Alright, so to get started I'm 20 years old and I'm currently a junior in an in-state college pursuing a bachelors degree in Computer Science. In the past 2-3 years when it came to student loans I worked with my father to kind of learn and get everything figured out with it. And for the past 3 years I've been taking out private student loans. Although, about 6 months ago my father passed away. Because of this, I had to start getting a better understanding of my student loans, the current interest rates, etc. And I'm at that point now where I kind of reached an understanding of how big of a mistake was made. My father was pretty good at handling finances and budgeting so I'm pretty surprised that he made this kind of mistake. But to be honest regardless of that it was still my responsibility and my fault for overlooking it and I now recognize that. As it stands I currently have around 50,000 dollars total in student loan debt. And most of the student loans that I've taken out have interest rates around 14%-16.5%. Because of this, for the remaining semesters of college I will likely do my absolute best to secure more stable loans with either a better loan provider, or start looking into other options with federal loans and such. My current plan is to start working my head off to start trying to knock down some of these costs. I also intend to refinance these loans once I get a well providing and stable job and have a developed credit history. Any advice regarding this and regarding my plan would be greatly appreciated.
I made a pretty big mistake with handling my student loans.
byu/Spirited_Stay_6211 inStudentLoans
Posted by Spirited_Stay_6211
2 Comments
I stopped reading after “big mistake” and “20 years old” the only big mistake you’re making at that age is committing a crime and getting pregnant without financial independence. You have your entire life ahead of you!!!!
Stop taking private loans. If you’re going to take out student loans, max out your federal loans before going private. Federal loans typically have wayyy better interest rates (half, if not even less, than your current rates) and many other protections that private loans lack. Bluntly, you should have been on federal loans since the start with only minimal private loans to make up the difference.
The past is the past, you’re not going to be able to change the loans you already took – only the last year. Start looking for internships, they are lifeblood in tech as a new grad. It’ll be rough, but if you land a role with your degree then $50k isn’t a death sentence – will just take time