30 years old, $140k in student loans, $120k salary. What would you do?
I’m 30 and currently have about $140k in federal student loans. Interest rates vary between roughly 4.6% and 6.3%.
I’m a home health physical therapist making $120k/year, and I’m currently on PAYE. Unfortunately, none of the home health agencies/employers I’ve worked for are PSLF qualifying employers, so PSLF isn’t really an option for me unless I were to change jobs specifically to pursue it, which I’m not planning to do.
I’m paying $1,200/month in rent right now, but my lease is up in March and I’m planning on moving back home with my parents.
Once I move home, my expenses are going to be pretty low. My thought is to basically dedicate the next year or two to getting rid of as much of this debt as possible. I’m thinking around $3k to $4k a month toward the loans, potentially more some months depending on how much I have left over.
Since I’m not planning on going the PSLF route, I’m wondering if aggressively paying these down is the smartest move. My plan was to target the highest interest loans first, especially everything above 5%, and then work my way down.
Would you stay on PAYE and just make large extra payments? Is there any reason I should consider switching repayment plans?
Also, would you throw basically everything you can at the loans while living at home, or would you balance it more between investing/saving and paying them off?
Curious what you guys would do in my situation.