Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the first few years, I paid on a 20 yr plan. Then I got married and we used all of my income to pay down the debt -- which was gone in 2 yrs. When the debt was gone, THEN we started a family. Not having that debt is CRUCIAL to having freedom in your life.

I highly recommend paying it all down and living without the next purchases for a few years. You will NOT regret getting that monkey off your back.

I highly recommend the exact opposite. I definitely would have regretted it.

Why would you regret taking only 2 years to get your debt to zero and then start living a very nice life? Why can't you do 2 years of delayed gratification?

DP: Depends on how much you can grow assets with the money you used to get debt to zero and the difference between that and the total cost of loans. "Gratification" isn't the only use of money. If you were living in an area with high home appreciation or during a stock market boom, I'd much rather devote income to taking advantage of those opportunities. I had student loans with a very low interest rate--I dragged those out as long as I could and am much better financially off for it--invested in a house and stock market in 2009 both of which boomed in that next decade. I would have kicked myself if I threw everything at my loans.

I get that, but the fact is paying off the loans is a guarantee. The stock market and home valuation is not. But if you truly have low interest loans, it does make more sense.

Anonymous wrote:I've heard, for a graduate degree, you should never take on more debt than the salary you would earn during the first, full year after obtaining the degree.

No one would ever go to law school or med school unless on scholarship or in-state if that was the case.

Anonymous wrote:I've heard, for a graduate degree, you should never take on more debt than the salary you would earn during the first, full year after obtaining the degree.

Actually, that's the advice money managers give for bachelor's degrees --- never take out more for college than you expect to make in your first year doing the job you are trying to prepare for.

I've heard, for a graduate degree, you should never take on more debt than the salary you would earn during the first, full year after obtaining the degree.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the first few years, I paid on a 20 yr plan. Then I got married and we used all of my income to pay down the debt -- which was gone in 2 yrs. When the debt was gone, THEN we started a family. Not having that debt is CRUCIAL to having freedom in your life.

I highly recommend paying it all down and living without the next purchases for a few years. You will NOT regret getting that monkey off your back.

I highly recommend the exact opposite. I definitely would have regretted it.

Why would you regret taking only 2 years to get your debt to zero and then start living a very nice life? Why can't you do 2 years of delayed gratification?

DP: Depends on how much you can grow assets with the money you used to get debt to zero and the difference between that and the total cost of loans. "Gratification" isn't the only use of money. If you were living in an area with high home appreciation or during a stock market boom, I'd much rather devote income to taking advantage of those opportunities. I had student loans with a very low interest rate--I dragged those out as long as I could and am much better financially off for it--invested in a house and stock market in 2009 both of which boomed in that next decade. I would have kicked myself if I threw everything at my loans.

PSLF will wind up forgiving about half of original $125K. 2.85% interest x 20 years though.

Anonymous wrote:Lived frugally in a group house until I met my spouse. Made bare minimum payments to my student loans on an income-driven repayment plan, didn’t touch the principal balance in anticipation of PSLF. Stay on the PAYE plan, as it does not factor in spouse’s income for minimum monthly payment. REPAYE forces you to account for spouse’s income, so if you’re dual income and get married very good chance your minimum monthly payment will double. PSLF is basically a game with rules and there’s ways to take advantage of the rules. For example, if you got laid off, you get them to recalculate minimum payment based on little to no income, then that holds for 12 months until you need to recertify income. Meanwhile, you get another PSLF qualifying job at normal salary and get PSLF month credits while paying a super low monthly interest payment. Same thing with ensuring you are in an IDR that doesn’t count spouses income.

Meanwhile Saved for house downpayment and maxed out my Thrift & 401K. Bought house with spouse for $900K in pre-pandemic years, 15% downpayment. Refinanced 4x, keeping our 2.5% 30Y mortgage forever. Paid cash for engagement ring & wedding. Paid cash for a boring dependable new car. All of this was our own money.

Got my slate wiped clean by PSLF recently, six figures forgiven. Took advantage of $0 creditable months during COVID. All in, I paid back around $60K in interest to the Dept of Ed over 7.5 years. COVID payment pause added $30K to my net worth.

If I quit today, my pension would pay out $3500/monthly at age 62. Thrift/401K balances currently around $400K, bank accounts around $160K liquid, backdoor Roth of $60K. This is just my own accounts, spouse has their own money and has always made more than me.

I have a nicer QOL and higher current net worth than my friends who are associates in Big Law who make close to $400K. They pay $3K in student loans every month and it will take them YEARS. They also have a big lifestyle, mostly single so don’t have dual income, nice apartments they rent, etc. If they make partner, they will obviously overtake us.

I’m pretty much at the highest level in govt before I can go private sector.

This is key - signed I work at ED.

I had about 90K in law school loans. Luckily, my DH had no loans so I focused on paying down debt. We lived frugally for the first few years of marriage, as I had kids straight away and left work to care for them. It was a difficult move that hampered finances. Started working as a solo after kid #2 and finally started making money. Paid off loans about 10-15 yrs after law school. It was tough but made a world of difference once the debt was gone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the first few years, I paid on a 20 yr plan. Then I got married and we used all of my income to pay down the debt -- which was gone in 2 yrs. When the debt was gone, THEN we started a family. Not having that debt is CRUCIAL to having freedom in your life.

I highly recommend paying it all down and living without the next purchases for a few years. You will NOT regret getting that monkey off your back.

I highly recommend the exact opposite. I definitely would have regretted it.

Why would you regret taking only 2 years to get your debt to zero and then start living a very nice life? Why can't you do 2 years of delayed gratification?

Anonymous wrote:Similar to PP above - my husband worked while I went to law school and we only took out 2 stafford loans for me, so $40K total. I also got a $10K scholarship. I had our first kid while in law school. My mom & grandmother both had secondary infertility and I didn’t want to wait.

I’m now 12 years out of law school now and I’ve only been making minimum payments and I really hadn’t been thinking much of it but I’m starting to think maybe it would be nice to pay off before my oldest goes to college in 4 years. I may put a chunk of my next bonus to it.

We bought a house while I was in law school too and we have saved for retirement and college while making my minimum payments.

Similar to PP above - my husband worked while I went to law school and we only took out 2 stafford loans for me, so $40K total. I also got a $10K scholarship. I had our first kid while in law school. My mom & grandmother both had secondary infertility and I didn’t want to wait.

I’m now 12 years out of law school now and I’ve only been making minimum payments and I really hadn’t been thinking much of it but I’m starting to think maybe it would be nice to pay off before my oldest goes to college in 4 years. I may put a chunk of my next bonus to it.

Anonymous wrote:For the first few years, I paid on a 20 yr plan. Then I got married and we used all of my income to pay down the debt -- which was gone in 2 yrs. When the debt was gone, THEN we started a family. Not having that debt is CRUCIAL to having freedom in your life.

I highly recommend paying it all down and living without the next purchases for a few years. You will NOT regret getting that monkey off your back.

I highly recommend the exact opposite. I definitely would have regretted it.

No, I did not prioritize paying it. I saved for a house, maxed out 401k contribution, and invested extra money rather than throwing it at the debt. I also didn’t delay my life (got married and had 3 kids).

I have friends who aggressively paid off student loans. When they were “net worth 0” I had a six figure positive net worth despite the debt.

200k debt from law school. Made minimum payments and bought a 1.5m house at 2.8% with 300k down, which has since tripled to 900k in equity.

DH and I both had undergrad and law school debt to the tune of about 450K combined. We both went to law school wanting public interest jobs and we only applied to schools that had generous loan repayment programs that would pay our loans for us. As we were graduating, our law school changed their LRAP programs to rely on PSLF forgiveness, though they still covered the monthly IBR paymentsif your income was under a certain cutoff. We both took government jobs, me for the Feds and him for the state. After my second year working, my income was over the cutoff, but they continued to pay DH's loans until the end.

Because our loan payments were always capped and tied to our actual income, student loan payments have just been a bill we've paid every month, and they have never been a hardship that prevented us from reaching other financial goals.

We bought a house for 380K two years after graduating with a 5% down payment. Similar houses in my neighborhood sell for 600-700K now (seven years later), so we were lucky to buy when we did.

Our law school would give us a lump sum payment annually to cover DH's loans, which we put towards his Roth IRA. We always maxed out while we were eligible for it. I have always contributed to my TSP and have increased the contribution as my income has increased. I finally started maxing out during the pandemic when student loan payments were paused and we weren't paying for daycare or other costs on things like eating out and travel. We are on track for retirement.

We have one kid and did not delay having a kid on account of student loans. Because we live in a legitimately middle class neighborhood, our childcare costs have always been reasonable. We've been able to able to contribute to their 529, typically up to the tax deductible max without it being a stretch. We aren't going to get financial aid and we don't expect to be able to afford the most expensive of private schools, so our kid will have some limitations on where they can go to school if they want to graduate debt free or with minimal debt. But that's just a reality of our incomes and the cost of college and aren't because we've had to pay student loans.

Our loans were forgiven earlier this year and our only outstanding debt is our remaining mortgage.

In general, relying on PSLF has limited my job changes. I may have gone someplace else during periods of time when my job was frustrating, but in staying I've learned that frustrating times at work come and go. DH has always loved his job and never contemplated leaving.

The other thing, is that buying a home early when our salaries were much lower and never trading up is what allowed us to grow our wealth in other areas. Even though the schools aren't as "good" buying an inexpensive home has meant that we've always been able to save for other major expenses along the way like new cars, retirement. However, it wasn't until the student loan payment pause that we've been able to spend more on major home repairs, so that seems to have been where we've been most impacted by having student loans.