I have about $320,000 in student loan debt from law school; I consolidated my loans (all which are federal Dept. of Ed. loans) with Navient at a 7.25%interest rate. I was paying $688/ month on the income-based repayment plan; my application for renewal was just approved again for 2018 and I am waiting from Navient to re-calculate my monthly payment (I'm not delinquent). As of now, my monthly payments are not even close to covering interest. I graduated in 2013 with less than 200k in student loan debt and it has ballooned since then.
I take home about 6k/ month after taxes. My apartment is 1500/ month (cheap for Orange County), and my car payment is 388/ month. My other fixed monthly expenses include cable ($150), utilities ($80), car insurance ($70), and my current loan payment of 688. After a few other miscellaneous expenses (granted, probably spending more than I should be--for example travelling to visiting my family across the country about twice a year), I'm saving about $1500/ month.
Here's my question: Does it make more sense to stay on the Income-Based Repayment plan to qualify for loan forgiveness after 25 years, or should I buckle down and dump $3k/ month into paying off my loan for the next ten years? Any advice concerning how to tackle this gigantic debt is welcome :)
Submitted April 01, 2018 at 12:48PM by earthparty https://ift.tt/2EbSryf
