<p>So a thought came into my mind what if working to try and pay off your student loan debt isn't the right thing to do what if I paid the minimum amount say 50 or 100 a month for the rest of my life? I'd owe around 160000 in student loan debt and if I only paid 100 or 50 a month to stay afloat id have paid back around half of the 160000 by the time I die. Does this have any downfalls? Could I actually do this just pay 50 a month till I die?</p>
<p>Your student loans have a defined payback schedule…likely 10 years. There is a defined amount that you have to pay each month, determined by what you owe and the interest rate.</p>
<p>So, for example…if you borrowed 10,000, the amount that you might have to pay each month is $100 for ten years. </p>
<p>You dont get to decide the minimum to pay; that is decided for you…and if you dont pay at least the minimum amount, then your credit gets hurt. </p>
<p><<<
I’d owe around 160000 in student loan debt</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>If you plan on borrowing THAT MUCH (crazy!!) for undergrad, then you wont be permitted to just pay 50 to 100 per month. Your minimum payment would be something like a VERY PAINFUL 1600 per month.</p>
<p>Are you an incoming frosh with a plan to borrow that much? (who is cosigning all that debt? must be a very naive person)</p>
<p>Actually mom2, there are other repayment options for federally funded STUDENT loans. There is income based repayment which is based on your income and can be quite a bit lower if you are VERY low income. So this OP with $160,000 in debt would need to have an income of about $1000 a month to get an income based repayment plan for $100 a month. </p>
<p>SO…shadelz, do you plan to have $12,000 total annual income for the rest of your life? Because that is what you would need to do. If your income goes up…so do your payments.</p>
<p>OH…and income based repayment is only for 20 years…guess you plan to have a short life.</p>
<p>There are NO free rides. You pay taxes on the balance which in your case after 20 years would be a sizable amount.</p>
<p>One more thing…your $160,000 loan will continue to accrue interest if you are not paying it off. If you are only paying $100 a month you won’t be tapping into the principal…at all.</p>
<p>Finally…if these are not student loans, they are not eligible for income based payment. Is your hypothetical $160,000 debt for undergrad school? If so, YOU can’t take that amount in loans in your name AT ALL. Your limit is about $27,000 total.</p>
<p>Your plan has more holes than Swiss cheese.</p>
<p>Assuming that these loans are for undergrad, only about $27k would be subject to income-based repayment options.</p>
<p>The overwhelming majority of his loans would be private or plus loans. No discounts for those. </p>
<p>There is no way he could end up with a 100 payment.</p>
<p>He might get $12,000 additional Perkins loans for undergrad as well, and those are subject to IBR. And if he has grad school Direct Loans, those also would have IBR.</p>
<p>But really…does this student wannabe REALLY want to earn less than $1000 a month for the 20 year allowable duration for IBR? And he would then have to pay taxes on the balance on his $160,000 loan which would be forgiven. At $100 a month, he would barely be paying the INTEREST on his loan…so he would be paying taxes on a very large sum of money.</p>
<p>Having a big student loan on your credit report could affect a number of possibilities in your life as well, including some job opportunities. Something to consider.</p>