Published
$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.
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.
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.
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.
Nursing pursuit
301 Posts
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?