Sorry but I just needed to get this out.... Next month I am about to embark on tackling the largest debt outside of my mortgage....my student loan. For some reason it has started to give me complete anxiety. This whole journey of debt payoff has been great up until this point. I don't know if the anxiety comes because I know this is a long haul debt and there will be no immediate joy from paying it off. I don't know if it is because of the pandemic and I am worried about using my snowball of funds instead of banking it. I have no idea. All I am sure of is that it is time to get this monster out of my life for good. I'm committed but there is so much dread that comes along with it.
My current balance sits at 71.9k
I have planned and budgeted. My current budget has me paying the loan off in about 2.5-3 years. That just seems like forever in this moment. Maybe I am just afraid of failing, who knows. I know it is my responsibility to get this done and over with . I don't regret the loans because they did help me. Well maybe I regret not trying some come up with additional funding out of pocket. But man, when it's time to pay the piper
I have already paid 40k with little progress due to interest and paying the minimum standard payment.
I guess I am posting to see if anyone else up here has tackled this before and if they too felt anxiety or dread in the beginning. How did you keep your focus? When did you hit your stride of getting that satisfaction back? Was the relief only at the final payoff? I haven't even started and it feels insurmountable. But I have got to do this.
I'm definitely a bit anxious over mine, but the private portion only. Federal will be forgiven if I keep my current job and that's the plan.
If you have a plan to be rid of them all in 3 years, I definitely think you can manage things but make sure to save a bit in case of an emergency. I won't be done for another 5-8 years (5 private if I stick to my plan, 7.5 federal), but I have a plan in place for making my payments and escalating them over time.
The CARES act provided some much appreciated relief in terms of being able to move what I had budgeted for the federal loans into actually establishing some savings and I am very happy with it!
Another big piece of relief is checking how much you save by paying down the balance sooner. For me, I'm estimating total savings of nearly $8k over my initial plan when I started the refinance (total balance was just shy of $80k). I wish I kept a better note of what the loan amounts/rates were prior so I could chart that out too.
Biggest relief for me will be when I take everything that currently is going to student loans and turn that into a shiny Corvette though
If you have a plan to be rid of them all in 3 years, I definitely think you can manage things but make sure to save a bit in case of an emergency. I won't be done for another 5-8 years (5 private if I stick to my plan, 7.5 federal), but I have a plan in place for making my payments and escalating them over time.
The CARES act provided some much appreciated relief in terms of being able to move what I had budgeted for the federal loans into actually establishing some savings and I am very happy with it!
Another big piece of relief is checking how much you save by paying down the balance sooner. For me, I'm estimating total savings of nearly $8k over my initial plan when I started the refinance (total balance was just shy of $80k). I wish I kept a better note of what the loan amounts/rates were prior so I could chart that out too.
Biggest relief for me will be when I take everything that currently is going to student loans and turn that into a shiny Corvette though
as of 1/1/23
So good to see folks in the same boat! I am very thankful for the Cares Act relief. It's nice to plant a payment and the entirety go to the balance and not interest! Mine are all federal so it helps tremendously.
I'm just freaked out. I have my emergency fund fully funded. I may take a couple of months and dump a little more in there to be safe. It may give me more peace of mind.
And yes, I will keep an eye on the interest saving. I think that's a key. You have to find some part of it to bring relief and joy. Maybe I will start a spreadsheet to calculate the interest savings. I am with you on how good it will feel when I have all that available money to work with. It will be a complete game changer!!! I can't wait😁
Good luck on your journey! We are in this together!
I definitely thought about that @harleyrider. But, due to the size of my loan, it was better to attack harder while there is no interest. I can actually get the balance down some. After that I will revaluate if additional relief comes. No matter how elections go, the chances of them relieving the full balance of my loan (either side) is slim to none. We will have to see what happens! I am hopeful that at the least the extension of the 0% goes through 2021 or a part of it. I will settle for that.
Good luck to you too!
Technically you could hold the money for yourself until the deadline and make a lump sum payment (since no interest is accruing right now, either way it would be applied the same but you could be getting interest on it yourself) depending on if things are extended or not. If you're more likely to spend the money instead of continuing to hold, just keep doing what you're doing.
That is kind of what my plan is. Right now I know for sure that the 9/30 0% is in place. So I was making a lump sum payment next month and using my debt snowball moving forward. Once my account updates to the new end date of 12/31 (hopefully before I make that lump sum payment), I could hold the lump sum until Dec. I would have that for extra cushion in my emergency fund just in case. I just want everything to be official so I don't miss a chance for the interest free payment if that makes sense.
@Tonya-E wrote:Sorry but I just needed to get this out.... Next month I am about to embark on tackling the largest debt outside of my mortgage....my student loan. For some reason it has started to give me complete anxiety. This whole journey of debt payoff has been great up until this point. I don't know if the anxiety comes because I know this is a long haul debt and there will be no immediate joy from paying it off. I don't know if it is because of the pandemic and I am worried about using my snowball of funds instead of banking it. I have no idea. All I am sure of is that it is time to get this monster out of my life for good. I'm committed but there is so much dread that comes along with it.
My current balance sits at 71.9k
I guess I am posting to see if anyone else up here has tackled this before and if they too felt anxiety or dread in the beginning. How did you keep your focus? When did you hit your stride of getting that satisfaction back? Was the relief only at the final payoff? I haven't even started and it feels insurmountable. But I have got to do this.
I understand the fear of paying SLs. Me and my SO have basically put our heads in the sand about them for 10-20 years! That was a serious mistake as they ballooned. I had 75k that is now 135k and my SO had 35k that is now 75k. It makes my stomach knot up, certainly.
While we can pay it back, and we are in 5 rehabs right now, it is a lot to take in. It is double the cost of a mortgage at standard repayment and no matter how I crunch the numbers, it will be at least 8-9 years before payoff. Not far off from the 10 year standard repayment.
I feel like the dream if homeownership is being pushed further away, as I have unusal income and extremely high DTI with these SLs. I can't even get a secured Disco because I am already "well indebted" according to them lol
I wish I could have utilized the 0% interest to make chunks of payments, but while in rehabs, we cannot do that. So for you to pay off un the next few years, I think you are doing great and it may not feel great, but will at least free up loads of your DTI, which will help you in the long run!
No one really explained SLs when we got into them starting when we were 17, they just kept telling us to oick up checks. It didn't click until 3 degrees later when the first bill became due and then went into default. I tried to float them for a few years, but the income just did not align with repayment and they certainly did not offer up IBR freely at the time.
Good luck!
I completely understand @Anonymous . I can certainly say it doesn't feel great. I should have just started paying what I could as soon as I could. It's just so easy to put them off. My husband has no student loan. I had mine before we met & I finished my second degree shortly after marriage. Because of that, my plan is to tackle them on my own. It's not that he wouldn't help...it's just something I need and want to do for myself.
I wish I had just taken a moment to truly read and understand what I was getting into. I mean you know....but you don't REALLY know. My employer paid a portion or it would have been significantly higher. But I know I could have worked a bit harder to contribute as well. You live and you learn. It's like you said, I just picked up a check.
Why can't you can't take advantage of the 0% in rehab? Would it go against the terms of the agreement or something? Don't give up on home ownership. You can still do it. It just may take a bit of time and maneuvering that's all.
I really think there should be some sort of scale or cap on student loans, preferably a complete restructuring. A teenager doesn't know what they are signing up for. Heck even adults don't really think it all the way through. And it really is a commitment- a long term commitment.
Good luck to you as well!