I’m a junior in the US and honestly my student loans were starting to freak me out. I have around $27k total right now between federal loans and a small private one, and I kept putting off making an actual plan because every time I looked at the numbers I got stressed. My minimums weren’t terrible yet, but I knew once grace period ends it was gonna hit harder.
At first I was just googling random stuff, looking at refinancing, and even thought about throwing everything on deferment later if I got stuck. None of that really felt smart. What finally helped was sitting down and making a real save/payoff plan by loan balance, rate, and expected income after graduation. I also started putting aside a small monthly amount now so I’m not blindsided later. It sounds basic lol but having a plan made it feel way less scary. Wish I did this sooner.
Finally made a save plan for my student loans and my monthly stress is way lower
byu/Positive-Tea-2054 inStudentLoans
Posted by Positive-Tea-2054
5 Comments
Making plan earlier definitely helps with the mental part of it all. I remember when I was in similar situation with my loans, the not knowing was almost worse than actual numbers. Once I could see everything written down and had some kind of roadmap, it stopped being this scary unknown thing hanging over my head.
The small monthly amounts you’re putting aside now is really smart move – I wish I had thought about that during school. Even if it’s just like 50-100 per month, it builds up and you get used to having loan payments in your budget before they actually hit. Plus when grace period ends you won’t feel completely shocked by sudden monthly payment appearing.
One thing that helped me was also looking at which loans had highest interest rates first, even if balance was smaller. Sometimes paying off the expensive ones early saves more money in long run than just going for biggest balance first.
How did you split it up? Like are you saving equally for all of them or focusing more on the private loan first?
tbh this is exactly what helped me too. I had about 31k and once I listed balance + interest rate in one sheet it stopped feeling impossible.
Not trying to be negative but a lot can change after graduation. Job market, pay, expenses etc. A plan is good tho, just make sure it stays flexible.
Yeah for sure, that’s basically what I’m doing. Private loan gets extra first and I’m keeping the federal ones on my radar for repayment options.