I just found you and I’m working on getting rid of my credit card debt before tackling my 120k student debt. Started with 15k credit card debt and on track to pay it off by Jan 21 :)
This is a well intentioned video but does a very bad job at explaining annualized interest. The difference between 10% interest on 100k and 7% interest on 100k is not $3000 unless you are able to pay off that debt within a single year. The interest is added annually, so for a 20 year 100k loan, the difference between 10% interest and 7% is over $45000.
I acknowledge capitalized interest and how damaging it can be if you let it accumulate. For simplicity sake of the video, I just kept the example I used. I'm happy to do a whole video on how capitalized interest works and how it impacts student loan debt.
This was SOOOO helpful Justine. I never had loans for myself, but we have 13 federal loans and a private loan for the hubs. Not sure if we will do either of these options, but now I am armed with info when were ready to tackle them. Thank you!!
I like what you say at the end. I think a lot of people thinking about refinancing are getting analysis paralysis... thinking about saving 2 or 3 percent in the long run with refinancing instead of just paying a little extra and putting it in their debt snowball. Great video!
Thanks! I think it could help in some situations and maybe it is worth the effort to refinance if you wanna save a bit but it's not the end-all solution. Snowball method is amazing!
great video Justine! Refinancing my pharmacy school loans was a key move that helped me achieve greater financial goals. I thought having a student debt would prevent me from getting buying a home, getting, married, investing! basically anything lol. But once I refinanced and developed a money mindset...i was investing and am actually on track to reach FIRE. Glad I found your channel and definitely very inpsirational for my own as well!
@@lorainevargasvillarrubia3349 I used sofi initially and got it down to ~5% and my last refinance I used first republic which dropped it further to 2.5% fixed.
My loans are only $9,500 my interest rate is 11% When she said people have loans of up to 100K ... that made my jaw drop. I’m paying like an extra 1k a year with my current interest rate. Gonna keep doing some more digging to see if it would be in my favor to refinance. My credit score is so much better now than when I first got that loan three years ago
I just stumbled across your channel and so glad I did! My only debit is my student loans. Under the PSLF program I have 44 qualifying payments and 77 more to go (2026 is the predicted year). I've been researching the pro's and con's of refinancing and independently paying the consolidated loan off on my own. I have significant student loan debit (2 degrees and 80k later) and 6 years is a long time to wait for POTENTIAL forgiveness while not making a significant impact on the principal and racking up interest. Given the stipulations around qualifying payments 2026 is a long way to wait until I know for certain I'm out from under the weight of my only debit. Thank you for your time and potential insight!
So glad you found it helpful. I'm not a fan of PSLF. I just can't justify signing up for a government program that sometimes/maybe works. In fact, I read a report on the temporary expanded PSLF (for those who get rejected from the regular PSLF) and of the 54,000 applications, only 1% were approved. I agree that 2026 is a looong wait for something that is only kind of certain. This is the report from the USGAO: www.gao.gov/assets/710/701157.pdf
Update on my life after 9 months of my last comment. No longer have credit card gift since Feb 2021. I went through student loan refinance and got a 3.5% rate in a fixed 7 years
In the example you used, if it takes more than year to pay the $100k loan and you choose to refinance to a lower 7% interest rate, but you still continue to make the same amount monthly payment towards your debt then aren't you at least reducing the compounded amount you'd have to pay?
Yes, the more you pay towards your principal the less amount is compounded. If you can refinance to a lower interest rate def keep making the same monthly payment or more if you can!
You can go off of what FICO uses as their scale. But honestly, I don't worry about the credit score. Cuz I know as long as I am making big payments, paying off the cards as fast as I can, that score is gonna take care of itself.
Great break down. This will be very helpful to those trying to manage and payoff their student debt. Once that debt is paid off, invest in real estate 😁👍🏻
I just found you and I’m working on getting rid of my credit card debt before tackling my 120k student debt. Started with 15k credit card debt and on track to pay it off by Jan 21 :)
Love it!! And so so glad you are here!
@Debt Free Millennials update: I no long have credit card debit since Feb 2021. Im now at 85K in student loans
@@wallflowercommenter3610how do get rid of all this debt
This was beautiful and calmed me down so much. Thank you!
This is a well intentioned video but does a very bad job at explaining annualized interest. The difference between 10% interest on 100k and 7% interest on 100k is not $3000 unless you are able to pay off that debt within a single year. The interest is added annually, so for a 20 year 100k loan, the difference between 10% interest and 7% is over $45000.
I acknowledge capitalized interest and how damaging it can be if you let it accumulate. For simplicity sake of the video, I just kept the example I used. I'm happy to do a whole video on how capitalized interest works and how it impacts student loan debt.
@@DebtFreeMillennials the video was definitely still informative! Thanks for your hard work.
This was SOOOO helpful Justine. I never had loans for myself, but we have 13 federal loans and a private loan for the hubs. Not sure if we will do either of these options, but now I am armed with info when were ready to tackle them. Thank you!!
Yay! I'm happy to hear that :)
I like what you say at the end. I think a lot of people thinking about refinancing are getting analysis paralysis... thinking about saving 2 or 3 percent in the long run with refinancing instead of just paying a little extra and putting it in their debt snowball. Great video!
Thanks! I think it could help in some situations and maybe it is worth the effort to refinance if you wanna save a bit but it's not the end-all solution. Snowball method is amazing!
great video Justine! Refinancing my pharmacy school loans was a key move that helped me achieve greater financial goals. I thought having a student debt would prevent me from getting buying a home, getting, married, investing! basically anything lol. But once I refinanced and developed a money mindset...i was investing and am actually on track to reach FIRE. Glad I found your channel and definitely very inpsirational for my own as well!
Hi. What bank dis you use to refinance your loans? I just graduated from pharmacy school myself!
@@lorainevargasvillarrubia3349 I used sofi initially and got it down to ~5% and my last refinance I used first republic which dropped it further to 2.5% fixed.
@@rineilperez1633 awesome thanks!
My loans are only $9,500 my interest rate is 11%
When she said people have loans of up to 100K ... that made my jaw drop.
I’m paying like an extra 1k a year with my current interest rate. Gonna keep doing some more digging to see if it would be in my favor to refinance.
My credit score is so much better now than when I first got that loan three years ago
I just stumbled across your channel and so glad I did! My only debit is my student loans. Under the PSLF program I have 44 qualifying payments and 77 more to go (2026 is the predicted year). I've been researching the pro's and con's of refinancing and independently paying the consolidated loan off on my own. I have significant student loan debit (2 degrees and 80k later) and 6 years is a long time to wait for POTENTIAL forgiveness while not making a significant impact on the principal and racking up interest. Given the stipulations around qualifying payments 2026 is a long way to wait until I know for certain I'm out from under the weight of my only debit. Thank you for your time and potential insight!
So glad you found it helpful. I'm not a fan of PSLF. I just can't justify signing up for a government program that sometimes/maybe works. In fact, I read a report on the temporary expanded PSLF (for those who get rejected from the regular PSLF) and of the 54,000 applications, only 1% were approved. I agree that 2026 is a looong wait for something that is only kind of certain.
This is the report from the USGAO: www.gao.gov/assets/710/701157.pdf
@@DebtFreeMillennials thank you for your response! I will be reading this article as well. I am looking forward to future content on your page.
Update on my life after 9 months of my last comment. No longer have credit card gift since Feb 2021. I went through student loan refinance and got a 3.5% rate in a fixed 7 years
In the example you used, if it takes more than year to pay the $100k loan and you choose to refinance to a lower 7% interest rate, but you still continue to make the same amount monthly payment towards your debt then aren't you at least reducing the compounded amount you'd have to pay?
Yes, the more you pay towards your principal the less amount is compounded. If you can refinance to a lower interest rate def keep making the same monthly payment or more if you can!
Should I consolidate, then refinance?
You did a good job explaining
Debt Refinancing is so tricky! Especially now with rates I don't think it would be a good idea to refinance. How about you?
I have 1,200 a month for discover student loans, what companies are good to call because i cant afford this
What do you consider a good credit score? Currently paying off credit cards and hoping to have raise my score to almost 700 credit score
You can go off of what FICO uses as their scale. But honestly, I don't worry about the credit score. Cuz I know as long as I am making big payments, paying off the cards as fast as I can, that score is gonna take care of itself.
My current interest rate is 4.3%. Would it be possible to make it even lower with refinancing.
4.3% is really low for student loans so I'm not sure you could get it any lower... doesn't hurt to do some research though!
Isn't the interest tax deductible?
Do they like log onto your loan account and pay it or do they give you the money to pay it
When you refinance, the new creditor takes over the loan and you'll be paying them instead of your old creditor.
Can you refinance your student loan more than once?
Great advice!
Thanks for watching!
Anyone with a 750 credit score have luck refinancing a 100k student loan?
This is what I needed to hear! Thank you! 😊
Awesome! Did it help you make a decision with refinancing?
Great break down. This will be very helpful to those trying to manage and payoff their student debt. Once that debt is paid off, invest in real estate 😁👍🏻
Thanks! Any good books you recommend on real estate investing?
Debt Free Millennials definitely “Rich Dad Poor Dad” and watch the Ram Real Estate Investing channel 😁👍🏻
Sallie Mae is honestly kicking my butt right now
Thank you!