How do I manage my huge student loan debt?

Question

I am a graduate student now with over 120K in student loan debt. Including private and federal loans. I'm really concerned about how I am going to pay it all back. I justified it all by saying that I am in a graduate program (currently in my first year of a 5 year PhD program in industrial-organizational psychology at another very pricey school) that will yield a high paying job. Though now I hate my graduate program and what I am studying. How can I manage this massive student loan debt??

Answer 1

You need to get a consolidation loan once you graduate. You can gete all of them lumped together at a reasonable interest level and make the payments over as much as 20 years.

Answer 2

I'd suggest you get out of your PhD program and find a job who'll pay for your further education. Also, this job should pay for your 120K loan debt, possibly consolidate the loan by going to different banks or with the company you already have the loan with. Wish you the best though! Good luck.

Answer 3

You are at 120K and just starting grad school? I would guess that you are looking at about another 50K per year for the next five years.?. So you are looking at about 350K when you get done. So if your average interest rate is 6% and you are being given 20yrs to pay your debt your payment is going to be about $2,310 per month. Another thing that you need to consider is that most jobs that are very high salaried have a few years internship. (Lets say 3 years) So you are looking at not making the "BIG BUCKS" for at least 8 years(if you look at the hours that you will have to put in as an inter and the amount you will be paid I would guess that you could do better working in a call center. You may work 80 hour weeks and make 55K per year = $13.22 per hour). By that time you need to understand that your loan totals could be close to 500K(at 6% add $1,458 per month in interest to the 350K). You have a 95% chance that you will end up making about $100,000 per year or less. You will have to live very lean for a short while
To answer your question I would say this: live like a student until you can pay off your student loans. What I mean by living like a student is 1.rent the smallest place that you can fit into. 2. Buy a used car take care of it and drive it until it dies. 4.Buy only necessary clothing and see if you can find them second hand. ETC.....
Mind you I am talking about trying to live on 15K to 20K per year (depending on where you live) when you are making $80,000 to $100,000 per year.
Right now make sure that you are not trying to look like what you are going to be. Live where you are at. You are a student don't try to drive a BMW. Live as thread bare as you can. Don't live cheap(cheap is expensive because you will constantly be replacing) but live on as little as you can.
As far as hating where you are I cannot answer that for you. It may take switching schools

Answer 4

there are various recommendations bearing directly to this. First, in case you haven't any longer Consolidated your Loans --Do it NOW. decide for the fastened value loan and Stretch it out to twenty or 30 years. this way, you will proceed to Have All of you Rights left to artwork for you. consult from whoever you Consolidate them with approximately all your recommendations available to you. ( I consolidated with Sallie-Mae. as quickly as consolidated, you may get an earnings adjusted value time table in the in the meantime, or you may get an activity in basic terms value for as long as needed. there are various recommendations, yet you will would desire to artwork with the employer that's carrying the word. in case you do unlike what they might desire to assert, RE-Consolidate with yet another employer. sturdy luck, John R.