I finished my Masters program in December of this year, and have regularly certified with PSLF as I am a social worker in nonprofit. Luckily, despite paying $0, a few of my loans have counted 24 months of PSLF during that time.
I pay $200/monthly to a private Sallie Mae loan I took out in undergrad.
I never enrolled in SAVE because…well…I was in deferment since being in school. I applied for an IDR at the end of April, but they’re still processing my application and Nelnet sent me a letter saying that as they process my application my loans will be in forbearance for 60 days. This has me kicking myself, because then I might as well have waited to apply for an IDR towards the end of June when my payments would really start.
Currently, I’m expected to pay $612 in June, $628 in July, and $718 in August – all under the standard repayment plan.
As you might imagine, I don’t have $600+ to spare. I’m barely scraping by. I have a plethora of personal debt ($30k), no family support, and I make $58k at my fulltime job and about $6k at my part-time job. So I gross about $64k.
I’ve been aggressively paying towards my personal debt with little to no wiggle room per month. Even if I went down to only paying the minimums, I still wouldn’t have $600 leftover.
The studentaid calculator estimates me at $348/monthly under both PAYE and IBR. This is still unaffordable for me!
What is this administration and what in the world are we supposed to do? I don’t want to tank my credit score, I don’t want to neglect my personal debts, and I don’t want to be homeless.
I feel crushed under the weight of all of this, and I’m a social worker….not a career path known for wealth. Part of me wonders if I should just go back to school for further deferment (kidding).
Posted by lore_sharing