Good day,
I’ve been paying dues and following Debt Collective emails, but just joined this forum.
I’m an older (51) student loan borrower with a very high balance ($386K, mostly principal compounded w/ capitalized interest) relative to my career path (music/music ed - a Ph.D., 2 Master’s, Bachelors). I AM in a PSLF eligible job currently, and have been in one off and on (but also ineligible jobs, including a university position abroad, public service positions held before 2007 when IBR started, and adjunct/part-time positions during my degree enrollment, that didn’t meet min. hours, plus a COVID unemployment period).
I am currently at 83 qualifying payments out of the needed 120 for PSLF. I had some years accrual toward forgiveness under IBR, though that info is no longer on the studentaid.gov site after the recent suspension of that forgiveness model.
I was placed out of IBR and into SAVE when that plan began under Biden. Obviously we know the situation with the injunction and now interest about to kick in. I was also given bad advice on the phone by an FSA rep last year, that by continuing payments under SAVE forbearance over the past year, I could eventually have those payments count toward PSLF. Obviously with the new administration eliminating that program, that’s not going to happen for a bunch of my payments.
I got a recent Debt Collective email summarizing all the recent upheaval, and recommending each person ask a professional about his/her unique situation for advice. My question is, what kind of professional and where? I’m trying to determine if I should now apply for IBR to resume making PSLF qualifying payments, but afraid the adjusted monthly payment calculation will be impossibly higher (I can go a little higher, not a lot).
Thanks for listening.
Matt