I am having to do my loan repayment and I'm feeling lost, but also incredibly frustrated.
Originally was doing PSLF as a teacher but was never going to make over 45k because of the way its set up in indiana. I had a masters for teaching and the year I was to start teaching, indiana did away with pay schedule, and got rid of masters pay. I had an offer that was 43k to start, and then because of that ruling, they withdrew it and only offered 39k. It was the only place I had interviewed because I was originally happy and liked the area. This was like a month before we reported for teaching. the 2 years I taught, I was rated highly effective both years and what did I get for it? A 1200 dollar 1 time stipend. not even a raise. a stipend.
Long Story Short, I did not stick with teaching because that's horseshit pay for no incentive to be able to grow. I left after 2 years, but was still on IDR because I could get loans forgiven after 20 years.
89k in student loans
I was paying 92 dollars a month for idr. I filed Taxes Jointly this year with my wife, and because of this, on the new PAYE plan, i'll be paying 820 dollars a month. I make 90k a year before taxes, wife makes 62k a year before taxes.
We have not been able to have kids due to her infertility issues and have been paying for IVF, and we're JUST about to start another cycle. If this doesn't work out, it's 40k to potentially still be able to have a child.
Frustrations:
– I understand the arguments of people don't want to pay other student loans. Not why i'm mad. I'm mad because I was promised forgiveness at those terms, and planned my life accordingly, and then these loan terms are getting screwed. I could have been paying these differently for the last 10 years if this was the case. Like, this wouldn't happen with car loans or any other loan unless you signed up for adjustable rates, which I might add, was a huge contributor to the housing bubble.
– we've got people in government complaining there aren't enough babies to replace workers, but then making it impossible for people to have babies and be able to live. I can either pay my loans, or have a baby. We will not be doing ivf at 46 years old.
Questions:
– should I be filing taxes separately from my wife?
– should I be looking at different repayment plans? the lowest plan is 820 a month.
– I started to recertify because of the email that save was being cancelled. should I revoke consent of use and disclosure of federal tax information, which allows the U.S. Department of Education's office of Federal Student Aid to request your federal tax information from the IRS?
Student loan frustration and what to do
byu/Alb1n0_z3bra inStudentLoans
Posted by Alb1n0_z3bra
4 Comments
[removed]
Revoking your irs permission doesn’t change your income. And because you filed jointly you absolutely must include your spouse income. In the future if you file separately you can use just yours. You could use extended or graduated repayment for now but it won’t count towards any type of forgiveness.
PAYE is not a new plan, it’s an existing plan that’s being phased out and it’s only available until July 2028. Are you referring to RAP? RAP is the new plan that will be available this July.
You might want to consider filing taxes separately, but you’d have to run the numbers. Filing jointly is almost always more beneficial from a tax perspective, so the question becomes whether the amount you’d save on student loan payments is more or less than the difference in taxes when filing jointly vs. separately.
Whether you should look at different plans depends on your goals. Are you aiming for the lowest monthly payment? Lowest paid in total over time? Trying to aim for forgiveness?
There’s not really any reason to revoke consent unless you’re planning on using alternative documentation like paystubs for recertification. This wouldn’t be beneficial in your situation because your payments would be calculated based on gross income, not your adjusted gross income from your tax return. You don’t need to recertify right now if you’re on SAVE forbearance. If you’re on SAVE now, you’ll have to provide current income information (most recently filed tax return) when you switch to a new plan if you’re choosing a different income driven repayment plan.
As many say often you have to run the numbers on filing jointly vs separately as yes it may lower your income for student loan repayment but you also may pay more taxes and lose credits only available to MFJ.
I think many institutions that qualify for PSLF use low pay to offset the payment for those with lots of loans and lock them into a job/career due to forgiveness possibility.