Student loans and finacial planning

[stoney508]

You have done great by finding work so fast! Since you are still living at home, I would suggest paying as much as you can towards your student loans. Before you take on the expenses of living on your own, you need to try and pay off as much of those loans as you can. This will help you by shortening the amount of time you will be paying and will also help cut down on the interest you will be paying too. I would also recommend that you perform a credit report check on a regular basis.

I have paid nearly 15,000 in a little over a year and I have been going at my loans aggresivly for that reason of moving out and finding my own place. Right now I have used creditkarma not sure if its the best place but it gives me an idea of where I am at and it says around 750 is my credit score. Now I am not sure that is really all that close but I have good enough credit to get a CC through my back with a 5,000 limit, not sure if thats good or not.

Renting I know is a short term situation and like I stated before I may be looking at new job prospects as well as my fiance will be looking for jobs as well and that is were we are at.

[stoney508]

Update: I have just paid off my private student loan and kept up my minumum on my other loans I was able to save 102 a month. Right now that money will go to saving for the wedding coming up in about 10 months or so. Its going to be tough because my savings are pretty depleted so I will be slowly saving for the wedding and getting my EF back up.

As of 2/14/13 my balance for all my student loans was $34,277 and as of 10/11/13 my loan balance is $23,343. I will not beable to sustain this aggressive path going forward but I have made a considerable dent in my loans thus far the original balance was around $45,000 so around $21,657 paid off in probably 2 years maybe a year and a half of being very aggresive.

I do have to figure out if I will put my american funds investment which is around $1,265 which it has been growing as of late actually a lot about 19% since the start of the year which is amazing. This is through an investment firm that in the future I do not plan on investing with because they have a lot of front loaded investments.

Does anyone have any insight if I should keep the investment or cash it out? If I cashed it out I would probably wait a little while for the debt ceiling to get resolved. I am not trying to time the market but I do not really want to miss a little uptick in the market if it were to happen. (Technically I know this is timing the market)

[Wino]

Two things.

In answer to your latest question: I just leave my investments alone. I look at them occasionally, but rarely move them anywhere. I suggest you do the same.

Your original post said you're thinking about getting a 15 year ARM. Why?! Interest rates aren't going to go down much more, so the only way to adjust would be up. Get a fixed-rate mortgage when you get one.

[snafu]

Give yourself a pat on the back for making a plan and sticking with it. What fees are you paying on the MF? If front loaded, will a charge be applied when sold? What commission will be paid? I too believe the market is waiting for the current mess to cease and will take off! A great many major corporations are awash in $$$$.

[stoney508]

Two things.

In answer to your latest question: I just leave my investments alone. I look at them occasionally, but rarely move them anywhere. I suggest you do the same.

Your original post said you're thinking about getting a 15 year ARM. Why?! Interest rates aren't going to go down much more, so the only way to adjust would be up. Get a fixed-rate mortgage when you get one.

This is an investment that I didnt make it was from my parents and I never got the choice in anything.

I am also far from getting into a house so the mortgage is out of the picture for quite a while. I was thinking a 15 year arm because I was probably not going to stay for much longer than 5 years and I would save more money on interest and gained more in equity that way. I was also looking for a house that was going to add some income with an investment property by spliting up or buying a split house so I could rent. All of that has changed.

snafu: I dont know the complete specifics of the mf I did not start it and I have to go in to talk about it soon. I just know the company edward jones has a lot of front loaded investments and with not knowing much about it I dont know any of those questions but I will find out when I go talk to them.
Anything I should ask specifically?

[stoney508]

Do or should I take into consideration for cashing out this loan if I will be making additions to it? Right now I have my retirement 401k as well as a ROTH. I make additions to these and if I were to open more mutual funds I would be going through another company in which this investment would just sit. I believe that I may let it sit a little while longer but I still plan on putting it towards SL because I want them to paid off as quickly as possible.

[scfr]

You're talking about the Edward Jones investment of $1,200 that is in something that your parents chose when you were a minor and which does not fit with the investment plan that you are developing for yourself as a soon-to-be-married-adult, correct?

Given those circumstances, I don't think there is anything wrong with moving that money. If I were in your shoes, I would find out what it would mean in terms of taxes (by talking to your parents, Edward Jones, the IRS, and/or the place where you would move the money). Decide if you are willing to pay any taxes that you will incur. And remember that as you get older you will probably move in to a higher tax bracket, so you may want to just bite the bullet and pay the taxes now. If you are willing to pay the taxes, then set aside what you think you will owe to Uncle Sam when tax time comes around and then decide where to put the rest of the money. Are you still way behind on saving for the wedding? If so, you may want to put it there since the date of the wedding is approaching. Or use it to pay down the SL. Either one is a reasonable choice.

[stoney508]

I havent been on here much lately but I have a little update. My student loans are down to 21,800 about putting 150 extra towards my nelnet loans and I just recieved a 3.33% reduction in my interest rates. I am paying a total of 201 a month for these loans and this month $180 went towards my principle which will help out a lot to pay the SL off much faster.

I am no longer thinking of buying a house in the near future but hopefully within the next 5 years. Hope to have the SL paid for in under 3 years or earlier.

My investment through Edward Jones I still plan to put to my SL around the time of my wedding or shortly after. This will hopefully bring me under 20k by that time.

The next endevor will be taking the brunt of all the bills so my fiance can pay off her car loan, CC debt (moved in together finally and needed some furniture), and then attack some of her SL at least until she reaches 10k and then flip that off every 5k until we both have our SL paid for. Does this sound like a good idea?

I am using my tax return whatever size it is (gets smaller every year but dont want to mess with allocations until I have a better understanding of were I am at) to put towards our wedding fund. And then finally going after the small amount of CC debt I accumulated this last christmas and good thing I used a CC because that whole Target breach got me about 2k worth of fraudulant charges. I still pay more than the minumum on the CC as is but the reallocation will enable me to pay off the CC probably 3x faster.

Life is getting tough with the SL and saving for a wedding but I am slowly seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and I think I will have a SL from nelnet paid off by the wedding in august so I will be giving myself a pretty good wedding gift and less to worry about but only for a short while.