Why I Switched to Income Based Repayment

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When I created my debt free plan in 2015 when I had just started my journey, it took me awhile to figure out just what I was going to do with all of my different loans. Even though I was generally following Dave Ramsey’s principles, I was definitely going about it in my own way that made the most sense for my situation. It’s important to remember that your specific situation may not allow for following a specific way of doing things. The important thing to do is focusing on creating the plan that works best for you and sticking to that plan. For me, I knew I needed to switch to income based repayment for my federal loans and it might be a good strategy for you to use as well.

Switching to Income Based Repayment: Choosing a Strategy

It’s important to pick a strategy that works best for you when you are first beginning your journey. If you need help with this, check out my post of how to go about choosing a strategy. The reason why this is so critical is because switching to an income based repayment plan might not make a difference in your payoff. I chose to go with the avalanche method because my private loans were mostly very large with large interest rates. If you need help figuring that out, this tool is wonderful to see the different ways you could pay off your loans.

Switching to Income Based Repayment: Prioritizing Private Loans

For me, I knew I wanted to prioritize my private student loans over my federal loans. This is a personal choice I made based on many different reasons. For one, my federal loans came with some protections in the event I couldn’t pay them, something my private loans did not come with. Also, my parents cosigned my private loans and I didn’t want them to be hit with the burden of my student loans if I couldn’t pay them, which includes my death (YES, my private loans would still need to be repaid if I died, how terrible is that! Luckily, they have changed this policy in the last year or so). This meant that I wanted to put as much of my money to my private loans as possible, making a lower payment on my federal loans ideal.

For these reasons, I knew switching to an income based repayment plan was the better choice for me. This has allowed me to put more money towards my private, higher interest loans each month. It is important to know that no matter what my payment is technically (one year it was $30.85!) I always make sure to pay off my interest every month. It’s important to do this because the loan company will capitalize your interest at the end of the year and add it to your principal. Have you switched to income based repayment?