Student Loan Debt? Forum

[Chickensoup]

How much is monthly student loan payment if you take out 150K in debt?

At 6.8% over 10 years, you are looking at $1726.20. Is that what most people end up having to pay each month?

[katjust]

If you make enough such that IBR does not reduce the amount, then yes that looks about right. However, there are many tools to extend repayment. Of course, that increases the lifetime repayment amount.

[2014]

The bimodal salary deal pretty much ensures that you either aggressively pay down your loans by contributing as much of your biglaw salary as you can spare without regard for the minimum payment or your shit law/big starbucks salary sticks you in IBR.

So yeah your 10 year payment will be calculated as what you have it at, but realistically you probably won't pay anything close to that.

[Chickensoup]

The bimodal salary deal pretty much ensures that you either aggressively pay down your loans by contributing as much of your biglaw salary as you can spare without regard for the minimum payment or your shit law/big starbucks salary sticks you in IBR.

So yeah your 10 year payment will be calculated as what you have it at, but realistically you probably won't pay anything close to that.

If you get biglaw, why not just pay the $1700 and use the rest of your $9000 per month on more important stuff?

[EvilClinton]

The bimodal salary deal pretty much ensures that you either aggressively pay down your loans by contributing as much of your biglaw salary as you can spare without regard for the minimum payment or your shit law/big starbucks salary sticks you in IBR.

So yeah your 10 year payment will be calculated as what you have it at, but realistically you probably won't pay anything close to that.

If you get biglaw, why not just pay the $1700 and use the rest of your $9000 per month on more important stuff?

LOL, 9k more per month? If you get big law in NYC the take home is 96k per year or 8k per month. After the $1,700 a month payment you will take home $6,300. And good luck keeping a big law job for ten years to continue making those payments.

[Chickensoup]

The bimodal salary deal pretty much ensures that you either aggressively pay down your loans by contributing as much of your biglaw salary as you can spare without regard for the minimum payment or your shit law/big starbucks salary sticks you in IBR.

So yeah your 10 year payment will be calculated as what you have it at, but realistically you probably won't pay anything close to that.

If you get biglaw, why not just pay the $1700 and use the rest of your $9000 per month on more important stuff?

LOL, 9k more per month? If you get big law in NYC the take home is 96k per year or 8k per month. After the $1,700 a month payment you will take home $6,300. And good luck keeping a big law job for ten years to continue making those payments.

LOL I guess you can't read. I said the rest of your $9000 per month, not an additional $9000 per month. Clown.

[EvilClinton]

The bimodal salary deal pretty much ensures that you either aggressively pay down your loans by contributing as much of your biglaw salary as you can spare without regard for the minimum payment or your shit law/big starbucks salary sticks you in IBR.

So yeah your 10 year payment will be calculated as what you have it at, but realistically you probably won't pay anything close to that.

If you get biglaw, why not just pay the $1700 and use the rest of your $9000 per month on more important stuff?

LOL, 9k more per month? If you get big law in NYC the take home is 96k per year or 8k per month. After the $1,700 a month payment you will take home $6,300. And good luck keeping a big law job for ten years to continue making those payments.

LOL I guess you can't read. I said the rest of your $9000 per month, not an additional $9000 per month. Clown.

Either way it isn't 9k in NYC. Clown.

[sunynp]

If you get biglaw, why not just pay the $1700 and use the rest of your $9000 per month on more important stuff?[/quote]

LOL, 9k more per month? If you get big law in NYC the take home is 96k per year or 8k per month. After the $1,700 a month payment you will take home $6,300. And good luck keeping a big law job for ten years to continue making those payments.[/quote]

LOL I guess you can't read. I said the rest of your $9000 per month, not an additional $9000 per month. Clown.[/quote]
Either way it isn't 9k in NYC. Clown.[/quote]
Yeah, even $8000 might be high depending on other deductions. No one is bringing home $9,000 a month on a $160,000 salary.

Also there are reasons due to the high interest rate you are paying on loans compared to the low return you can get on your money that means it makes sense to pay down loans first. Someone else has calculated it and explained it somewhere on the forum.

[2014]

The odds are astronomically high that you will find yourself without a big law job well before 10 years (more like 2-3) and so it makes the most sense to get rid of the debt asap instead of trying to make a meager attempt at building retirement only to have to pillage it in 4 years when you are between jobs and in need of both food and 1700/month for loans.

[Chickensoup]

The odds are astronomically high that you will find yourself without a big law job well before 10 years (more like 2-3) and so it makes the most sense to get rid of the debt asap instead of trying to make a meager attempt at building retirement only to have to pillage it in 4 years when you are between jobs and in need of both food and 1700/month for loans.

How drastically do salaries decline after exiting biglaw? And where do you get your information? Most non-biglaw lawyers I know who are in mid-career are making over $150,000.

[Tiago Splitter]

Either way it isn't 9k in NYC. Clown.

It's about $8500 until later in the year when you stop paying Social Security taxes, at which time it kicks up over 9K. Not including bonuses.

[Chickensoup]

Either way it isn't 9k in NYC. Clown.

It's about $8500 until later in the year when you stop paying Social Security taxes, at which time it kicks up over 9K. Not including bonuses.

Thank you. That poster just felt the need to be an incessant prick and argue with me over nothing. I don't understand why people do that so much on this forum. Everyone needs to RELAX.

[bk1]

The odds are astronomically high that you will find yourself without a big law job well before 10 years (more like 2-3) and so it makes the most sense to get rid of the debt asap instead of trying to make a meager attempt at building retirement only to have to pillage it in 4 years when you are between jobs and in need of both food and 1700/month for loans.

How drastically do salaries decline after exiting biglaw? And where do you get your information? Most non-biglaw lawyers I know who are in mid-career are making over $150,000.

This might help.

[Chickensoup]

The odds are astronomically high that you will find yourself without a big law job well before 10 years (more like 2-3) and so it makes the most sense to get rid of the debt asap instead of trying to make a meager attempt at building retirement only to have to pillage it in 4 years when you are between jobs and in need of both food and 1700/month for loans.

How drastically do salaries decline after exiting biglaw? And where do you get your information? Most non-biglaw lawyers I know who are in mid-career are making over $150,000.

This might help.

I just skimmed that report, but I didn't see anything in there that indicated lawyers with a few years of experience were making less than 100k in major markets.

[bk1]

I just skimmed that report, but I didn't see anything in there that indicated lawyers with a few years of experience were making less than 100k in major markets.

Small firms where most lawyers work? Keep in mind there is likely a high self-selection bias i/r/t reporting salaries so salaries are generally going to be inflated.

[toothbrush]

o

[bk1]

So I may be hijacking but I have a question. Let's suppose you go to CLS with NO scholarship and NO financial aid. You have to take out a loan. LST says the tuition for 2016 3 year will be ~300k.

Does that mean you have to take out a 300k loan and then, at the percent listed above, you would pay almost 3.5k / month with a big law job??

LST calculates debt either at the time of repayment (when you start working, around September) or at the time of graduation (around May/June). Because of that LST calculates in the interest accrued while you are in school. LST also factors in likely tuition increases.

You don't take it all out in the beginning. You get a new loan each semester. So if your school costs 70k/year (for tuition and CoL) you will take out a 35k loan in August/September and another 35k loan in December/January. In the end you very well may be paying 3.5k/month in loan repayments, though I would guess that most people would try to pay their loans off faster than 10 years (meaning they'd be paying more like 4k/month and then increasing that every time they got a raise/bonus).

[toothbrush]

o

[bk1]

This may sound strange, but can someone in big law NYC actually afford paying 4k / month + rent + food + life and live comfortably, or are those 10 years of debt repayment a frugal hell?

There have been plenty of debates over what NYC biglawyers can afford to pay (or can reasonably be expected to pay) on these forums. Search should turn up a bunch of them.

Generally it comes down to people thinking they can live on $X/month before they are actually in a situation where they are working a ton and paying for convenient things (e.g. eating out, laundry service, etc) because they'd rather just pay for stuff rather than do it themselves when free time is rare/precious.

[toothbrush]

o

[EvilClinton]

Either way it isn't 9k in NYC. Clown.

It's about $8500 until later in the year when you stop paying Social Security taxes, at which time it kicks up over 9K. Not including bonuses.

Thank you. That poster just felt the need to be an incessant prick and argue with me over nothing. I don't understand why people do that so much on this forum. Everyone needs to RELAX.

You are the one that called me a clown. Don't call me a clown if you want to be treated with respect. Clown.

Anyway I think this is incorrect. There are multiple threads about this (and obviously it depends on your dependents and other various deductions) but the consensus is that take home in NYC is 96-98k. That number has also been verified by several first year associates and does not include healthcare and 401K deductions (which vary by firm and individual). Tiago's estimation means 6-10k more than any calculation I can find.

I also used this to calculate: http://webinfocentral.com/RESOURCES/PayrollTax.aspx

[Br3v]

[quote="2014"]The bimodal salary deal pretty much ensures that you either aggressively pay down your loans by contributing as much of your biglaw salary as you can spare without regard for the minimum payment or your shit law/big starbucks salary sticks you in IBR.

So yeah your 10 year payment will be calculated as what you have it at, but realistically you probably won't pay anything close to that.[/quote]

I am lost as to why the bolded is. Could you explain it in more detail? Are you saying you will be paying much more or less than that?

[bk1]

I am lost as to why the bolded is. Could you explain it in more detail? Are you saying you will be paying much more or less than that?

Because if you land biglaw you should be able to pay down 150k debt far quicker than 10 years and thus pay less in interest than you would on a 10 year repayment plan. Or alternatively you will be in IBR and also paying much less.

[Br3v]

I am lost as to why the bolded is. Could you explain it in more detail? Are you saying you will be paying much more or less than that?

Because if you land biglaw you should be able to pay down 150k debt far quicker than 10 years and thus pay less in interest than you would on a 10 year repayment plan. Or alternatively you will be in IBR and also paying much less.

thanks

[Tiago Splitter]

Tiago's estimation means 6-10k more than any calculation I can find.

I also used this to calculate: http://webinfocentral.com/RESOURCES/PayrollTax.aspx

Good call. I used paycheckcity.com which didn't automatically include the city tax of just under $500 per month. But a lot of people forget that you stop paying Social Security taxes at the $110,100 mark, so take home increases by $559/month in the last third of the year.

Of course, for a lot of first year associates it's worse because they have to pay back salary advances in year one.