I have been making income-based payments on my student loans since April. I gave them my pay and my ex's pay info, and that is how they calculated my monthly payment of $409. Ouch. I updated my student loan info with our AGI instead, which is much, much lower. Now my new income-based payments will be $103 a month! So much easier to handle! I also currently qualify for the public-service student loan forgiveness program, or at least I will after 10 years of service and payments.
I've gone ahead and set up an automatic investment into ShareBuilder. I have a good start on my safe long-term savings and feel ready to start contributing to stocks again. If I lose my shirt, I still have my long-term savings. Though I need to start looking at stocks as long-term savings that just happen to fluctuate.
Breathing room on student loans
July 12th, 2011 at 11:19 am