Student loan payments: get advice and actual numbers here Forum

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Apr 20, 2017 3:08 pm

Looking for refi advice. I am graduating and starting a firm job this fall but want to refi as soon as possible. I have a good credit score but will have very limited cash assets when I start. Specifically, I have the following questions.

1. I have looked at both SOFI and First Republic. FR looks to have lower rates but more stringent requirements for approval. Is this correct? Is it much easier to refi with SOFI quickly after starting employment?

2. Is it possible and/or wise to refi multiple times. Perhaps get an early refi with SOFI and shortly thereafter switch to FR for better rates? Are there any consequences to doing something like this?

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by RaceJudicata » Thu Apr 20, 2017 3:12 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Looking for refi advice. I am graduating and starting a firm job this fall but want to refi as soon as possible. I have a good credit score but will have very limited cash assets when I start. Specifically, I have the following questions.

1. I have looked at both SOFI and First Republic. FR looks to have lower rates but more stringent requirements for approval. Is this correct? Is it much easier to refi with SOFI quickly after starting employment?

2. Is it possible and/or wise to refi multiple times. Perhaps get an early refi with SOFI and shortly thereafter switch to FR for better rates? Are there any consequences to doing something like this?
Seems risky (assuming you get approved). I think there is some value to working for a bit to see how long you can/want to stay at the firm. Over the course of 1-2 years, itll probably be worth it to take the losses on interest while maintaining your gov't protections. Just my $0.02.

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Apr 20, 2017 4:31 pm

RaceJudicata wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Looking for refi advice. I am graduating and starting a firm job this fall but want to refi as soon as possible. I have a good credit score but will have very limited cash assets when I start. Specifically, I have the following questions.

1. I have looked at both SOFI and First Republic. FR looks to have lower rates but more stringent requirements for approval. Is this correct? Is it much easier to refi with SOFI quickly after starting employment?

2. Is it possible and/or wise to refi multiple times. Perhaps get an early refi with SOFI and shortly thereafter switch to FR for better rates? Are there any consequences to doing something like this?
Seems risky (assuming you get approved). I think there is some value to working for a bit to see how long you can/want to stay at the firm. Over the course of 1-2 years, itll probably be worth it to take the losses on interest while maintaining your gov't protections. Just my $0.02.
This is correct. Work for a bit before you lock yourself in. Both SoFi and FR are more stringent than Uncle Sam (FR the most so).

That said, I did a small re-fi with SoFi last year and just completed a massive refi with FR.

SoFi you just submit your basic information (i.e. amount you want to refinance, your school and degree, your income, address and what you do) and they give you a likely rate. You then submit your drivers license, pay stub, and loan statement and it goes to funding. Super simple. Takes a couple of days at most.

FR is a bit more involved. They ask for all of the above and also asked me for my offer letter from my firm, statements from my savings and checking account, etc. You then also have to open and account, etc. Takes about two weeks.

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Apr 20, 2017 5:37 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Looking for refi advice. I am graduating and starting a firm job this fall but want to refi as soon as possible. I have a good credit score but will have very limited cash assets when I start. Specifically, I have the following questions.

1. I have looked at both SOFI and First Republic. FR looks to have lower rates but more stringent requirements for approval. Is this correct? Is it much easier to refi with SOFI quickly after starting employment?

2. Is it possible and/or wise to refi multiple times. Perhaps get an early refi with SOFI and shortly thereafter switch to FR for better rates? Are there any consequences to doing something like this?
I refinanced with SOFI about three months after starting. So far I'm glad I did. I pay a little more than half as much in interest per month as I would've under FedLoan.

I'm also planning to do #2 when I'm a bit more sure I'll stay long term + credit has recovered a bit from funding CoL over the summer. We'll see. I think race and anon are probably right that it's a risk, but my priority is getting paid off as fast as possible -- part of this is that I'm fine living pretty spartan and have about half a normal sticker debt load (bit less), so I can mitigate the risk somewhat by blasting through it as fast as I can (even if I get shitcanned after a year or two, will have put a very solid dent in it). May be right for your situation, maybe not. I am also sure at this point in the year that I will stay at my firm as long as they'll have me, which, well, hopefully isn't that short.

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Apr 20, 2017 7:52 pm

Oh here, that is my thought process as well. I understand there is some risk associated with the refi but is the downside really that horrible? From my understanding, it is pretty hard to get fired before getting to year 3 unless the economy tanks.

I would like to pay off debt like a fiend for 3 years and be done with it. Not sure if the protections are worth the 5 figures in savings I'd be passing up. Is partial refi of the high rate loans a viable strategy to hedge risk here?

Also, are the sub 3% rates FR advertises legit? And what's the deal with the 4 year pay-off?

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by SmokeytheBear » Thu Apr 20, 2017 7:59 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Oh here, that is my thought process as well. I understand there is some risk associated with the refi but is the downside really that horrible? From my understanding, it is pretty hard to get fired before getting to year 3 unless the economy tanks.

I would like to pay off debt like a fiend for 3 years and be done with it. Not sure if the protections are worth the 5 figures in savings I'd be passing up. Is partial refi of the high rate loans a viable strategy to hedge risk here?

Also, are the sub 3% rates FR advertises legit? And what's the deal with the 4 year pay-off?
I just re-fied my high rate loans at 2.35% (I did not refi my undergrad loans which were between 1.35% and 3%--riding those into the sunset). Loan specifically states that if you pay it off within 48 months they will credit your account for up to 2% of the interest paid (i.e. you'd just pay basically 0.35%).

That said, FR requires you to have worked for 2 years before you can re-fi.

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by bk1 » Thu Apr 20, 2017 8:17 pm

SmokeytheBear wrote:That said, FR requires you to have worked for 2 years before you can re-fi.
It (like most FR reqs) is a soft requirement, not a hard one.

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by JenDarby » Thu Apr 20, 2017 8:30 pm

SmokeytheBear wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Oh here, that is my thought process as well. I understand there is some risk associated with the refi but is the downside really that horrible? From my understanding, it is pretty hard to get fired before getting to year 3 unless the economy tanks.

I would like to pay off debt like a fiend for 3 years and be done with it. Not sure if the protections are worth the 5 figures in savings I'd be passing up. Is partial refi of the high rate loans a viable strategy to hedge risk here?

Also, are the sub 3% rates FR advertises legit? And what's the deal with the 4 year pay-off?
I just re-fied my high rate loans at 2.35% (I did not refi my undergrad loans which were between 1.35% and 3%--riding those into the sunset). Loan specifically states that if you pay it off within 48 months they will credit your account for up to 2% of the interest paid (i.e. you'd just pay basically 0.35%).

That said, FR requires you to have worked for 2 years before you can re-fi.
that's not really how that interest rebate works

if you had say 150k at 2.35% paid off in 48 months you would pay $7307 in interest over 4 years.

FRB will discount 2% of your initial loan amount (150k) in interest paid which is 3k. so you will have paid $4,307 interest during the term instead of $7,307 making your effective interest rate ~1.394%

(I assumed uniform monthly payments for the loan duration to get these numbers)

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by Desert Fox » Thu Apr 20, 2017 8:54 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Oh here, that is my thought process as well. I understand there is some risk associated with the refi but is the downside really that horrible? From my understanding, it is pretty hard to get fired before getting to year 3 unless the economy tanks.

I would like to pay off debt like a fiend for 3 years and be done with it. Not sure if the protections are worth the 5 figures in savings I'd be passing up. Is partial refi of the high rate loans a viable strategy to hedge risk here?

Also, are the sub 3% rates FR advertises legit? And what's the deal with the 4 year pay-off?

You get essentially one year graceperiod. It's pretty hard to get shit canned at the begging of second, but by the end your neck is on the line.

Bottom line is if you are paying it off in 3 years, your reduction in interest rates isn't going to save you much money. 150k over three years, the diff between 7.2 and 3%, is about 10k.

Shit anyone who would even consider going big fed should just PAYE until you decide whether you will.
Last edited by Desert Fox on Sat Jan 27, 2018 12:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by Alt123 » Fri Apr 21, 2017 11:29 am

Not sure if this is the right place for my question, I tried doing some searches and didn't find any answers.

RE: PAYE/REPAYE/IBR and associated 'tax bomb'

Maybe I am mistaken here, but it seems like people are making this a bigger deal than it really is, no? I appreciate the idea of never having to deal with discharge of indebtedness income, but it seems like most of the posts I read on TLS seem to forget that the IRS is extremely favorable of individuals who seek to enroll in payment plans. I've had clients who have committed clear trust fund penalty violations, which is a criminal tax charge, evade being cleansed with holy federal agency fire simply by agreeing to get on a payment plan to cover the difference when times were tough. Wouldn't the supposed 30 year tax bomb at the end of PAYE/REPAYE/IBR plans be the same?

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by Johann » Fri Apr 21, 2017 12:25 pm

Alt123 wrote:Not sure if this is the right place for my question, I tried doing some searches and didn't find any answers.

RE: PAYE/REPAYE/IBR and associated 'tax bomb'

Maybe I am mistaken here, but it seems like people are making this a bigger deal than it really is, no? I appreciate the idea of never having to deal with discharge of indebtedness income, but it seems like most of the posts I read on TLS seem to forget that the IRS is extremely favorable of individuals who seek to enroll in payment plans. I've had clients who have committed clear trust fund penalty violations, which is a criminal tax charge, evade being cleansed with holy federal agency fire simply by agreeing to get on a payment plan to cover the difference when times were tough. Wouldn't the supposed 30 year tax bomb at the end of PAYE/REPAYE/IBR plans be the same?
most likely, yes. but that involves more discretion and is not codified, so lawyers are skeptical of it. but yeah, more likely than not the IRS will set you up on another nice payment plan. there's also probably a lot of room for tax planning here that people overlook as well.

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by Alt123 » Fri Apr 21, 2017 12:33 pm

Johann wrote:
Alt123 wrote:Not sure if this is the right place for my question, I tried doing some searches and didn't find any answers.

RE: PAYE/REPAYE/IBR and associated 'tax bomb'

Maybe I am mistaken here, but it seems like people are making this a bigger deal than it really is, no? I appreciate the idea of never having to deal with discharge of indebtedness income, but it seems like most of the posts I read on TLS seem to forget that the IRS is extremely favorable of individuals who seek to enroll in payment plans. I've had clients who have committed clear trust fund penalty violations, which is a criminal tax charge, evade being cleansed with holy federal agency fire simply by agreeing to get on a payment plan to cover the difference when times were tough. Wouldn't the supposed 30 year tax bomb at the end of PAYE/REPAYE/IBR plans be the same?
most likely, yes. but that involves more discretion and is not codified, so lawyers are skeptical of it. but yeah, more likely than not the IRS will set you up on another nice payment plan. there's also probably a lot of room for tax planning here that people overlook as well.

Thanks for the answer, I really appreciate the insight. I can see why the lack of codification would make us all uneasy.

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by Johann » Fri Apr 21, 2017 12:40 pm

Alt123 wrote:
Johann wrote:
Alt123 wrote:Not sure if this is the right place for my question, I tried doing some searches and didn't find any answers.

RE: PAYE/REPAYE/IBR and associated 'tax bomb'

Maybe I am mistaken here, but it seems like people are making this a bigger deal than it really is, no? I appreciate the idea of never having to deal with discharge of indebtedness income, but it seems like most of the posts I read on TLS seem to forget that the IRS is extremely favorable of individuals who seek to enroll in payment plans. I've had clients who have committed clear trust fund penalty violations, which is a criminal tax charge, evade being cleansed with holy federal agency fire simply by agreeing to get on a payment plan to cover the difference when times were tough. Wouldn't the supposed 30 year tax bomb at the end of PAYE/REPAYE/IBR plans be the same?
most likely, yes. but that involves more discretion and is not codified, so lawyers are skeptical of it. but yeah, more likely than not the IRS will set you up on another nice payment plan. there's also probably a lot of room for tax planning here that people overlook as well.

Thanks for the answer, I really appreciate the insight. I can see why the lack of codification would make us all uneasy.
and im also assuming you knwo that tax bomb is only to the EXTENT OF YOUR ASSETS. if you have 0 assets, you have 0 tax bomb regardless of the debt forgiven. if you have 100k of assets and 250k of debt forgiven and no other debt, you pay tax on 100k despite a 250k forgiveness. if you have 350k of debt and 100k of assets, and 250k is forgiven in one year, you have 0 tax bomb because your assets - liabilities (not forgiven) is still 0. so like i said lots of planning room especially if you can stagger when your debt becomes due.

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by El Pollito » Fri Apr 21, 2017 12:41 pm

beach_terror wrote:
El Pollito wrote:fedloans is a criminal organization and failed to follow my very clear instructions on how to allocate my refi (THE FUCKING OBVIOUS WAY) and paid off like staffords before grad plus, and has failed to fix it after like 3 weeks and 5 calls, so I'm just refinancing the rest out of spite. also i plan to provoke my class action lawyer friend to sue them
Would be very surprised if there isn't an arbitration clause in the agreement somewhere. I paid off like 20k to my fedloans one time and they fucked up the allocation too, so I asked them to fix it. When they "fixed it," the system thought I was in default since it was applied as a credit toward future payments (instead of to principal) and they undid all of this without thinking of the consequences, so I got a bunch of "we tried to contact you for x months, you are in default and we are sending this to the CRAs and it'll impact your credit score" emails. I had to spend 5+ hours on the phone with different people trying to sort it out because nobody could understand what they did even after I explained to them how the system must work.

Refinanced with Sofi the day after it was sorted out. Fuck Fedloan. Fired up just thinking about that shitty fucking company.
yeah they put me into default on one loan too, and also paid off some loans so that they had negative balances. i called for about the 7th time and they offered to "fix" it after they sort of got the interest rate allocation fixed. i said fuck no do not touch anything and also told them i was contacting a class action attorney.

there is an arb clause i think every time you pay anything lol
Last edited by El Pollito on Sat Jan 27, 2018 3:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by Alt123 » Fri Apr 21, 2017 12:54 pm

Johann wrote:
Alt123 wrote:
Johann wrote:
Alt123 wrote:Not sure if this is the right place for my question, I tried doing some searches and didn't find any answers.

RE: PAYE/REPAYE/IBR and associated 'tax bomb'

Maybe I am mistaken here, but it seems like people are making this a bigger deal than it really is, no? I appreciate the idea of never having to deal with discharge of indebtedness income, but it seems like most of the posts I read on TLS seem to forget that the IRS is extremely favorable of individuals who seek to enroll in payment plans. I've had clients who have committed clear trust fund penalty violations, which is a criminal tax charge, evade being cleansed with holy federal agency fire simply by agreeing to get on a payment plan to cover the difference when times were tough. Wouldn't the supposed 30 year tax bomb at the end of PAYE/REPAYE/IBR plans be the same?
most likely, yes. but that involves more discretion and is not codified, so lawyers are skeptical of it. but yeah, more likely than not the IRS will set you up on another nice payment plan. there's also probably a lot of room for tax planning here that people overlook as well.

Thanks for the answer, I really appreciate the insight. I can see why the lack of codification would make us all uneasy.
and im also assuming you knwo that tax bomb is only to the EXTENT OF YOUR ASSETS. if you have 0 assets, you have 0 tax bomb regardless of the debt forgiven. if you have 100k of assets and 250k of debt forgiven and no other debt, you pay tax on 100k despite a 250k forgiveness. if you have 350k of debt and 100k of assets, and 250k is forgiven in one year, you have 0 tax bomb because your assets - liabilities (not forgiven) is still 0. so like i said lots of planning room especially if you can stagger when your debt becomes due.
This is why I love tax work.

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Apr 22, 2017 12:16 am

About 5 years out
114k (from 144k at peak) debt
Current salary 85k
I pay $670 every other Friday when pay check hits
Refinanced 1 year ago with Earnest at 5.51% fixed 8 years 2 months remaining
I also have a new $315k mortgage conventional 30 year fixed 3.25% Wells Fargo

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by Pokemon » Sat Apr 22, 2017 8:45 am

Johann wrote:
Alt123 wrote:
Johann wrote:
Alt123 wrote:Not sure if this is the right place for my question, I tried doing some searches and didn't find any answers.

RE: PAYE/REPAYE/IBR and associated 'tax bomb'

Maybe I am mistaken here, but it seems like people are making this a bigger deal than it really is, no? I appreciate the idea of never having to deal with discharge of indebtedness income, but it seems like most of the posts I read on TLS seem to forget that the IRS is extremely favorable of individuals who seek to enroll in payment plans. I've had clients who have committed clear trust fund penalty violations, which is a criminal tax charge, evade being cleansed with holy federal agency fire simply by agreeing to get on a payment plan to cover the difference when times were tough. Wouldn't the supposed 30 year tax bomb at the end of PAYE/REPAYE/IBR plans be the same?
most likely, yes. but that involves more discretion and is not codified, so lawyers are skeptical of it. but yeah, more likely than not the IRS will set you up on another nice payment plan. there's also probably a lot of room for tax planning here that people overlook as well.

Thanks for the answer, I really appreciate the insight. I can see why the lack of codification would make us all uneasy.
and im also assuming you knwo that tax bomb is only to the EXTENT OF YOUR ASSETS. if you have 0 assets, you have 0 tax bomb regardless of the debt forgiven. if you have 100k of assets and 250k of debt forgiven and no other debt, you pay tax on 100k despite a 250k forgiveness. if you have 350k of debt and 100k of assets, and 250k is forgiven in one year, you have 0 tax bomb because your assets - liabilities (not forgiven) is still 0. so like i said lots of planning room especially if you can stagger when your debt becomes due.
It was a few years ago when I read the provision but on your second example you pay tax on the entire 250k but the amount paying cannot go over 100k. On 250k forgiveness, your fed tax might be around 90-100k, so in that case you are not getting any additional forgiveness due to insolvency limitation.

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by El Pollito » Sat Apr 22, 2017 10:17 am

Anonymous User wrote:About 5 years out
114k (from 144k at peak) debt
Current salary 85k
I pay $670 every other Friday when pay check hits
Refinanced 1 year ago with Earnest at 5.51% fixed 8 years 2 months remaining
I also have a new $315k mortgage conventional 30 year fixed 3.25% Wells Fargo
uh you should refi your refi
Last edited by El Pollito on Sat Jan 27, 2018 3:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by Johann » Sat Apr 22, 2017 1:54 pm

Pokemon wrote:
Johann wrote:
Alt123 wrote:
Johann wrote:
Alt123 wrote:Not sure if this is the right place for my question, I tried doing some searches and didn't find any answers.

RE: PAYE/REPAYE/IBR and associated 'tax bomb'

Maybe I am mistaken here, but it seems like people are making this a bigger deal than it really is, no? I appreciate the idea of never having to deal with discharge of indebtedness income, but it seems like most of the posts I read on TLS seem to forget that the IRS is extremely favorable of individuals who seek to enroll in payment plans. I've had clients who have committed clear trust fund penalty violations, which is a criminal tax charge, evade being cleansed with holy federal agency fire simply by agreeing to get on a payment plan to cover the difference when times were tough. Wouldn't the supposed 30 year tax bomb at the end of PAYE/REPAYE/IBR plans be the same?
most likely, yes. but that involves more discretion and is not codified, so lawyers are skeptical of it. but yeah, more likely than not the IRS will set you up on another nice payment plan. there's also probably a lot of room for tax planning here that people overlook as well.

Thanks for the answer, I really appreciate the insight. I can see why the lack of codification would make us all uneasy.
and im also assuming you knwo that tax bomb is only to the EXTENT OF YOUR ASSETS. if you have 0 assets, you have 0 tax bomb regardless of the debt forgiven. if you have 100k of assets and 250k of debt forgiven and no other debt, you pay tax on 100k despite a 250k forgiveness. if you have 350k of debt and 100k of assets, and 250k is forgiven in one year, you have 0 tax bomb because your assets - liabilities (not forgiven) is still 0. so like i said lots of planning room especially if you can stagger when your debt becomes due.
It was a few years ago when I read the provision but on your second example you pay tax on the entire 250k but the amount paying cannot go over 100k. On 250k forgiveness, your fed tax might be around 90-100k, so in that case you are not getting any additional forgiveness due to insolvency limitation.
nah thats not right. the code section reads as an exclusion from gross income, and your income is what is eventually taxed.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/108

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by Johann » Sat Apr 22, 2017 1:54 pm

El Pollito wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:About 5 years out
114k (from 144k at peak) debt
Current salary 85k
I pay $670 every other Friday when pay check hits
Refinanced 1 year ago with Earnest at 5.51% fixed 8 years 2 months remaining
I also have a new $315k mortgage conventional 30 year fixed 3.25% Wells Fargo
uh you should refi your refi

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by Calvin Murphy » Sat Apr 22, 2017 2:59 pm

Johann wrote:
El Pollito wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:About 5 years out
114k (from 144k at peak) debt
Current salary 85k
I pay $670 every other Friday when pay check hits
Refinanced 1 year ago with Earnest at 5.51% fixed 8 years 2 months remaining
I also have a new $315k mortgage conventional 30 year fixed 3.25% Wells Fargo
uh you should refi your refi
I agree that OP should look into refi'ing the refi, but this is under the assumption that it's been 22 months since the original refi.

5.51 fixed on a ten year loan isn't exactly a "bad" rate when you consider that OP was refinancing almost 2x his or her annual income. It's just a lot higher than the variable (or sometimes fixed, especially with First Republic,) rates you see from people refinancing closer to 1x their income on a 5-year timetable.

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Apr 23, 2017 11:39 am

.
Last edited by Anonymous User on Sun Apr 23, 2017 9:31 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by Pokemon » Sun Apr 23, 2017 11:58 am

Johann wrote:
Pokemon wrote:
Johann wrote:
Alt123 wrote:
Johann wrote:
Alt123 wrote:Not sure if this is the right place for my question, I tried doing some searches and didn't find any answers.

RE: PAYE/REPAYE/IBR and associated 'tax bomb'

Maybe I am mistaken here, but it seems like people are making this a bigger deal than it really is, no? I appreciate the idea of never having to deal with discharge of indebtedness income, but it seems like most of the posts I read on TLS seem to forget that the IRS is extremely favorable of individuals who seek to enroll in payment plans. I've had clients who have committed clear trust fund penalty violations, which is a criminal tax charge, evade being cleansed with holy federal agency fire simply by agreeing to get on a payment plan to cover the difference when times were tough. Wouldn't the supposed 30 year tax bomb at the end of PAYE/REPAYE/IBR plans be the same?
most likely, yes. but that involves more discretion and is not codified, so lawyers are skeptical of it. but yeah, more likely than not the IRS will set you up on another nice payment plan. there's also probably a lot of room for tax planning here that people overlook as well.

Thanks for the answer, I really appreciate the insight. I can see why the lack of codification would make us all uneasy.
and im also assuming you knwo that tax bomb is only to the EXTENT OF YOUR ASSETS. if you have 0 assets, you have 0 tax bomb regardless of the debt forgiven. if you have 100k of assets and 250k of debt forgiven and no other debt, you pay tax on 100k despite a 250k forgiveness. if you have 350k of debt and 100k of assets, and 250k is forgiven in one year, you have 0 tax bomb because your assets - liabilities (not forgiven) is still 0. so like i said lots of planning room especially if you can stagger when your debt becomes due.
It was a few years ago when I read the provision but on your second example you pay tax on the entire 250k but the amount paying cannot go over 100k. On 250k forgiveness, your fed tax might be around 90-100k, so in that case you are not getting any additional forgiveness due to insolvency limitation.
nah thats not right. the code section reads as an exclusion from gross income, and your income is what is eventually taxed.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/108

Will have to check it later this week, but seems to me a bit like an unreasonable result. Of course I may be completely wrong and it has been a while since I took restructuring and tax.

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by JenDarby » Sun Apr 23, 2017 1:13 pm

really regretting my refi considering I could have stuck it out on PAYE for 23 more years (where I'd currently be paying almost my monthly refi amount, but of course in the next 8 years could hopefully make a significantly lower income and lower my monthly payments!) with the hopes of having zero assets in my mid 50s and ensuring no tax bomb

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Re: Student loan payments: Actual numbers

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Apr 23, 2017 1:54 pm

How does PSLF work when switching plans? I spent 2 years on IBR working for the government (PSLF eligible). I jumped into practice and switched to REPAYE. Considering going back into government on REPAYE and then ultimately getting married. Once my partner and I get married, IBR becomes the cheaper option because only I have debt. So my question is... do my PSLF payments count equally under all plans? I.e, will 2 years on IBR, plus 2 years on REPAYE, followed by 6 years on IBR all count towards the 10-year (120) PSFL requirements?

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

Now there's a charge.
Just kidding ... it's still FREE!


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