This is what I have decided to do as a new grad from this summer who started working in September after reading different financial websites and books. Not saying my decision is 100% correct and I get that many people are at different points in their lives when they graduate. I am thankful I am only 24 and not planning a wedding or kids for at least a few years. I also have no other debts (car, credit cards, etc) and have all federal loans.
#1 I put 10-15% of my paycheck into my savings account as soon as I get paid
#2 Sign up for direct debit. You cut your interest by 0.25%. May not seem like a lot but it is better than nothing and adds up over the years. Other benefit is you will never miss a payment. Just make sure you have enough money in your account.
#3 Start making payments as soon as you reasonably can and don't wait for the grace period to end.
When those 6 months are up all unpaid interest will be capitalized to your balance and will begin collecting its own interest. I would be best to cut down as much of that unpaid interest as you can. Many people don't seem to know this **
#4 I selected the 25 yr payment plan; however, I have NO intention on taking 25 yrs. I got this advice from a financial book. With federal student loans you have no penalty making early/extra payments. So basically if you are someone who will be able to make extra payments each month this works to your advantage. The reason being if something happens down the road (you lose your job, get in a car accident, can't work, house caught on fire, etc etc , life happens) you will only owe the smallest amount on your loans for the time being while you have to figure out your unfortunate circumstance. But when all goes well be sure to make extra payments each month. So far for December I paid $950 extra on top of my monthly required payment and I may make another payment this week (I have been working insane amounts of overtime and that time and a half is really adding up
).
#5 All but two of my loans are the same interest since my last year in school the law changed and lowered interest rates (yay). So I will make all my extra payments to the loans with the higher interest and not spread the payments out equally over the loans.
I also plan on starting a 403b in the coming months. I work for a not for profit hospital and I may end up changing my whole plan and do the public service loan forgiveness. Just not sure how much I trust this deal to still exist in 10 years. I'm still debating.