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That's a good rate! Who did you refinance with?
How much student loan you got? how much is too much??
- Thread starter pencilandpen
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That's a good rate! Who did you refinance with?
I refinanced with LendKey They offered me the lowest rate after applying to 3 different lenders. Their rate estimator was pretty accurate as well. My final rate was the same I was quoted. Don't forget to use a referral code! I got an extra $300 using one. PM me if you need one or have further questions.
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This is like the ultimate unicorn.
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Dave Ramsey would be proud.
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I read this today and thought of this thread/reply:
Bay Area's eye-popping definition of low-income rises again
"the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s latest definition of the “low” income level to qualify for certain affordable housing programs stands at $117,400 per year for a household of four people in San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo counties."
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I borrowed $163k (not counting interest that accumulated during school) to pay for pharmacy school. I graduated in 2013. I intended on either getting a residency and then hospital job that qualifies for 10 year forgiveness or landing in retail and being super aggressive and paying them off ASAP. It took a long while to finally find employment and interest accrued and capitalized and my principal ballooned. All of my loans are federal loans, no private. I am at $227k now, in my mid 30s and have 2 kids and a wife that is staying home for another year (already has for 2 years) to take care of them but will make $60-70k/year when she goes back to work. I think I was at $205k when I started working. I did income-based repayment when I was unemployed and until now. I did the standard income-based repayment plan for the first 4 years and then I got on the REPAYE plan last year (I did not qualify for the PAYE plan because of a $6000 loan I took out in undergrad 😡 ). So I have 20 years of income-based repayments left, unless I get lucky enough to find a job that grants me 10 year forgiveness soon. I max out my 401k. My rate is 7% right now (not counting the REPAYE interest subsidy, which probably brings it down to ~4% to 4.5%. I thought about refinancing and attacking them when I started working, but I did not want to lose the protection that comes with the federal loans in this saturated market.
After having a couple kids and factoring in their expenses with other bills, it just seems unrealistic to pay these off aggressively. The tax bomb will suck in 20 years and will end up costing me roughly what I owe now, if not more, but I just don't see any other way right now. We have 1 vehicle for now, $290/month payment. Mortgage/property taxes are $650/month.
After having a couple kids and factoring in their expenses with other bills, it just seems unrealistic to pay these off aggressively. The tax bomb will suck in 20 years and will end up costing me roughly what I owe now, if not more, but I just don't see any other way right now. We have 1 vehicle for now, $290/month payment. Mortgage/property taxes are $650/month.
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look, my thing with the 401k is that investing 18.5k a year to max it out can be costly. and these benefits will be seen decades from now. i would rather match the 401k and decide to max later when i make more than enough money to feel that dropping a few thousand dollars a month into a retirement account is not a big deal. that's quite a bit of money. 18.5k a year? this isn't play money. that's about $1500 a year pre tax, so i guess with the post tax it will be less than that but honestly, i was browsing through some other internet boards today and i read that the best way to handle this is to pay off your loans first then max a 401k. this is because your loans have a 5%+ interest rate which will continue to cripple you if you delay them due to maxing a 401k
i think this situation is quite common. new grads that take out tons of debt get a job and then plan with their SO to buy a house right away. so on top of the student loan debt to go into more debt with the house. see it all the time. mostly with the idealistic new grad females that have boyfriends of 5+ years, etc that want to jump into a house, family, etc right away. it's sort of like "acheiving" that idealistic family of 4, nice house, back yard with the dog, as soon as possible. so in order to do that they jump into more debt instead of controlling the current student loan debt. probably not the best decision but this is what people do to fuel the idealistic desires with the nice house, young 20s, devoted SO, type lifestyle. it's very interesting to be honest
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One of the best pieces of advice I ever received on paying back loans was from a pharmacist I used to work with mixed with my father-in-law, the retired accountant.
When you get your Pharmacist job (finally! 🙂 ), don't make sudden major changes to the life style you were accustomed to before and during pharmacy school. As @Amphetamine Salts was just saying, many people embrace the extra money that they are making and immediately look for ways to spend it (the car, the house, etc). Instead, try to keep your costs as low as possible, and put as much of the extra money you now have towards paying down the loans as you feel comfortable doing. The more the better.
At the same time, don't ignore the 401K. I've read through the arguments here for and against focusing on it, but as 40+ yr old going back to school, and watching people half my age in the same boat or that have just got off the boat 😉, I can't begin to tell you the amount of 20 somethings I have seen that put off paying into their 401K and then either forget to start it, or don't think it is important until they've missed paying in for several years. My father-in-law reminds us of this all the time. As the costs of living go up, you have to anticipate how much money you're going to need to live on later in life based on any inflation that will occur over time. The amount of money my in-laws has for their retirement right now is no where near what I will need when I finally retire, and it's no where even close to what you young 20 somethings will need 😉 .
You have to plan for now and plan for your future, or your retirement is going to be rougher than you'll want it to be.
When you get your Pharmacist job (finally! 🙂 ), don't make sudden major changes to the life style you were accustomed to before and during pharmacy school. As @Amphetamine Salts was just saying, many people embrace the extra money that they are making and immediately look for ways to spend it (the car, the house, etc). Instead, try to keep your costs as low as possible, and put as much of the extra money you now have towards paying down the loans as you feel comfortable doing. The more the better.
At the same time, don't ignore the 401K. I've read through the arguments here for and against focusing on it, but as 40+ yr old going back to school, and watching people half my age in the same boat or that have just got off the boat 😉, I can't begin to tell you the amount of 20 somethings I have seen that put off paying into their 401K and then either forget to start it, or don't think it is important until they've missed paying in for several years. My father-in-law reminds us of this all the time. As the costs of living go up, you have to anticipate how much money you're going to need to live on later in life based on any inflation that will occur over time. The amount of money my in-laws has for their retirement right now is no where near what I will need when I finally retire, and it's no where even close to what you young 20 somethings will need 😉 .
You have to plan for now and plan for your future, or your retirement is going to be rougher than you'll want it to be.
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Not my case at all. Not sure if you even read my post. I am in my mid 30s, as is my wife. I just got unlucky with finding employment after grad school (December 2008 - start of the Great Recession) and then after Pharmacy school. We had our first kid at 32. We got a steal on our house and have a decent amount of equity in it. Not to mention, we bought it well before I graduated. It’s not a huge house. It is much cheaper than renting too and we are building equity. I planned to pay them off aggressively, but the saturated market got in my way. Now that interest has ballooned my loan balance, I just feel it is best to go the income-based route.
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This is how I graduated. Congratulations.
