A Student Loan / Budget Calculator Forum

[fl0w]

So I was working on this and a couple people did say they were interested in seeing what came of it.

It's pretty simple, but it's a nice tool. Just follow the steps. Just leave the "calculated fields" alone and it should be fine.

Step 1.
Enter all the cost info from your school

Step 2.
Estimate what you think the interest rate will be on your loans
Now you can see your loan and what your monthly payments will be based on your repayment plan. Keep in mind that the longer your repayment, the more you will pay in interest (as in if you take out 130k over 30 years you'll pay more than the principle of your loan in interest).

Step 3.
Enter your budget information. Some of these will just be estimates, cause it will depend on what your salary will be
Note that the "Student Loan" line is a drop down based on the table generated from your loan information. Pick one based on what you expect your repayment term to be.

It'll allow you to have an idea of what your finances will be like based on different incomes and what your projected debt will be.
Please note that taxes are accounted for, but are an estimate. I didn't account for exemptions or pre-tax deductions or anything.

Step 4.
Your emergency fund. This is important in case you get laid off and end up having to support yourself on your savings account and unemployment until you find a new job. Good economy says 3mo emergency fund is fine. I always have done 6mo. In this recession 9mo might actually be a good idea, so feel free to make another calculation for that.

Feel free to provide feedback. I just figured I'd share it since it's something that might be useful for other people.

http://www.4shared.com/file/242135167/9 ... tion-.html

I know there is another calculator that someone else did but it had a lot of "opportunity cost" stuff that may not be relevant to most people (I'm assuming people using this have already decided they want to go to law school).

[Mattalones]

This is pretty interesting. I wonder how overpaying the min payment changes things. I looked at doing that on a mortgage calculator for a home loan and found that it made a HUGE difference, esp if it was on a 30 yr loan, but you were paying it like it was a 10yr loan.

If you pay an extra $1,000/mo and and extra $1,000 at the end of each year on a 30yr, 8%, loan for $200,000, it will be gone in about 9 years.

Check it out

[fl0w]

This is pretty interesting. I wonder how overpaying the min payment changes things. I looked at doing that on a mortgage calculator for a home loan and found that it made a HUGE difference, esp if it was on a 30 yr loan, but you were paying it like it was a 10yr loan.

Essentially when you overpay they keep you on the same schedule. So if your payment is 140 a month and you pay 150 a month, they will require less for your minimum payment the next month. The longer you overpay the lower your required monthly payment is because they are trying to keep you on track for the 30 years. Typically the amt paid over the required payment goes straight to principle.

The thing is, if you then start paying the new minimum payment, your monthly minimum payment will start rising back to the normal rate.

[Unadilla Kayaker]

Nice to have these tools. Thanks!

[fl0w]

Nice to have these tools. Thanks!

No prob! Let me know if u have questions about it! )