Hello everyone.
I currently owe a total of $20,542 of student loans. That is including the interest as of today. The interest of these loans ranges between 4.66% and 5.050%. I currently work one full time job that pays $18 per hour and a part-time job in the weekends that pays $15 an hour. For the part-time job, I usually make around $130 after taxes per week ($520 monthly). For the full time job, I make $1,034 after taxes every 2 weeks ($2,068 per month). Side note... I HATE BOTH JOBS. The full time job is a receptionist in a law firm that started last moth. I'm currently in te 3 months probation time and I'm kinda walking in the edge. I haven't perform as well. The second one is a greeter/host for an Italian restaurant. Second side note, I still have 4 more classes to complete my bachelor's degree. Since I no longer qualify for financial aid, I have to pay $850 per class. This is the result of young me being a procrastinator and not putting the effort to pass this classes when I had the opportunity. That's a total cost of $3,400 for the classes. Once I have completed those 4 classes, I will be majoring with a BS in Business Administration and a BA in Spanish. My grace period has ended and my first payment is due Today. (Procrastinating never goes away -.-) My expenses consist of the following:
$400 for rent that is divided between my brother and I.
$40 for the cable. This is half of the bill shared with my brother.
$100 dollars of electricity bill shared between my brother and I as well.
$121 for the NYC metro card to use the subway. This is a monthly unlimited ride card . I tend to use the train between 3 to 4 times a day.
$44 dollars for my phone bill. I'm changing this plan to $30 dollars the following month. I wont have internet with this plan (FUCK YOU At&TT).
$5 dollars for spotify. (Not willing to cancel this. This app keeps me alive during stressed times).
$15 dollars gym membership. Which I haven't used since last month. No time left to use it.
Around $50 is for eating during the week ($50 x 4 = $200 monthly). I can easily eliminate this by making my food. But that expenses will be transferred to my parents since they are the ones who buy groceries. But I usually dont eat anything that goes above $10 a day.
The only entertainment expenses that I have are $30 for movies theaters. I always loved going to the big screen. I tend to go once a month. I also like video games, so I'm planning in buying Doom Eternal, The new COD, Tom Glacys BreakPoint, and the new Gears. Possibly anew xbox as well. Thats around $700 ish. But that wont be until October. Sadly, my mom would like to go out and dinner with my brothers at least once a month. So, that would be around $100. But this is not often. I also tend to buy Bubble tea or buy coffee in Dunking Donuts to keep me awake during the job. That's around $20 per week ($20 x 4=$80 monthly). But I'm trying hard to get enough sleep and avoid buying this drinks. Since they are not "necessary".
Now, adding the necessity expenses, that's a total of $763 per month. After adding the luxury expenses, the total is $1,173. My monthly earnings are $2,688 per month. MIND YOU, doing this and currently taking an online class, I have no life left. I usually play video games 1 or 2 hours every Friday. That is if if I can. I usually tend to fall behind work with the class, so I use Friday to finish hw, readings, or any quizzes that I have left.
My plan was to make payments of $250 towards my loans where $50 will be towards the interest and the rest towards the principal. Navient is my loan provider and after looking up their payment plans, I'm confused as hell and just ended up with a headache and stress. I'm interested in being enrolled in a plan where I set up a fix monthly payments of $250 and pay around $900 or $1,000 additional payments when I can. Assuming I will have these 2 jobs for the entire year. But if I end up getting fired, I can be safe to know that I have enough money to pay the $250 monthly payments and avoid any penalties fees or delay my payments. With this information in mind, I would like to know if I were to lose any benefits if I consolidate my loans. Which are only federal loans. I have no private or Plus loans. If I consolidate, what risk do I run? After doing some research, I can make extra payments on top of the fixed payments, when I consolidate. Correct?
I just dont want to have multiple payments for multiple loans. That gives me headache and I feel is less organized. By consolidating, is easier for me to pay and I rather have a fixed interest rather than have multiple interest increasing every year. Or every month, if I'm correct. Eventually, my goal is to pay back my loans within 2 years. I have other investment projects that I have and having being a slave of debt is something that I hate. I want to be debt free in before I can start working on side projects or start investing. As of now, I have decided to enroll in the
Thank you so much for reading and for sharing your advise. It truly helps.
Submitted June 15, 2019 at 08:47PM by DeadliestTaco http://bit.ly/2IiB5oC
