Today, I received loan repayment paperwork, and am trying to figure out which repayment plan I should aim for.  They have the graduated payment plan, which means two payments of about $X/month for my two hunks of Stafford loans with an added interest payment that is not insubstantial…or the level payment plan, which is $1.5X/month for the lifetime of the loan.  Either way, about 120 payments await my attention over the next ten years.  Then again, I have other student loans to repay, so if I go for the graduated plan, I might actually have a fairly constant debt load over the next ten years, in terms of monthly repayments.

I chatted with a friend this afternoon about her wages, which seemed pretty cushy to me–but I have very different demands from a paycheck, and have different loan obligations.  This is something I talked about at length with L when I was working for development–that is, what kind of loan obligations I would be facing and how that would affect budgeting and what kind of jobs would actually support me…which also ties into job search in the sense that more and more programs exist that focus on funneling people like me into non-profit work by offering financial incentives in the form of debt reduction or forgiveness.  That aside, I’d probably aim to work in a non-profit anyhow because I have a tendency towards starry-eyed idealism.  Anyhow, I think the programs are designed for pushing folks who are interested in non-profits more strongly in that direction.  e.g., me.

I apparently believe everything can be made more comprehensible with spreadsheets, so I created a loan repayment schedule for the next 10 years that logged the payments as they are dated on my loan paperwork.  I have four separate loans, each of which has a unique payment level and schedule—some start earlier than others, and some have much briefer loan repayment periods than others, making an altogether confusing web of interdependent variables (all of which are VERY dependent on me finding decent employment) that make it very difficult to figure out what’s the most appealing/manageable option.

The spreadsheet tracking my loan repayment obligation is ENORMOUS.  Well, I guess that’s not surprising, considering it is supposed to lay out a financial course for the next ten years.  Higher Education is really expensive and I’m glad I’m not in school right now, what with the tuition increases schools are making in order to not taking on crushing amounts of debt.

My debt load isn’t too bad,  but it is still disheartening to see four years of academic pursuit translated into a flurry of billing options and fluctuating monthly payments.  On the other hand, the payments are (probably) low enough for me to manage, if I get a job that pays alright.  If not, there are definitely things I can do to defer payments on the loans I can’t pay back yet.

Fun fact: the level repayment plan would have me with teeny(ish) payments later this coming decade, and saddle me with fairly un-doable payments early on because of my shorter-term loans.  I might have to shoot for the graduated payment plan, just to rein in some of the costs the first few years, and then maybe ramp up loan repayment (maybe?) once I (hopefully) am stably employed and have a less onerous loan payment obligation to face.

Oh, Excel, how would I make life decisions without you?

I’ll write more on loan forgiveness as I find out more–it is bound to be interesting reading about it, in any case.