What if I take out too much?

[NJDIF]

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I will be attending a state school, and since im not sure how much i need, i took out the maximum amount (~50K).

if i do not end up using all of it, lets say i have an extra 10k at the end of the year, can i just pay it back at the end of the year?

is it smarter to just keep the extra, and then just use it for the next year? I worry that if i hold on to money that i am not using, the interest will accumulate and bite me in the ***.

 

[CorpusERdoc]

I will be attending a state school, and since im not sure how much i need, i took out the maximum amount (~50K).

if i do not end up using all of it, lets say i have an extra 10k at the end of the year, can i just pay it back at the end of the year?

is it smarter to just keep the extra, and then just use it for the next year? I worry that if i hold on to money that i am not using, the interest will accumulate and bite me in the ***.

Keep the money in your savings. You never know when you will need the money, and this will prevent you from having to take out a private or higher interest loan in the future for unexpected expenses.

The interest won't bite you, as you have 30 years to pay it off and will be making a good salary.

If the money has not been disbursed yet, however, you can call the loan company and ask them to hold that amount. It can be taken out anytime at a later date when it is needed. This might be the best bet if you know for sure you won't need it.

 

[MeowMix]

There is unlikely to be much extra left over! The COA usually is not very generous.

If you have extra, you can pay back the extra at any time. Since the money is disbursed in payments spread through the year, you can also change your mind and tell them you don't want all of the second payment, for example.

I think it is not a bad idea to have some money set by in case of emergency; more than one person in my class has ended up needing funds for medical expenses, stolen bike, crashed car, travel to sick family member, etc.

I personally would not take extra money if I was sure I would not need it. It has a funny way of disappearing instead of staying safely in your savings account (and good luck finding something that pays more than the interest rate on your loan). You cannot find a CD or other guaranteed investment that pays more. Do not fool yourself into thinking that you are a stock market genius and you will easily make more than 7%/year.