Financially Strapped with Student Loans?
June 25, 2009 by blackgirlgrown
Filed under money
Don’t get me wrong, student loans allow aspiring students to attend college. And at the time you’re filling out your loan application it doesn’t seem like such a large amount, and you intend to pay it back promptly.
Ten years later, you’ve become an expert on forbearance requests, deferments, and employer-provided student loan repayment programs. And no matter your financial situation, student loans stay with you FOREVER – irrespective of bankruptcy filings.
Kiplinger tempts student loan borrowers on even more ways to rearrange the deck chairs aboard the Titanic:
You have a mountain of student debt and a job you love in a low-paying field. Lately, you’ve considered ditching that job for a higher-paying gig just to get out from under.
Hang tight. As of July 2009, a new repayment plan for federal student loans, called income-based repayment, rescues borrowers buried in debt by slashing or even waiving monthly payments and forgiving any remaining debt after 25 years.
Okay, where’s the fine print?
You probably qualify for the plan if your federal student-loan debt equals or exceeds your annual income. The new program caps monthly payments at 15% of the difference between adjusted gross income and 150% of the federal poverty level for your family size ($10,830 for singles in 2009). If you make less than 150% of the poverty level, you pay nothing at all.
Also, to qualify for the program, your new monthly payments must be lower than the amount you would pay under a standard ten-year repayment plan for federal loans.
Of course.
More guidance on how to repay your school loans.
