u/Alternate_Cost

I have about $60k in federal student loans and make about 75k/yr. I'm trying to decide between RAP and Extended Graduated Repayment.

The calculator shows Extended Graduated at $288/month initially, eventually decreasing to $195/month, with payments not tied to my income. RAP is about $323/month currently, but my understanding is that RAP payments can increase as my income increases.

My thinking is:

Choose Extended Graduated for the lower required payment and predictable payment schedule.

I have about $12k at 8% and $11k at 6.5%, so I'd put an extra $120/month toward the 8% loan and use the debt avalanche.

Once the loans above ~5% are paid off, I'd stop making extra payments and just make the required minimums.

I'd then put the extra cash into my 401(k), since I expect the long-term investment return to exceed the interest rate on the remaining lower-interest loans.

If I get a significant raise or bonus, I'd have the flexibility to either accelerate the high-interest loans or increase retirement contributions rather than having my required student loan payment automatically increase.

I realize Extended Graduated costs substantially more in interest if you actually follow the 25-year schedule ($56,875 in projected interest according to the calculator), but I don't intend to do that.

Am I overlooking something important here? Is there a reason RAP would be substantially better despite the higher/income-dependent payment?

I've been a long time participant on this sub and how I've engaged over the years has changed. From 8+ years ago just trying to play standard affordably, to now having a manapool store and selling cards as a small business. It's interesting in comments to see the large variety of audiences. So I wanted to do a quick poll as a vibe check on why people are here. I'd be interested in how you ended up on the finance side of mtg in the comments, and how it has changed over the years.

View Poll

Posted as a discussion as I'm happy to answer questions and for people to share their experiences.

Tl;dr mana pool is great, margins are slim, build good systems.

Determining sales platform

I started doing online sales in March and made a few posts here at the time and got some great info so figured I'd share what I learned.

To begin I started with tcg player, I sold a couple hundred cards in the $1-$5 range below tcg low so that I could quickly get to the highest tier. I was able to get there within two months of starting. Initially I was very excited for the tools that level would allow for.. until I learned you had to pay a higher percentage of sales to unlock those tools. At base tcgplayer takes 13.25% + $.30. To unlock more tools you need to go up to 14.25% + $.30.

Having reached level 4 and being immensely disappointed with tcgplayer not have basic tools, I looked at manapool. Manapool takes a total of 7.9% + $.30. If I sold at the same price I could immediately increase my profit margin by 5.35%. After getting started, I found that manapool also gives you every seller tool you want day 1.

Overall my experience with mana pool has been great. I can purchase stock at a higher percentage and still make my margin, or sell lower to move faster. The bulk price adjustment tool has been phenomenal and saves hours of time.

Now, 5 months in I have made $1265 in sales on tcgplayer and $5180 sales on manapool. With 3k in inventory on Manapool.

Sourcing.

Sourcing has felt like 3 distinct phases so far. Phase 1 was selling my stuff that wasn't in decks. That made up around 70% of my sales so far, however it is a very small part of my inventory today.

Phase 2 was selling for friends. I pay 65-70% tcg low based on the card value. I stopped listing or purchasing anything under a dollar. It's just not worth the time it takes to sort, pack, and ship. I have also opened a few collector boosters, kept what I wanted, and sold the rest. Although thats more of a fun thing than something I would recommend.

Phase 3 is going beyond my immediate circle. I have a good relationship with my lgs and he has sold me cards that haven't been moving for 65%. He pays 60% store credit so its been good for both of us. Not sure if I want to begin posting on local groups and market place yet. If I want to keep up this rate of sales I need to. But so far its just been about 3 hours a week of work, and idk if I want to spend more time on it.

Shipping.

One of the most important things to do from day 1 is figure out your shipping process. Especially if you're selling low value cards, sometimes you're only at $.25 profit on a sale. Poor shipping practices can eat that whole sales profit.

My process is this:

Pull card(s) - alphabetically sorted.

Penny sleeve.

Cardboard toploader.

Teambag for cards $5+.

Print + fold purchase order.

Tape card to inside of PO flap.

Put into windowed envelope.

Stamp my address on (do not handwrite).

Place stamp and ship omw to work each morning.

For tracked cards I use a 4*7 padded envelope, use pirate ship or similar for best deals.

Taxes.

I honestly don't feel comfortable discussing this, as I'm not incredibly confident in my own system. But it should work. Just be sure to track everything from the start. If I hit 10k this year I'm going to go get a company card. My Q2 report net me at -$67 profit. But I have been growing my inventory.

Let me know if you have any questions, I learned a lot and am happy to share what I know. If you're lucky someone who knows much more than me will answer!

My employer does a 25% match if what you put in up to the cap. So I put in 8%, they do 2%. I'm used to a 1:1 match and usually just do whatever they match, but this plan is very different so I'm not sure how to approach it while paying off debts.

If it's relevant, I have 4k medical debt 0% interest, 60k student loans average of 5.2% interest, 4k credit card debt 22% interest, and 3k auto loan 1.8%. I make 70k/yr. Each month I have about $500 extra I've been putting towards debts, but I'm only putting 3% to my 401k right now.

What would you recommend in this situation?

I'm just getting back into everything after a few years out and surprisingly placed into mid gold right away. This got me motivated to push for this new rank called emerald. But I noticed a lot of the old guides, tier lists, etc that I used to follow have fallen out of favor.

So where do you go for guides, tier lists, meta discussions,etc to stay up to date and improve your play? I've done some googling and there's a lot of crap to sift through..