I’m a pharmacist trying to figure out the best plan for tackling my student loans, and honestly… the more I read, the more confused I get.
There’s SAVE, IBR, PAYE (is that still a thing?), refinancing, PSLF and every time I think I understand it, I read something else that contradicts it.
For those of you already in repayment:
What plan are you on?
Why did you choose that specific plan?
Are you going for PSLF or just aggressively paying it off?
Did you refinance privately?
How do you decide between lower monthly payments vs. paying more to reduce interest?
If anyone can break it down in simple terms or explain how you decided what worked for you, I would really appreciate it. Especially from other pharmacists since our income and loan amounts can be… substantial.
I feel like I should understand this by now, but it still feels overwhelming. Thanks in advance! 🙏
Got the degree. Got the Loans. Now what??
byu/Pharmacutie1999 inStudentLoans
Posted by Pharmacutie1999
1 Comment
How much do you owe? Are your loans federal in your own name, Parent PLUS in a *parent’s* name, and/or private?
Fundamentally with federal loans your options are 1) aggressive repayment, 2) PSLF or similar employer based forgiveness programs, or 3) IDR plan based forgiveness. Thanks to the OBBB Act by 2028 your IDR plan options will be reduced down to IBR and RAP, but in the meantime there is some wiggle room for potentially going on PAYE for a bit (if it makes sense for you to do so) depending on when you borrowed your very first federal student loan
Private student loans? You are stuck aggressively repaying, and refinancing to lower fixed interest rates can help save you a lot of money
While you can refinance federal loans into private loans, the vast majority of borrowers *shouldn’t do that*
Past all that, if you don’t currently have a 3-6 month emergency fund I would try to fix that while you can. I’d also suggest checking out the r/personalfinance money management advice in their [prime directive](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) wiki (which also has a [flow chart version](https://i.imgur.com/lSoUQr2.png)) because it makes middle-class financial management easy and their wiki explains *a lot* in more plain language