Student Loans
Our Student Loan Hero team works hard to find and recommend products and services that we believe to be of high quality and that will have a positive impact in your life. We sometimes receive a sales commission or advertising fee when we recommend various products and services. Similar to selling any product or service, be sure to read the little characters and understand what you are buying, and consult an authorized professional if you have any concerns. Student Hero Loan is not a lender or an investment advisor. We do not participate in the loan approval or investment process, and we do not make any decisions regarding credit or investment. The rates and conditions listed on our site are estimates and may be changed at any time. Please do your homework and let us know if you have any questions or concerns. When Ray Laureano and his wife graduated from college, they left school with an impressive number of student loans.
Between them, they had more than $ 200,000 in debt. \We had a lot of student loans,\ says Ray. \I started looking for ways to pay them back faster so we could get out of this debt.\ Here's how they did it and what you need to know before copying Ray's strategy. Ray works as a business analyst and helps companies improve their performance - an area that requires graduate degrees. He and his wife went to private colleges rather than to public universities, which dramatically increased their college costs. However, they saved money where they could. \I enrolled in an accelerated program at Robert Morris University-Illinois,\ he says. \I had a double degree, getting a bachelor's degree and two master's degrees in four years.\ Although his unique program was cheaper than it would have been to get each diploma individually, his education costs have added again quickly. But Ray took the debt with his eyes wide open. \I knew a rough estimate of what to expect for my start-up salary in technology,\ he says. \I knew what I was getting into.\ Ray and his wife's parents had also purchased Parent PLUS loans to help pay for school, but the couple felt responsible for the debt. . \For me, I felt we had the morale to get them out of debt,\ says Ray.
This is our responsibility, in my mind. We did not want to hold our younger brothers and sisters because they were going to college because our parents had to worry about these loans. At the time Ray and his wife graduated, their loan balance was over $ 200,000. Fortunately, they both relied on federal loans to pay for school, so they had lower interest rates than if they had used private student loans. s. \Our interest rates range from 3.00% to 8.00% on our loans,\ he says. Ray started looking for his repayment options and looked for a tool he could use to see all the loans in his family at once. His research led him to the Student Loan Hero app, which helped him get started. The tool allowed him to see all the loan balances, interest rates and monthly payments of the couple in one place. With a loan dashboard in place, the couple became focused on repaying their debt as soon as possible. They used the avalanche risk repayment method, where you first target the highest interest rate debt. Ray and his wife have a combined income of $ 110,000.
Although this seems high, the $ 200,000 student loan payments represent a significant portion of their salary. To help release extra money to put on their loans, the couple lives on a strict budget. This approach allows them to put more$ 4,500 a month to pay off their debt in addition to their regular payments. We are very intentional with our money , says Ray. \We do a lot of pre-planning. If it's not in the budget, we simply do not spend money. In addition to reducing their spending and budget, Ray and his wife have decided on a non-traditional debt repayment plan. Conventional Financial Advice says that if you follow the Avalanche Risk Repayment Strategy, you make the minimum
