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Started paying manually to highest rate loan as of 8/1 since I’m in SAVE forbearance. Put large amount down on 7/31. Fun times are over and time to pay it off.
I’ve been making payments to my highest interest loan since 8/1 too. The key is to check the box for not advancing the due date so it’s applied to principal - the loan at that time. So the balance on that loan is decreasing consistently even though the interest started accruing.
I’m also on SAVE forbearance and don’t have an actual payment due until next year. I started with 180k and have 40k left and intend to pay the remainder in the next few years as I do not qualify for loan forgiveness
I’ve just accepted that I’ll probably be paying off my $200k in loans for the rest of my life 🙃
My loans have been at $0/m since 2019 and I have no personally paid a dime yet.
I know that’s right! More power to you!
Graduated 2019. Didn't touch it 2019-2022. Aggressively paying since 2023. Should be done by EOY thank god
I’m on SAVE and will not pay a dime until they tell me to. Think another commenter mentioned, but I’m not making long term decisions about this stuff until the government actually settles on something.
Paying them
For the record, I do not think student loans will ever be forgiven entirely
I had the good fortune to have gone to school in the 1980's, when higher education was much more affordable. In high school, I was nominated for a 4-year undergrad scholarship, and on the application, I declined it because I was heading to a state school, and wanted the money to go to someone for whom that money would be the difference between going to college or not. My freshman year tuition was about $600, including all the add-on fees except dorm, but I paid for that with summer jobs.
I also went to a state school for law school. I worked from the December when I completed my bachelor's degree through the next August when school started, and had bankrolled enough to pay for what I thought should cover three years of law school. In my second year, the school modified their rate sheet for the coming year, which mutltplied tuition to something like 4x the prior rate. I'm sure it has subsequently increased considerably.
I would have made different educational choices if I had gone to school after it became unaffordable.
Rising Star
Graduated law school in 2004. Paid off all private loans at variable rates but still have about $25k in federal loans bc they are fixed at 1.8% so in no hurry.
In roughly the same boat. Zero incentive to pay off early. If anything, they should be calling me to try to make a deal. 20 years of low rates means they have lost a lot of money on me.
Refinanced when rates were low at 2.5%. Paying minimum necessary, putting extra cash into HYSA (~4%) and investing the rest. Doesn’t make sense to pay more if you can get a low rate and invest instead of spend, I’m not sure what rates are now though.
Plan is to just pay as little as possible on them for the rest of my life and see what happens. There’s zero chance I’ll get a free house in my life, so might as well save cash to buy a house, pay down a mortgage and see what happens with the possibility of student loan forgiveness.
Want to avoid a scenario where I finish paying off all my loans, then everyone that bought a house with that same cash gets their student loans forgiven and I could’ve had a house and instead have nothing.
I will say that I used the COVID freeze to save a $25k down payment on a home while I still had $350k in loans. You’d be surprised how low of a down payment you can get away with for your first home. This was in 2020 when HCOL areas had lower home prices and lower rates, but if you live in a MCOL area you may be surprised at what you could swing with a small down payment even today as a FTHB. You may just have to refinance when rates drop.
Graduated law school 2013, paid low income based payments and saw interest accrue $70k by 2018, switched to private practice and began seriously paying it off in 2019, paid off $250k by 2021.
Don’t put your financial situation in the hands of banks and the government. Pay it all off.
Rising Star
Unless you consolidated at a very low interest rate
F
Graduated ‘22, hopefully paying off completely by January (~200k)
My firm had loan forgiveness
It was an IP boutique. I clerked full time through law school.
If you have fedloan be vigilant and get your payment plans set for the best option and make your payments. It’s a process and a pain but do it. If you can pay more aggressively than that plan then do that too. Thus all depends on them keeping the 20 year ultimate forgiveness in place because of the way the fedloan operates for allocating your payments.
Nonetheless, the initial fixed interest borrow rates should still be better than private market consolidation regardless of when you took them out and fedloan has better security for consistency. Just compare the rates you have to market rate now if you are not sure but I doubt they are better if you go outside fedloan. If the market completely drops out causing interest rates to bottom out (doesn’t feel likely at this exact moment but who knows) AND the government cancels the 20 year forgiveness then we may all want to consider refinancing if you can get a consolidated fixed rate personal loan at a lower rate than you are paying now. Good luck but do be vigilant on staying up to date on payments and the changes on policy.
I’m doing exactly the same as P1. Just made an $80k payment on the remaining $200k of my loans. Started with $350k. I also have MOHELA which has been the most horrific and stressful experience of my adult life – they are absolutely criminal. I want to be rid of MOHELA as soon as humanly possible, but right now they say I owe $60k more than I actually do. Working on legal and political avenues to get that fixed while I pay off balance of what I (actually) owe.
Uhhh I struggled to pay mine back like I agreed to do when I accepted the money for my education. It's called responsibility. The younger generation needs to learn about that.
Anyone who uses terms like "younger generation" and starts to preach about being "responsible" should take a better look at what they inherited, how much they paid for it, what it costs now and, in general, the absolute carcass left behind in contrast to what things were like when they entered the profession. Mr. Judge should also be responsible and research the latest trend of "office housing", the impact of H1-B on Silicon Valley and the end of so many professions, and inevitable mass unemployment, because of AI. "Just pay off your loans durr hurr"
Refinanced for a lower interest rate and paid my loans off over the course of my first 7 years of practice.
This was back when CommonBond was offering student loans for lawyers. I believe it was around 4% with the direct debit discount, but it’s been a few years now.