that's about my debt level, and i'm planning to take as long as possible to pay back some parts of it; none of the interest rates (federal or private) are over 6%. and at 3% on my federal loans, that's like free money.
Wow. I don't even know where to start with this one.
This actually makes some sense.
My investments have been yielded ~28% on average over the past 3 years, and if I was smarter I would take awhile to pay back loans, and just keep funneling money into that. Alas, I am debt averse, that if you can find any investment which will yield more than 3% it makes no financial sense to pay off loans quickly, especially considering interest on those loans is tax deductible. Heck, ING.com savings accounts currently yield 4%.
It's not the savings -- it's his belief that interest rates are 6% and 3%, and the implicit assumption that they'll stay that way through the life of the loan.
Federal loans, yes. The private loans those of us without a 750 have to take out for law school? Not so much.
i'm not assuming anything.
correct me if i'm wrong, but since all my loans are consolidated at fixed rates (fed 3.1, private 5.9), the interest isn't changing over the life of the loan...or does "fixed" somehow actually mean variable? the whole point of consolidation is to fix the interest rate. anyone with unconsolidated federal loans (even those still in school) should be consolidating them NOW, before the rules and interest rates change in July.
my private loans are all through a NJ state agency, and available to anyone who attends school in NJ. obviously if i was into CitiBank or Sallie Mae for $40k in variable-rate loans, i would be hurrying to pay them back. but i ain't, so i'm not.
some constructive counter-arguments would be preferable to vaguely condescending potshots.
the point was that rushing to pay back student debt isn't always the best plan; sometimes it makes sense to put that money to use in other ways. the best plan will depend on an individual's particular scenario.