Evolving Personal Finance » Entries tagged with "student loans"
3… 2… 1… WE’RE STILL IN DEBT!
My official graduation from my PhD program is this month, which means that my subsidized student loans from undergrad are coming out of deferment. Kyle and I at long last had to come to a decision about what to do with the loans. We have had the money set aside to pay them off since we got married in 2010, and our original plan was to pay them off right before they came out of … Read entire article »
Do You Practice What You Preach?
It’s so true that trying to teach a subject forces you to truly learn it. I’ve been working hard on preparing my presentation on personal finance for grad students (it’s tomorrow!) and it’s really helped me fill in some of the remaining gaps of my knowledge, particularly regarding debt acquisition and repayment. I haven’t had a lot of interaction with debt in my life, and the interactions that I have had didn’t make a big … Read entire article »
Why We’re Holding on to My Student Loans
While reading a blog this week (can’t remember which, sorry!), saw a paraphrase of some advice from Suze Orman wherein she called student loans the most dangerous type of loan you can have and advised paying them off before paying off any other type of debt. Even though I’m not a Suze Orman consumer (the way I am with Dave Ramsey and Ric Edelman) and so I’m not familiar with her philosophy, I could hardly believe that this was an accurate portrayal. But it was. Check out this short clip of her telling a questioner to pay off student loans first, regardless of interest rate. I understand that it’s noteworthy that student loans aren’t bankruptable, but is the possibility of bankruptcy so immediate for so many borrowers that it becomes worthwhile to … Read entire article »
A Peek at Graduate Student Loan Debt
An article popped up on my personal Facebook feed last week that was accompanied by a spirited discussion in the comments about PhD student stipend levels and the necessity of taking out student loans even for students who are “fully funded.” Of course I clicked over and eventually found my way to this spreadsheet of student loan balances created by Karen Kelsky of The Professor Is In to demonstrate her point that even funded humanities PhDs can result … Read entire article »
Filed under: debt, grad school
Tempting Cash Back Credit Card Offers
I’ve been alerted to four tempting cash back credit card offers in the last month or so – two by commenters, one by Kyle, and one through online searching. Kyle and I are still working on churning our second Barclaycard Arrival™ World MasterCard® – Earn 2x on All Purchases (affiliate link – read my review!), but we should be done this month with Christmas travel and gifts. It probably isn’t the best idea to sign up … Read entire article »
Filed under: credit cards
Rethinking Our Student Loan Repayment
I logged in to my Sallie Mae account recently – I check in on it 2-3 times per year just to make sure nothing has changed. My remaining loans are subsidized and in deferment so their balances should be completely static until I graduate and they come out of deferment. However, when I logged in this most recent time I noticed that the interest rate on three of my loans had dropped from 3.61% to … Read entire article »
Trying Hard to Not Time the Market
Kyle and I have a decision to make! We have some subsidized and deferred student loan debt (i.e. sitting at 0%) and we also have the full amount of money we need to pay off these loans set aside. Most of that money is invested in mutual funds, but about $6,000 is in a CD that is maturing this month. When we first allocated our savings, we knew we should be conservative because we had a … Read entire article »
Filed under: debt, investing, savings, stock market
Using Upromise to Pay Down Student Loans
Like zillions of other college graduates, I have student loans – and, like a good chunk of those debtors, my loans are through Sallie Mae. When I graduated from college I was automatically enrolled in Upromise, which is a rewards program that is affiliated with Sallie Mae. I accumulated rewards in Upromise through various means and transfered those rewards to Sallie Mae to directly reduce my student loan balance. Apparently the program can also be … Read entire article »
Filed under: college, debt, found money
Our Experiences with Paying Off Debt
This post is a personal story about how debt has intersected our lives and not intended to be any big lessons. You’ll see that how we paid off our debt doesn’t necessarily apply to others as I’ve been rescued a couple times! We also still go back and forth over whether or not we are officially debt-free. Between me and Kyle, I have more experience with debt so I’ll start with mine. Student Loans I took out some … Read entire article »
Filed under: cars, credit cards, debt
Financial Wrongs from the Past
I recently found out that my family got kinda screwed over by the financial aid office at my college. I don’t know if my parents were mad about it at the time because they didn’t discuss it with me – when my dad mentioned it to me over this last Thanksgiving he seemed pretty casual so I don’t think they’re still hurt about it. I received one merit scholarship from my college for about 25% of … Read entire article »
Filed under: college
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