Student Loans
If you want to go to college, you will most likely need to take out a student loan to be able to do so. Parents used to be able to save up and send their children to college just from savings, but with inflation and the cost of college, that isn’t always possible anymore. There are student loans that most students will be able to qualify for, both government backed and private loans.
You can do research to find the best private student loans, and there are a lot of places that offer them. You can also get a lån student, or student loan, from the government but you will have to qualify for them, as well. There are applications for Free Application for Federal Student Aid at studentaid.gov – this application is for all federal student aid including grants, scholarships, and student loans.
What You Need to Know
1. Know What You’re Getting Into
Do some research to see what you are getting yourself into before you apply for student loans – there’s a lot that you need to know. You need to know about the terms of the loan, exactly how much you are getting, the deadlines that you can’t miss, and about all the other financial aid that you could get. Most people don’t know that there are opportunities for grants and scholarships that can pay for quite a bit of your first years of college. You can apply for all the free student aid before you apply for the loans to save you money.
You can go to your high school counselor’s office before you leave high school to get more information about all the aid that you can get. Your counselor will also know about the little-known scholarships that might be available for what you want to study for or that are for your particular high school. There are many opportunities that could be available if you just ask your counselor.
2. Know the Rules and Numbers
You want to know all about the rules and numbers of you loan before you sign any of the paperwork so ask lots of questions. You want to make sure that you take advantage of all the federal loans before you try to get any private loans. Federal loans can save you money on interest while you are still in school and up to six months after you leave school. If you take out a private loan, the interest payments will start immediately. With a federal loan, you also have options to put your loan into forbearance or defer payments until later if you are having financial difficulty – options that are not available through private loans.
3. Mistakes to Avoid
The biggest mistake that people often make is not paying the minimum amount due each month and that’s when people go into default. You need to budget your student loan payments just as you budget your house payment or car payments. If you think you are going to have issues making your monthly payment, talk to your loan officers to see what options that they might have for you. You have to be able to communicate your issues – if you don’t no one will be able to help you when you have those issues.
4. Think Big Picture
When you are thinking about taking out student loans, think about what career you will have and what your starting salary for that career will be. If you are going to be a teacher with a starting salary of about $50,000 a year, you don’t want to take out over $100,000 worth of loans. You just simply will not have the money to pay it all back in a reasonable amount of time. If you have that much debt, you might put off other major life decisions such as buying a home, getting married, or starting a family.
5. Loan Forgiveness
At this time there is legislation being introduced and argued over about forgiving student loans for many people who are having difficulty paying for them. Since Covid, there has been a moratorium on paying student loans but this will end soon. If loan forgiveness doesn’t go through, there are people who don’t know how they will ever pay their loans off. Loan forgiveness will help people with lower incomes going into careers that are not that high paying, such as teachers, nurses, or police officers. These people need loan forgiveness so that they can pay their other bills such as house payments, car payments, and utilities.
Checklist
- While you are still in high school you need to talk to your counselor and see what opportunities you have for scholarships and grants. You can also find out about all the different types of loans that are available for you and your parents. Your counselor will have all the information that you need to get started on your college career and the aid that you need to accomplish it.
- Research the amount of money you can make at your chose career – see what your starting salary will be. This will give you an idea of how much money you will want to borrow so that you don’t end up borrowing too much money. You will want to be able to afford to pay your loans off with your starting salary.
- Once you have started the college application process, talk to your college about deadlines for loan applications and other applications for aid. You don’t want to be late applying for these because it could end up costing you hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition fees. Your college counselor will have all the information that you need in order to be on time.
- You should only take the absolute maximum that you need to pay for your college expenses. If you take out more money just because it is available to you, you will have more debt than you need and it will be more difficult to pay it all off. You want to make sure that you keep your debt as manageable as you can without going too far into debt.
- You need to make a spreadsheet to keep track of your loans and the interest that you will be paying on your loans. If you do this, you will be able to see which of your loans should be paid off faster due to higher interest rates. This will also help you to see where your money is going, and which loans are getting closer to being paid off.
- If it is possible, pay off as much of your loans while you are still going to school to avoid more interest payments later on. If you are still living at home and working while you are going to college, this will allow you to have some extra money to pay off those loans.
- When you graduate, make sure that you put in your monthly student loan payments into your budget just like you do all your other regular payments. This will allow you to make sure that the payments are made each month and that you don’t go into default.
Conclusion
You want to make sure that you have all the information that you need before you take out any student loans. Once you find out all this information, you won’t be as intimidated as you would otherwise be. Student loans are a blessing to those who need them, but you need to make sure that you take care of them just like any other obligation that you have.
