Graduating law school in less than 30 days...with 100K (and that included a scholarship at a highly ranked PUBLIC school grrr). Anyways, those of you with significant student loans are you saving any money each month after rent/mortgage etc? How are you doing it. Also, would you buy a home even with significant student loans (FHA home loan)? And lastly, do you have a separate "baby fund" by any chance for when you start ttc or if you currently are ttc?
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CONGRATS!!!
I had a TON of debt--undergrad, masters, 1.5 years of law school!
If I were single and had to pay off my debt, I would probably rent (unless I could find a cheaper than renting mortgage). Living costs are so cheap in GA..
Pay off student loans, and try to save at least $100 a month.We didn't start a baby fund until after LO was born.
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Fortunately, my huge ($115k) student loan gave me a career with an high salary. DH makes about the same and we are able to save. We are currently TTC and while we don't have an account specifically for the baby, I'm not worried about it. We are house hunting, but have lost out on the ones we've bid on. We aren't looking for an FHA loan but financing was easy even though I do have big student loan payments to make. essentially we were qualified for a house worth $115k less than we'd have been qualified for without my loan.
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congratulations! now my debt isn't as high as yours (45k student loans..+ credit cards) but well, I'm unemployed and pregnant.
we aren't looking to buy a home for 1-2 years just because we want to pay down credit cards. we also don't know where to buy.
but, we're paying $600/mth in rent, and we aren't saving any extra money right now because most of the extra cash we have goes toward paying down CC. we do save money to not go nuts (to allow ourselves small things).
if we wanted to pay minimums, we could save $400-500/month. but we want to pay down. however, that's CCs - with student loans, I'll pay the minimum/agreed payment because its not as bad of a debt as CCs, if that makes sense. in that case, we will likely be able to save 300-400/month, but, we are only renting.
hope that made sense!!
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@chopsuey119: Thanks, I have one more 15pg paper to write, and I'm on page 3 it's taking every ounce of me to write it lol. And it's on divorce! I just got married a month ago, I don't know why I picked divorce! I'm the idiot who is purposely moving from ATL to super expensive DC (no job offer, I just really want to live close to my parents). My friends call me crazy everyday. We are currently saving $200 each month from DH check not for baby fund, but just generally.
@oliviaoblivia: If only I wanted to go big firm route, I'd have 6 figures, but I really am into domestic violence work and non-profits. That's awesome about the financing. I say FHA because that's all we've heard of at this point that seems in our reach. Rent in DC looks upwards of $2500-3000 a month, and having paid $800 rent for nice 1BR in ATL, we can't fathom renting for that much so hope to buy even if it is smaller (just hopefully still in decent neighborhood)
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I have about 65k in student loans, DH has none. He is able to save a lot every month--it depends, but it's between $100-500 a month. We rent in Brooklyn, NY and pay $1700 for a 2br/1.5 bathroom. I save sporadically, but am finally getting on a direct deposit plan. We want to buy an apartment and will probably do so in the next 2 years. We're also looking into FHA and some programs for middle income families.
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@sorrycharlie: I *had* to pay down my credit cards before I tried to sit for the bar, so DH and I moved in together (were just bf/gf at time), and I was able to pay them off completely, so I know what you mean about paying more than the min.
@mrsjazz: Thankfully, DH has no loans as well. They paid him to get his Masters and TA that smarty patooty lol. $1700 for two br 1.5 does not seem bad for NY! My fear is if we have that much in rent, how will we ever have anything left over after utilities!
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@hunni: Our rent is cheap and our apartment is beautiful, but I'm not a fan of the neighborhood (safety), so we are moving when our lease is up in September. We will end up paying more soon, plus childcare--so the savings will probably be much less in a few months.
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DH and I have both worked in Biglaw for over six years. We've always made sure we had an 8 month emergency fund. We use our income to save significantly and agressively pay down our loans. Neither of us drive fancy cars or spend a lot of money on material goods. We have been renting since graduation. We also max out our 401k contributions.
We are now in a position for me to stay home, buy a house, a second car, and still have more than an 8 month emergency fund in savings. We have also paid off more than 60% of our undergrad and law loans and have never carried consumer cc debt.
Even if you don't work in Biglaw, just be sure to live below your means and save and pay down loans before buying a house. At least that's how we did it.
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@hunni: don't you just wish nonprofits could offer the same pay. Ouch. I lived in DC in a super nice neighborhood (kalorama) before I went for my MBA. I had a one bedroom for $1200. DC is doable for less than $3k. It is an expensive town though. I miss the free museums.
Congrats on your degree! And good luck house hunting.
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@birdieputt: That is awesome!! What made you rent instead of buying and paying a mortgage that time if you don't mind me asking? I think if we cut eating out we'd save an additional $250 for sure.
@oliviaoblivia: Thanks! Although, sadly I'm not even excited b/c I don't have a job, and the economy is so bad. I interned in a DA's office for 2yrs, and they offered me a job-working for free. No paid position after all this time sadly!
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I chose to work in a medically underserved area and do research, so most of my copious debt is paid by debt forgiveness and grant money. It frees up our money for babies and our house. (We actually currently own two--houses, we don't "own" the babies :P).
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@hunni: we never bought real estate because we never had a 5-year outlook in any city we've lived in. we also wanted to make sure we had enough saved to make a minimum 20% downpayment on a house.
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Congrats!!
I had about 57K in lawschool loans (all federal loans with very low interest so only pay $350/month in payments and since graduating in '05 have paid it down by roughly 10K). The first few years after law school, I didn't have a great paying job so didn't save much money (except I always contributed to my 401K) and DH (then my fiance) was in medical school and had NO income. But, then I got a well-paying job, DH started his residency and started earning an income (thankfully has no medical school loans) and we started saving.
We ended up buying a condo right before we got married about 3 years ago. We live in Boston, so even a 2 bedroom condo is 400K-500K and the only way we could afford it was because DH came into some money (long story). We were able to do so because we put 15% down and our monthly payments are actually now less than renting a 2 bedroom apt in Boston.
We didn't start a separate pool for saving money for the baby - we just have a general savings pot and put away as much as we can each month on top of my 401K. Saving is tough - it takes commitment and frankly a long time to feel like you are making a dent!
Good luck : )
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We don't have as much debt as you have (currently have around 50k after several years of aggressively paying debt down). We do own and save each month now. How did we do it? Well, we both have higher income careers, which is probably the biggest help, obviously. The other is living within your means - the "means" you determine after prioritizing debt. We don't drive BMWs even though our salaries would allow for it, for instance. We rented smaller apartments without any sorts of "luxury" to them for many years in order to save additional money there.
I'm also a fan of the "snowball" debt elimination method, and it's working for us. If you have other debt (car, credit cards, consumer, etc.) you aim to pay those debts off first. Once they are paid off, apply the $ you spent on them each month to your next debt item - and keep "snowballing" your payments on debts until everything is paid off.
I think it's also important to prioritize savings, even while paying off debt, so that in case something comes up (car repair, medical bill, whatever) you don't end up having to put that onto a credit card or take out a new loan, or do something else which will cost you more money in the long term.
We own, and got a conventional mortgage. We are not interested in FHA mortgages because of the additional cost per month in PMI insurance for having put less $$ down. We just rented until we had 20% downpayment saved, and we were very fortunate that we were gifted a portion of our downpayment from family.
If you end up in nonprofit work (which is awesome work, btw!), depending on your income, there are several student loan repayment options available that are tied to income, and only available to "lower" incomes. You might see if you could qualify for one of those programs, even if for a year or two, and see if within that time that would allow you guys to save some additional money.
Student loans can be like having a additional mortgage, which sucks! But, they don't have to ruin your life either - good luck at finding the happy financial medium/
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Wow, thanks for all the great responses! You guys give me hope! I only have federal student loans as well, so good interest rate. We have NO other debt thank goodness. I just got a 2001 fully loaded Honda Accord as an early graduation present when my beloved first car (Jetta) died. While I opted for two doors as I wasn't thinking babies, and DH owns a 2 door celica we probably won't rush to buy an suv unless absolutely necessary when we start ttc (1-2yrs). I'm totally hoping for whatever job I end up getting to have loan forgiveness program, but am acting as if they don't exist in case future job doesn't offer it. DH has $4000 in his 401K (that thing is growing really fast considering he hasn't been working that long)! I think not buying makes sense, because we don't know where we ultimately want to end up-DC (near my parents), Cali(love state but soo expensive), or Texas (low cost of living, nice place to settle down).
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Wow, thanks for all the great responses! You guys give me hope! I only have federal student loans as well, so good interest rate. We have NO other debt thank goodness. I just got a 2001 fully loaded Honda Accord as an early graduation present when my beloved first car (Jetta) died. While I opted for two doors as I wasn't thinking babies, and DH owns a 2 door celica we probably won't rush to buy an suv unless absolutely necessary when we start ttc (1-2yrs). I'm totally hoping for whatever job I end up getting to have loan forgiveness program, but am acting as if they don't exist in case future job doesn't offer it. DH has $4000 in his 401K (that thing is growing really fast considering he hasn't been working that long)! I think not buying makes sense, because we don't know where we ultimately want to end up-DC (near my parents), Cali(love state but soo expensive), or Texas (low cost of living, nice place to settle down).
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