Hiiii! I currently have $175k in loans that are entering repayment next month. My current plan is the standard 10 year with a monthly payment of $2111 (paid off Feb 2036). I can afford the payment but money will be tight with little leftover to put into savings. My job does not qualify for PSLF.
I was looking at the graduated repayment plan where I'll start paying $1238 per month and increase to $2600 by the end of ten years, paid off in Jan 2036. With this plan I'll be able to save a lot more. I couldn't work during my grad program so I'm starting off with a savings account full of cobwebs and tumbleweeds.
I know that the general advice is to pay loans aggressively but with my amount of debt I don't see a future where it takes much less than ten years to knock it out. I like the idea of starting with a lower payment so I can build savings and an emergency fund but my brain can't wrap around the fact that my starting payment is almost $1000 lower than the ten year plan plus I'll technically finish paying off my loans a month faster.
Has anyone who has done the graduated repayment plan have any advice or experiences they can share? I'd like to stick to a ten year plan (the ones that are longer stress me out, I can't carry this with me forever) and this graduated feels like the best option for me right now but it feels like there's a catch. Debt sucks and I'm scared!!!!
Standard vs. graduated repayment plan?
byu/pepperedsydney inStudentLoans
Posted by pepperedsydney
1 Comment
My husband switched to that plan after being on the standard for years. Our reasoning is that while the payments are lower, that doesn’t mean to pay less. He’s using the difference he would have paid on standard to now tackle the highest interest loans first (waterfall method). This way he can actually get some of them paid off sooner then the 10 years and keep working through them