If you are a teacher in New Jersey you probably have a lot of student loans, since you had to go on to graduate school for a master's degree if you wanted to keep your job. As a result, you most likely have a loan balance well in excess of $30,000. Trying to make those payments and have the professional life you dreamed of can therefore be tough.
The good news is, it doesn't have to be! There is a way for every teacher with high federal student loan balances to make an affordable payment and still be finished paying in ten years. How? By using a combination of an income based repayment plan and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
A Lower Payment
As to the payment plan, let's say you are married, have no children, and are filing separate tax returns. You have $50,000 in loans (Stafford, Perkins and Graduate PLUS) at 6.8% interest, and your spouse has none.
In a standard, ten year fixed plan, your monthly payment would be approximately $575.40. But in an income based repayment plan like IBR, with an Adjusted Gross Income of $50,000, that payment would be approximately $341 (over $200 per month in savings)!
But the Same Ten Years
But wait, there's more! Ordinarily an income based plan like IBR would take 25 years to repay your loans. But through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program it could still be as short as ten years!
Through this program, if you make 120 payments on your loans, each during a time when you were employed full time as a teacher (or some other form of public or charitable employment), you can apply to have any unpaid balance on your loans discharged tax free! On top of that, any qualifying payment made on your student loans after July 1, 2007, counts towards the 120!
How Can I Find Out More?
If you are a teacher, this is just too good a deal to pass up. If you live in New Jersey and you are looking for a solution to your student loan problem and wondering if there is one, then there is a great way to find out for free! Just click here to provide me with all the details on your loans. I will then, for free and with no obligation on your part, look at your situation to see if I can provide you with a way to deal with them. If there isn't one, it didn't cost you anything. If there is, then I will contact you to schedule an analysis session with my office to lay out a plan of action.
If you would like more information about student loans, you can dowload my free book, I Graduated; Now What? A Guide to Dealing with Your Student Loans.
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