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I posted a thread asking who has the most in loans in the general law bowl a year or two… let me see if I can find it. Made me feel better about my 160k in loans.
*Cue HighSchool Musical’s “We’re All In This Together”*
PAYE is the way to go. Capped at 10% of your income and you’re only taxed on the forgiveness at the end if your net worth excluding the student loans is positive at the time of forgiveness.
Is REPAYE ever better than PAYE? I thought you only do REPAYE if you can’t get PAYE.9
I have 300k in student loans and I'm not losing sleep over it 💅🏾
AA2, PAYE FTW!
Unless you have good credentials (e.g. law school rank and GPA) it’s going to be tough to transition to BigLaw when you’re this junior. Maybe aim to a mid tier firm?
Networking for a job is highly overrated when you’re a junior. Yes, it happens, but you’re in need of a job ASAP. Can’t wait for lightning to strike.
I probably should be more worried than I am. But I already forgave myself. So at this point, it's between Sallie and the government🤷🏻♂️
You will be fine. No rich person made it there without having debt. If you make payments on time, your credit score will increase. If your payments are too high, you can request a lower payment. This country is run and built on debt. You will be fine .
I have my own firm so it’s even worse but I just put it on a payment plan even now I pay $50/month. I have other stresses (running a law firm, kids, etc) to deal with so I try not to think about it and just hope I win the lotto one day 🤣🤷🏽♀️
They’re gonna pause again until litigation over the forgiveness runs it’s course
Fair enough.
It’s gonna be ok. You can go on a income-based repayment plan for your public loans. You can also ask any of your loan servicers about reducing your monthly payments. I know it seems like, “I can just ask for that?” But yes, you can, and other people do all the time. It’s usually easiest to get on the phone with a representative and talk to them. If you get someone who sounds like they don’t know anything (what they can do, what they can’t do), just politely say goodbye, hang up, and call back until you get a rep who sounds like they know what you’re asking about.
Also, if you went straight from college to law school, you are entitled to your 9-month grace period, which would have been paused during the COVID loan freeze. If you see otherwise, on any of your paperwork, your servicer is mistaken and you’ll need to call them and insist. You may get some people who say that’s not true, it ran out. They are wrong. Keep going until someone listens to you.
& I thought it was 6 months
In my early 30s 300k in student debt on REPAYE. Just bought a 1.3m house with my partner and drive a higher end car. Has not affected me life in anyway really and will likely continue paying on REPAYE until they fall off in 20 years. If you have government loans stop worrying. If you have private loans or have refinanced through a private company we’ll that’s a different story. There is no rush to pay off government student loans. It’s income based and they only take a max % each month. Debt is an asset in this country unfortunately.
Haven’t had a monthly payment since early 2020 and my salary has changed dramatically since then. With REPAYE I believe it’s capped at 10%
In the same boat, $270k in fed loans and just found out I’m going to be laid off at my in-house real estate company 1/1. Trying to break through into the public sector for PSLF. Thankfully have a tentative offer pending a background check 🤞🤞🤞
Honestly, I’m putting everything into getting a government job and public student loan forgiveness. Paying this money back myself doesn’t seem worth it.
Hey, we all go in with that plan lol. Worth it to try
You will get through, it may be tough, and might not be outta debt till you're in your 30s but you can do it. It's just a lot of planning and cutting costs but its doable.
Read “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” by Ramit Sethi. And take a deep breath, it will all be fine.
Sign up for an income driven repayment plan. Google search nonprofits that can help guide you. Or ask your law school for a contact to a nonprofit that can guide you. Best of luck.
I stress out about student loans ALLLLL the time. I have almost 200k in student loans and the interest rate is horrible. At this rate I will die with student loans still in my name.
Just make your payments for 20 years and they go away
Pslf
I'd say...maybe be more flexible about what you find next. I went from family law to probate litigation then estate planning. I worked at a smaller firm and managed to jump into big law because I have such a niche skillset by accident because I decided to just try stuff.
Have people with federal loans been saving money during this multi-year pause? I was fortunate to refinance my debt in 2016 to a 10 year, 2.95% fixed loan with a bank. Best decision of my life. My payments are high but it’s almost all principal and it’s 10 years. Started with ~$175k in debt and I’m at ~$71k today. I’ve never made an extra payment or paid more than my monthly minimum.
No. But I wouldn’t qualify either way because as I understand it there is an income cap. $125k single / $250k married. My wife and I exceed the married cap. I would never trade what I did. If I didn’t refinance I wouldn’t have paid off anywhere near $100k of my debt in 6 years.
For a bit more context, before I consolidated and was on the 20 year (or maybe 30 year, I don’t remember) high interest government plan, my loan payments were in the $1400s. With my refinance I’m at $1675. The extra ~$250/month took me from the government loan to a 10 year loan. I’ll admit when I first did it, I was concerned with the higher payment because I’m not a BigLaw attorney and things were already a bit tight. But I knew I’d get there and that increase in monthly payment was nothing compared to what I was getting. 2.95% interest on any loan is free money.