I’m currently paying off the loans I took to finance my way through University, and lately it’s been on my mind a lot. Hoping to see that I’m not an aberrant freak, I’ve decided to run a small poll. So…
How long did you take to pay off all your student loans?
Or if you’re in the process of paying them off, how long do you think it’ll take before you give them the final cent you owe?
(Feel free to mention how much total debt you started out with, if you wish to be really detailed.)
We get pretty good loans here, since we can do automatic ones directly from the govt that automatically get paid back through wage garnishment.
That said, I’ve heard that if you spend more than 10 years in a row outside the country your debt is erased, so that’s tempting!
Years and years.
When I finished undergrad in '95, I had somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000 in student loans. I paid on them off and on (job changes & losses had them in deferment at times). Then in 2002 I went back to grad school, and started repayment this January. I’ve got around $40,000 between the remaining undergrad and grad loans, consolidated. There’s a 25 year repayment schedule…if I only pay the minimum every month with no deferments or anything…I’ll be paid off sometime in 2030, when I’m 56.
I hope to be finished with them well before then though.
Coming out of grad school (1998), Mrs. nrd and I had a combined $100,000 (U.S.) in student loan debt. Yes that is a lot of money, but it was an investment. My salary post grad school is 4x what it was pre-grad school, so it works out. As for re-paying, my Stafford loans were on a 10 year schedule and will be paid off in about 3 years. Mrs. nrd has one private loan that still has about 13 years to go. We could pay these off, but at the current interest rates, why bother? My loans are around 4%. I can get more than that out of my 401k with my eyes closed, so why worry about accelerating those payments? I’d rather pre-pay on the house if there is extra money. Actually, between maxing out our 401ks, paying into our daughters’ 529 plans, and paying into a few other investments, there isn’t much left over.
I guess my rather disjointed point is - don’t stress over student loan debt. It is a fact of life, and if you played your cards right, it should be an investment (with either a financial or intellectual enrichment payoff). Don’t let potential debt dissuade you from an education.
I graduated (undergrad) in May 2004 with about $27k in loans. My plan is to pay them off in 3 years. So far, I’m ahead of schedule. It was a great investment.
I have 750 dollars in loans, which I plan to have paid off this summer. 
I have exactly 54K, all in federal loans. I’m looking at a 30 year plan…I consolidated at an insanely low interest and can get it even lower with direct deposit and a bunch of other stuff so I don’t really feel the need to pay it off right away. Also, federal loans die with you.
I owe 74K in USD and I’ll be paying it off until I’m 70ish.
Don’t worry (too much) about paying off the loans. Not only are student loan interest rates extremely low right now, but the interest you pay on those loans is subtracted from your gross income for tax purposes, so it’s essentially like you made less money during the year in the eyes of Uncle Sam (an even better deal then the tax deduction for mortgage interest).
I owe about $15,000 and am paying it off in $145 increments, so I’ll be payed off in about 8 years. I’d like to do it sooner, and if I have the means I will make bigger payments.
I have about 135k, which I will pay the absolute minimum on for as long as I can drag it out. I mean, I’m locked in at 3% on most of it. At that rate, it would be insane to pay it off early. I could get a better return on my money in almost anything.
I’ve been paying off my loans for about three years now, and I’ve barely made a dent in them. At the rate I’m going, I’ll pay them off in about 30 years. My goal, however, is to pay them off in 6 years. Most likely it’ll be 8-12 years. I’m no fan of debt and really want to pay them off soon (although interest rates are low), but adverse life events have set me about 12-18 months back in payments from where I wanted to be at this time.
All that was really good to hear. I don’t seem to be an exceptional case at all. In fact, compared to some of you, my loans are really puny! $135k! :eek:
When I was young and innocent, I hoped to be done with my loans in 4 years. Now, with the real world at my ass, 8 years seems more likely. Oh well.
<Gloria Gaynor>
I will survive!
</GG>
Well, I left the world of education via mortgage and got a decent job in March of 2001 with a staggering debt load that I no longer even remember. 
At the moment, I’m down to around $15k canadian. If I continue just paying the automatic monthly minimums, which is kind of tempting, my projections indicate that I’ll be free and clear around august or september of 2008. If I actually get off my ass and send in some extra payments to the CIBC, it could be about a year or so earlier.
But the alphasmart Dana ‘palm laptop alternative’ is calling out to me… 
And I want to fly out west for a holiday later this year.
Just to be excruciatingly precise, there is an income limit above which you can no longer deduct education loan interest. In other words, if you make too much money, you can’t take this deduction.
I was a bad boy. I blew my student loans off completely for about 10 years after graduating. One I was offered a … (what did they call it) compromise of some description, and paid off a $4000 debt for 1200. With that done, I contacted the U.S. Dept of education and began paying the minimum on the rest. $50 a month, or about what they would take if they snagged my tax refund. ( I wasn’t filing much during those 10 years after graduation.) I haven’t calculated how much I’m actually eroding the principal, it seems most of what I pay is interest, even at the low rates. It’ll probably be paid off sometime before I die.
I have about US$40k in student debt and another US$2k in credit card debt. I’ll be converting that credit card debt into student loan debt soon. 3% interest beats 13% interest any day of the week.
I don’t know how long it’ll take me to pay off that debt. Right now it seems like forever. It all depends on how much I’ll get paid once I start working at something that actually pays me reasonably. Assuming, of course, that I can actually find a job that pays me reasonably. I’m not sure I really have any marketable skills to speak of…but that’s for another thread.