Can a LPN make minimum payments of $50 if your 39,000 in debt?

After I graduate, I'll have around 39,000 in debt (maybe more). I've made poor choices (I know it's a lot). Can I make minimum payments that are anywhere from $50-$200? I know that my payments should be like $400 but can I pay less? $400 is like a whole paycheck and I don't want to worry about that if I go to RN school or PA school. I don't care if I have more interest to pay. All I care about is affordable payments. Any advice?

I doubt it.....it would take 65 years to pay off the debt at that rate. And that's without any interest. So I doubt anyone would allow such low payments.

I want to make low payments at least until I get my RN

$400 is like a whole paycheck and I don't want to worry about that if I go to RN school or PA school.

$400 is not a whole paycheck, unless you are flipping burgers and dropping french fries into the deep fryers for minimum wage at McDonald's.

When I earned $20/hourly as an LVN in Texas, my checks were about $1,300 every two weeks after taxes and insurance deductions. That's $2,600 monthly. If I were you I would live frugally, work two LPN jobs and put everything you have into paying this debt off in three years. It can be done.

However, throwing nickels and dimes at the problem while adding more debt via earning your RN license is like throwing gasoline onto the fire. The $39,000 in debt will soon balloon into $80,000 if you keep going to school instead of paying it off.

I want to make low payments at least until I get my RN

Are these student loans? Because they will defer payments on them while you are in school full time, if so.

Yeah they are student loans. The thing is I might have to take a semester off before jumping into the RN program. There is hardly any down time between graduating at my school to pass the nclex and landing a full time job before going for my RN. I might take the semester off so I have to make payments.

Edited Jan 23, 2015 by Nursing pursuit

Also, I'll be taking the RN program part time. I have most of it done already.

I'm in ny. The average wage is 14.75/hour from what I've seen. It's kind of tough to find $20 an hour here in western ny. Working two LPN jobs is not doable with RN school. The highest pay job I've seen for LPNs here pays $25 an hour as a nurse contracter but you need 6 months experience. This agency even hires CNAs for contracting work. Who knows if I can land a job with them but I expect to make around $400-600 a week in a typical nursing home here.

If they are federal loans, they have many different payment plans . You can choose lower payments in the beginning if you want.

Before repayment starts you can go to the website of the loan carrier and look at your options.

Once you start your LPN job, you will find making that $400 monthly payment much easier than you expected. Get a full time LPN job first, then go part time when you start RN school. Delaying debt repayment is doing you much more harm than the seemingly convenience now.

I believe they are federal loans. So what kind of payments do you think would be reasonable for me?

I believe they are federal loans. So what kind of payments do you think would be reasonable for me?

Only you can answer that question. In order to do that, you need to sit down with paper and pencil, figure out what your monthly expenses are and see how that compares to your income. Then you can determine what a "reasonable" amount is.

To be honest, the sooner you can pay it off the better, because if you underpay or defer payments while in school, interest will keep building on the balance and you'll end up paying a lot more over time than if you just sucked it up and paid the $400 each month. This may mean some serious budgeting on your part...not necessarily to the point where you're eating ramen noodles TID, but there are probably extras that you could trim your spending on, and put that money towards your loan instead.

Should you decide to defer or just pay the interest, talk to the loan company FIRST so they know what you're doing, and you don't get dinged on your credit report for missing payments.