpaid interest in excess of my minimum monthly payment is not capitalized and I don't pay interest on that interest. So is it benificial to target one loan for all my extra payments - so I can work down the principal and reduce my overall monthly interest, while allowing the rest of the loans to accumulate interest? From a numbers game, here is my current student loan balance:  $150,000 in loans, and I have a job that pays $50,000 a year. Yeah thanks Obama! I'm currently 2 weeks from graduation and still have a 6 month grace period. During this grace period, I plan to make monthly payments of ~$600-1000 into the last loan on the list "Direct Loan - Unsub 1-08", $28700 principal and $1167 accumulated interest to work off the accumulated interest and decrease the principal. Then, in 6 months, during repayment period, I can pay the miminum IBR ~$430/mo on all of my other loans to keep the interest from capitalizing, and direct all of my extra payments, probably another $400/mo towards that last loan to pay down some of the principal. Is this a solid plan?
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May 15, 2013 23:26
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What are the interest rates? Depending on your lifestyle/spending habits, you're on the cusp of it being worthwhile to pay off the loans vs giving up and just doing IBR for 20/25 years (or can you do PAYE? that's even better), in which case you shouldn't make payments during the grace period or any additional payments whatsoever. If you're at 6.8% average interest on those, a 10 year repayment plan works out to 1665/mo (199,800 total payment). 25 year plan would be 1004/mo (301,200 total payment). PAYE would be like $275/mo (66,000 total payment). edit: ibr calc says 410/mo (123,000 total payment). mastershakeman fucked around with this message at 05:33 on May 16, 2013 |
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May 16, 2013 05:17
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6.8% fixed on all. I don't qualify for PAYE, IBR is estimated at around $450/mo. The last thing I want is this huge non-tax deductable, non-dischargable debt hanging over me for the next two decades.
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May 16, 2013 05:29
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In that case, your plan makes sense to me, as there's no higher interest rate loan to focus on. Mentally it might be easier to do what I do, even if it's less efficient - save up your extra payments, then wipe out your entire smallest loan in a single payment, and repeat. It's less grueling (I think).
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May 16, 2013 05:34
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I just got accepted to an online master's program in CS, which is fairly affordable - 16K in total over years. I don't want to take out any loans, but I am not sure where I should start looking for grants or scholarships, besides doing the whole fafsa thing. Can someone give me a push in the right direction or give me some basic overview of what kinds of things I can try to finance some of my way through school?
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May 17, 2013 21:30
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Effexxor, thanks for taking over for me! I'll still try to pop in when I can. Doghouse, you'll want to file the FAFSA to check on things like Pell grant and other grant eligibility. Also, schools use the FAFSA to determine eligibility for their own programs, so it's a step down. You can always decline any loans. The best scholarship search I know of is fastweb.com. It's free and it's personalized, you'll just have to click through ads. Also, check the school's website to make sure there's not also a separate scholarship application. If so, fill it out!
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May 19, 2013 16:03
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Welp, I just did some depressing math. Graduated with $72k in private loans. (both around $35k each, one at 3%, one at 4.75%) Since graduating, I've paid $17,392. About $450/month to start, then interest-only $250. I currently owe $78k. $6,000 more than when I started. Last year I made $32k before taxes. gently caress private loans. gently caress them.
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May 21, 2013 22:59
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Argyle posted:Welp, I just did some depressing math. This is why we will beg and plead with students to avoid them as much as possible, even if it means going to a different school. I'm sorry  Have you looked into consolidating them?
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May 22, 2013 01:59
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Wiggy Marie posted:This is why we will beg and plead with students to avoid them as much as possible, even if it means going to a different school. I'm sorry The funny thing is, I didn't want to take out that much. I didn't want to take more than $50,000 total, but my parents assured me it would be fine, I'll get a good job and pay them off in no time. Heh. I haven't looked into consolidation but I may have to. My monthly payments will go back up to $455/month next year, and that will wreck me.
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May 22, 2013 04:06
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Those..those aren't really that high and the interest rates are much lower than the lowest federal loans available for graduate/business/law/med school. Granted, IBR payments would be like $180/mo for 20 years instead.
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May 22, 2013 05:25
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I'm starting a Master's program in the fall and am not terribly interested in adding to my student debt, so I am going to suck it up and pay out of pocket. Is there a different thread about looking for non-loan funding ? Or am I out of luck as far as goon advice is concerned?
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May 30, 2013 23:36
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What kind of other funding were you thinking? Scholarships/grants? http://www.fastweb.com is a good search for those sorts of things.
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May 30, 2013 23:42
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You might also check the society for your major (IE, American Microbiology society or whatever it may be) or the university's pages itself. I saw quite a few department specific and non-specific scholarships at mine.
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May 31, 2013 02:46
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Hey, I'm in kind of a bind. I recently transferred from one university to another, and I was told that If I drop below full-time (12 credit hours), I will need to start paying student loans. This includes summer. Currently, I'm having medical issues that will make taking 12 hours over 7 weeks impossible. What's my freedom here? Will I be able to drop below full-time without having to pay back my loans? I want to take classes, but I'm not sure.
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May 31, 2013 21:37
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Smoking Crow posted:Hey, I'm in kind of a bind. I recently transferred from one university to another, and I was told that If I drop below full-time (12 credit hours), I will need to start paying student loans. This includes summer. Currently, I'm having medical issues that will make taking 12 hours over 7 weeks impossible. What's my freedom here? Will I be able to drop below full-time without having to pay back my loans? I want to take classes, but I'm not sure. You should have a grace period for about 6 months or so once you graduate or drop from full time student status. This grace period will be reset once you start school again. I'd call your loan people to be sure though.
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May 31, 2013 21:49
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What about the financial aid I'm currently receiving? Like the stuff I'm currently using to pay for classes and housing? I was told that if I dropped below full-time I would lose it all, and have to pay the university up front. If I do that would I be able to get it again? I need to know because right now I'm struggling to pay for food.
Smoking Crow fucked around with this message at 22:05 on May 31, 2013 |
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May 31, 2013 21:57
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For student loans, as long as you are at least half-time (6 hours at most schools) you still qualify for the loans and keep them on the in-school deferment. Quick question: have you just transferred to the new school? Or was it a few weeks ago and your summer aid is already paying out?
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May 31, 2013 23:52
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I transferred last year. I'm worried because I got an email saying that my payment for it is deferred because of my full-time enrollment. I inferred that if I drop below full-time, I'd have to pay then.
Smoking Crow fucked around with this message at 00:49 on Jun 1, 2013 |
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Jun 1, 2013 00:47
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Nah, it's if you drop less than half-time. That's the federal regs. The only difference could be with private loans, and you'd need to contact them to check on the policies with their company.
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Jun 1, 2013 01:16
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Well, then that means both my advisor and a financial aid person lied to me, I guess to get me to pay more tuition. gently caress everything.
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Jun 1, 2013 08:36
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Wiggy Marie posted:Nah, it's if you drop less than half-time. That's the federal regs. The only difference could be with private loans, and you'd need to contact them to check on the policies with their company. From my own experience (YMMV), private loan notes are not worth the paper they are written on. The only thing binding in the end is you paying them money.
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Jun 1, 2013 16:21
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Smoking Crow posted:Well, then that means both my advisor and a financial aid person lied to me, I guess to get me to pay more tuition. gently caress everything. Do you have grants or scholarships? They could certainly mandate full-time.
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Jun 1, 2013 16:27
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My wife has about $29,000 in loans from grad school and we've just started paying them. We opted for the graduated plan since we both don't have jobs at the moment (we live with my parents). We are moving to a new city in a few weeks and I'm about to start grad school. Hopefully my wife finds a job fairly quickly. Once she does we plan to switch back to the normal repayment plan. Anyways, I've come across about $3k recently and I was wondering if it would be wise to just dump it all into her loans right now? Additionally, would this allow us to miss a payment or two down the line if money was tight?
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Jun 1, 2013 17:12
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If you are unemployed, you can apply for an unemployment deferment on federal loans. This means payments will be suspended.
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Jun 1, 2013 17:35
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I'm between years 2 and 3 of my graduate program and basically without funding for this summer. I haven't been able to line up a summer job, mostly because I'm going out of town for 2 weeks in July and no one wants to train someone for 3 months of work with a two week gap in the middle. I feel I'm mostly unemployable but still gotta eat this summer. Is there a loan opportunity for a student to pay for life between terms?
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Jun 2, 2013 22:51
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Not unless the school is willing to certify a private loan for you, but even private loans normally require enrollment in order to disburse. The federal loans require enrollment and attendance.
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Jun 2, 2013 23:06
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Look into temp work, it won't be consistent and certainly not glamorous but you can work short 1-2 week stints at least
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Jun 2, 2013 23:22
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In December, I graduated from college. This left me with 5 subsidized loans totaling $21k, and 4 unsubsidized loans totaling $8250. All but 2 are through the DOE/Nelnet, and two are through M&T Bank (which I guess bought out Suntrust because that's who the loan was originally with). My grace period ends on June 12th, but Nelnet's website is telling me that my next due date is 8/2/2013. (Yes I should have been dealing with this sooner but I recently moved out of state). I am really interested in consolidating my loans, but should I consolidate all of them, or only the subsidized/unsubsidized? Right now my monthly payment is expected to be in the $300+ range, and at the moment I am working in food service which is barely paying above minimum wage. Would doing something like IBR for a year or two be a good idea while I look for better work, or are there better options out there? Thanks.
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Jun 3, 2013 21:55
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