Читать книгу Personal Finance in Your 20s & 30s For Dummies - Eric Tyson - Страница 49

How fast you pay back student loans should be a function of a number of factors. First, if you plan on doing more higher education and possibly applying for any type of financial aid, it generally makes sense to pay the minimum possible on your loans; the more debt you have outstanding, the better positioned you will be to see your future education bills reduced. You can see your repayment options on the website at studentaid.gov/loan-simulator/.

You should be aware of another quirky feature of federal student loans if you’re contemplating working for certain nonprofit or public-sector employers. The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program may help wipe out your remaining federal student debt after you’ve made ten years of repayments if you work for a qualifying employer such as the federal, state, or local government or a nonprofit organization covered under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or if you’re serving in a full-time AmeriCorps or Peace Corps position. See studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service for more information.

When weighing which student loans to pay back faster, you should consider the interest rate on your loans. If you have extra cash and would like to pay back your loans faster, start with the ones with the highest interest rate. If the overall interest rates on your student loans are relatively low, don’t miss out on the tax benefits you can earn by funding a retirement savings account, especially if that retirement account offers you free matching money from your employer.

If you’re sure you are finished with your higher education and associated costs and are debating paying down your student loans faster than required versus investing your extra cash, do a comparison of the interest cost on your most costly loans versus the likely investment returns if you were to invest that money. (The rules governing the tax-deductible amount of your student-loan interest are covered in the next section.) If, for example, your student loan interest is 4 percent and you are reasonably confident that you can earn, say, 6 to 8 percent by investing your extra cash, you may want to go for the investment.