New PSLF Planner/Calculator

[DocEden]

Hi,

I am married to a resident and started a new website based on the frustrations we've had with managing the student loan process.  When the new REPAYE plan came out, I decided to create an excel spreadsheet to "run the numbers" and see which plan would be best for us. We are hoping to use PSLF, so I took the calculations out 10 years. I couldn't believe how complicated it was trying to make this spreadsheet! I figured other people were likely having this same
issue, so I learned some basic coding skills, and created a website which helps perform these calculations. The website I created is called www.DocEden.com and the planner/calculator I created is www.DocEden.com/PSLFplanner.html.

I thought this is a tool many readers of White Coat Investor would enjoy and would love to hear any feedback (good or bad) you all have.  Let me know your thoughts!

 

[jfoxcpacfp]

What a great tool - going up on my Doctor Resources Pinterest page. Thanks for sharing the fruits of your labors!

[DocEden]

Thank you for the nice comment - it is much appreciated!  If you hear any feedback on how the tool can be improved, please feel free to pass along.

[OutRun]

This calculator is awesome! Good on you for making this available to all. Bookmarked!

[DocEden]

Glad to hear you found it helpful!

[nachos31]

DocEden, this calculator is phenomenal! It is far superior to the one on the Federal Student Aid website which doesn't even cap my old-school IBR payment at the Standard 10-yr repayment amount.

Just to confirm: the "PSLF Summary" box tells you how much total you will have paid over the life of the loan prior to forgiveness, correct?

My only suggestion would be on the far right of the main table to have a column to keep a running total for total amount paid to date for each year.

Thank you for making this amazing tool available for all to use!

[DMFA]

I use an Excel spreadsheet.  Haven't updated it in four months, though.

[DocEden]

nachos31 wrote:

DocEden, this calculator is phenomenal! It is far superior to the one on the Federal Student Aid website which doesn’t even cap my old-school IBR payment at the Standard 10-yr repayment amount.

Just to confirm: the “PSLF Summary” box tells you how much total you will have paid over the life of the loan prior to forgiveness, correct?

My only suggestion would be on the far right of the main table to have a column to keep a running total for total amount paid to date for each year.

Thank you for making this amazing tool available for all to use!

Click to expand...

Yes - "Total Payments Made" will tell you the sum of the 120 monthly PSLF qualifying payments made over the life of the loan prior to forgiveness.  Appreciate the suggestion on adding a column with the amount paid to date each year, I will look into adding that.

Also, I've been developing a "DIY Financial Plan" to help me get a good handle on the big picture of my finances including managing student loans, referencing a lot of posts from WCI and PoF as guidance.  Will add a post on the forum once I've tested and added to the website for others to use.

Thanks again for the comment - let me know if you have any additional suggestions

[PPD]

I must say I love this calculator, too. I think it just saved me $30,000 over the life of my loan since I am IBR, but I can switch to either REPAYE or PAYE and save some dough.

Since I have apparently been misunderstanding who is eligible for the PAYE plan (understanding that everyone is essentially eligible for REPAYE), can someone clarify for me if they think I am eligible for PAYE? The studentaid.gov site says: "In addition to meeting the requirement described above, to qualify for the PAYE Plan you must also be a new borrower as of Oct. 1, 2007, and must have received a disbursement of a Direct Loan on or after Oct. 1, 2011. You're a new borrower if you had no outstanding balance on a Direct Loan or FFEL Program loan when you received a Direct Loan or FFEL Program loan on or after Oct. 1, 2007." Later on it says "If a loan type is listed as “eligible if consolidated,” this means that if you consolidate that loan type into a Direct Consolidation Loan, you can then repay the consolidation loan under the income-driven plan. For example, only Direct Loans may be repaid under the REPAYE, PAYE, and ICR plans. However, if you consolidate a FFEL Program Loan or Federal Perkins Loan into a Direct Consolidation Loan, you may then be able to repay the Direct Consolidation Loan under the REPAYE, PAYE, and ICR Plan (depending on the type of loan that you consolidate)"

I borrowed money starting in 2005, so I assumed I wasn't eligible based on the first paragraph. However, before finishing residency/fellowship, I consolidated my loans into a Direct Loan in 2015 to take advantage of IBR. After using this calculator, though, and based on this last statement, does this mean I am eligible for PAYE? When I use the repayment calculator on the studentaid.gov site, it says my loans are eligible for PAYE (surprise to me).

Thanks again, DocEden, for putting this calculator together.

[nachos31]

PPD, I think that you are ineligible because you took your first federal loan out before Oct. 1st, 2007.

From my experience, I am ineligible because my first federal loan was disbursed August 2007. I consolidated my loans in 2012, but was still ineligible. I found out when FedLoan Servicing decided to try to apply for PAYE for me (without me asking, and when I had submitted an application to renew IBR), got rejected, and then put me in forbearance for not having reapplied for income-driven repayment plan. They got it sorted out (and got me back into IBR) but not before I lost two months' worth of IBR payments and had the interest up till that point consolidated.

[PPD]

Thanks for this reply - your situation is fairly similar to mine. I did find another comment buried in the studentaid.gov site saying you can't consolidate a loan to meet PAYE requirements, so I suspect that's why you were denied and I would be, too.

[nachos31]

Correct, the original loan needs to be PSLF eligible itself in order for it to remain PSLF eligible after consolidation--with the exceptions you quoted.

[DMFA]

PPD wrote:

Thanks for this reply – your situation is fairly similar to mine. I did find another comment buried in the studentaid.gov site saying you can’t consolidate a loan to meet PAYE requirements, so I suspect that’s why you were denied and I would be, too.

Click to expand...

It should be noted that when you consolidate, it "resets the clock" on PSLF - since consolidation creates a new loan, then the payments you made on the previous loans no longer count toward the 120.  This could be catastrophic if you're relying on it, especially if you've already made several years of payments.

[PPD]

Fortunately that's not the case for me. I was late deciding to pursue PSLF so I only have two years of non-attending salary where I paid under a PSLF-qualified plan, and I consolidated beforehand. Wish I had have been more with it and consolidated sooner and paid more during residency, but I hadn't found WCI yet!

[DocEden]

DocEden wrote:

nachos31 wrote:

DocEden, this calculator is phenomenal! It is far superior to the one on the Federal Student Aid website which doesn’t even cap my old-school IBR payment at the Standard 10-yr repayment amount.

Just to confirm: the “PSLF Summary” box tells you how much total you will have paid over the life of the loan prior to forgiveness, correct?

My only suggestion would be on the far right of the main table to have a column to keep a running total for total amount paid to date for each year.

Thank you for making this amazing tool available for all to use!

Click to expand…

Yes – “Total Payments Made” will tell you the sum of the 120 monthly PSLF qualifying payments made over the life of the loan prior to forgiveness.  Appreciate the suggestion on adding a column with the amount paid to date each year, I will look into adding that.

Also, I’ve been developing a “DIY Financial Plan” to help me get a good handle on the big picture of my finances including managing student loans, referencing a lot of posts from WCI and PoF as guidance.  Will add a post on the forum once I’ve tested and added to the website for others to use.

Thanks again for the comment – let me know if you have any additional suggestions

Click to expand...

I wanted to let you all know I've finished developing a beta/testing version of the DIY Financial Plan I've been working on.  If anyone would like to take a look, I would greatly appreciate any feedback and/or hearing if this is something you would potentially use.  The link is: https://www.doceden.com/testinglogin.php and the login information (read-only) is email: [email protected] and password: testing123

My plan is for the DIY Financial Plan to always be free to users, but eventually include advertisements.

Feel free to add a reply here or email me at [email protected]  Appreciate any feedback!