bpace8136 Posted November 26, 2014 Share Posted November 26, 2014 I was just accepted to PA schools and have made my decision on the school I will attend. I have two kids and one on the way, so when school starts I will have 3. Any of you who went to school with children and a family with a stay at home wife, do you have any advice? Could you shed some light on the loan process and repayment? After you graduate and start getting a pay check, how much is your loan payment vs income? Would you recommend minimum payments or live poor and pay it off ASAP? Thanks for any advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acebecker Posted November 26, 2014 Share Posted November 26, 2014 Went to school with 2 kids, second was born in the middle of my first quarter. Missed a lot of firsts with her. Totally doable, though, if you and your wife and committed to the goal, if you can set your sights on the 2 year mark and tough it out. My schedule was 0800-1600 in class every day. I was home from 1630 and played with kids, helped my wife (though probably not very much) until 2000 when the kids went to bed. I studied from 2000 to 0100 or 0200 every day, then back up the next morning. On Saturdays I would be in the library from 0800 to 16-1700 and then would take 24 hours off to be with the kids, recuperate, etc. Back at it from about 1700 Sunday until 0000 or so. Others had different schedules and did well with them, but most in my class who had kids did something similar. Loan repayment is interesting. It totally depends on how you and your wife want to live. We spent our first 8 years in a cramped apartment, so by the time I was done with school we needed to move up in size. We did minimum payments initially and after 2 years ended up owing more than when I graduated. Now I'm making headway cause I'm working a part time job just to pay off the loans. When I was working just one job, the minimum payment was something like $400/month. Ridiculously low. The process to take out the loans is surprisingly easy. You just need to learn which office on your campus to go through to help coordinate it. My recommendation would be to live frugally after school and pay off as much as possible (basically, don't do what I did). Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cinntsp Posted November 26, 2014 Share Posted November 26, 2014 The two best options for loans are: 1. Pay it off as fast as you can - live frugally, dump all extra income into the loans each month, and consider an option like NHSC for loan repayment 2. Work for a non-profit or the govt and pay the minimum every month on an income-based plan. 10 years of on-time payments = balance gets discharged and is not subject to taxes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Febrifuge Posted November 26, 2014 Share Posted November 26, 2014 Work for a non-profit or the govt and pay the minimum every month on an income-based plan. 10 years of on-time payments = balance gets discharged and is not subject to taxes. Somebody should have told me this 10 years ago. Or even 5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cinntsp Posted November 26, 2014 Share Posted November 26, 2014 Somebody should have told me this 10 years ago. Or even 5. I believe it started in 2007 but there was very little detail about it initially. The past couple of years have gotten some of the details ironed out. I'm pretty sure it's retroactive if you're still making payments and are interested. Google public service loan forgiveness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator LT_Oneal_PAC Posted November 26, 2014 Moderator Share Posted November 26, 2014 The two best options for loans are: 1. Pay it off as fast as you can - live frugally, dump all extra income into the loans each month, and consider an option like NHSC for loan repayment 2. Work for a non-profit or the govt and pay the minimum every month on an income-based plan. 10 years of on-time payments = balance gets discharged and is not subject to taxes. This is what I plan on doing, but careful of the advice right now because the proposed budget 2015 has this capped at 57k forgiven. Depending on what happens next year, it's possible only loans between 2007 (when it started) and 2014 will be able to achieve full forgiveness. My first 12 payments are zero dollars :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator LT_Oneal_PAC Posted November 26, 2014 Moderator Share Posted November 26, 2014 I believe it started in 2007 but there was very little detail about it initially. The past couple of years have gotten some of the details ironed out. I'm pretty sure it's retroactive if you're still making payments and are interested. Google public service loan forgiveness. yep it's retroactive. No need to have been enrolled. As long as you can prove 120 on time payments of eligible loans (FFEL doesn't count unless it was consolidated with the Feds) and those payments were during federal or 501c tax exempt corporation employment (doesn't have to be consecutive) then they forgive them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator ventana Posted November 26, 2014 Moderator Share Posted November 26, 2014 https://studentaid.ed.gov/sites/default/files/public-service-loan-forgiveness.pdf http://equaljusticeworks.org/ed-debt/students/public-service-loan-forgiveness more info in the two links above Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KMD16 Posted November 26, 2014 Share Posted November 26, 2014 Achieved Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted November 26, 2014 Administrator Share Posted November 26, 2014 Spend as much time with your family as you can. I did late night and early morning studying, just about zero weekday evening studying. Figure out your pace and stick to it. Don't try and serve as a class officer--it's not worth putting on your resume, and certainly not worth the extra time away from family or studying. You'll be better off to minimize loans entirely--investigate penalty-free withdrawals from any IRA you may have, and consider rolling 401K's into an IRA for just that purpose. It's not a good idea to be making interest on some money you've got sitting around, and then paying higher interest rate on loans you could have avoided by sacrificing your principal (but never your principles!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bpace8136 Posted December 19, 2014 Author Share Posted December 19, 2014 These are great pieces of advise. Thank you all so far for what has been said Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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