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Adam's rambling thread about lowering Student Loans, Taxes, ect.


iwashmycar

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Not really. Vets don't get paid shit, especially for the amount of schooling they have to put in. You'd have to do it because you love animals.

 

Nope. Extremely high overhead for a practice, xray machines, lab equipment, surgical lamps, etc. Very little pet insurance meaning most people pay out of pocket so margins aren't very high. Hitting low $100's is usually career tops for most General Practitioners. Orthopedic Surgeons can get up into the low $200's, but that would be like the surgeons at MedVet.

 

The vets that most people see that make them think that vets make bank are the older ones who had little to no debt coming out of school and have made the stagnant $80-$100k for the last 20 years.

 

Never would have guessed that. I guess it's like a teacher- 50k+ in schooling and come out making 35k, peaking at 75-80k. They do it for the love of the kids.

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Yeah SoFi was higher than the 4.5% I am at. I think their best was like 4.3 but for a shorter term, which given the minute difference isn't worth higher payment.

 

Still will likely check the wifes since she is at 6.8. Gotta be some room to get down.

 

We both have excellent credit luckily. Just not sure where the 3.5% ones are!

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Chase Slate is 0% for 15 months, $0 transfer fee. I just tossed mine on there when I graduated and payed it off. If thats not enough time you can transfer what's left to a discover card which is 0% for 12 months and $0 transfer.
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You more than likely won't be able to find fixed interest rates that low. When I was shopping around fixed interest rates were always 2-3% higher than variable. Most fixed rates were 4.5-6% 2-3 years ago when I refinanced and that was with perfect credit. I agree that right now might be a bad time to go variable with interest rates likely to shoot up...
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Chase Slate is 0% for 15 months, $0 transfer fee. I just tossed mine on there when I graduated and payed it off. If thats not enough time you can transfer what's left to a discover card which is 0% for 12 months and $0 transfer.

 

Yeah I am a pro at using the zero interest cards for certain things, but 50 grand worth of loans is impossible. I need like 120 months lol

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Update.

 

I called the federal loan holders of Sarah’s PSLF loan. Trying to see if 330/mo is as cheap as it gets. They said yes as we are on income-driven and mentioned the only cheaper way is maybe filing taxes Married - Filing Separately. Since I make twice what she does I wonder if it really would help? Just trying to pay as little as possible on a to-be-forgiven loan.

 

Need to look into this tax thing now. Fun.

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Update.

 

I called the federal loan holders of Sarah’s PSLF loan. Trying to see if 330/mo is as cheap as it gets. They said yes as we are on income-driven and mentioned the only cheaper way is maybe filing taxes Married - Filing Separately. Since I make twice what she does I wonder if it really would help? Just trying to pay as little as possible on a to-be-forgiven loan.

 

Need to look into this tax thing now. Fun.

 

You get fucked on credits and deductions you can take. You cant really itemize because you have to both either itemize or take standard. It may be worth it without kids.

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I see the strategy there. However it’s scary paying any more than I have to on a BMW MINI product. I’ll try and keep that in the black!

 

I’m thinking we are technically on the right course with these things after all aside from trying to refi Sarah’s higher 6.8% private loan. I think that is the best we can do at the moment.

 

I appreciate all the suggestions on here. Really helped me ask the right questions.

 

 

EDIT: Looks like I could get a fixed 4.91% from PenFed on her 6.8% $20K. That isn't terrible. SoFi is still at 5.85 it seems.

Edited by iwashmycar
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Humm. Doubt monthly savings would eclipse those tax savings. 330/mo on 60k really isn’t much in the grand scheme of things. Doubt it would go down substantially

 

 

Humm. I may look into it when I go to file actually.

 

I plugged some numbers into the Federal Loan Estimator and filing together brings up the ~$341/mo for 120 months (w.remainder forgiven).

 

But If I plug in some total guestimates for AGI separately, it shows $11/mo rising to just $98 over 120 months (w. a fuckload more forgiven obviously)

 

330/month is SUBSTANTIAL, and likely to be far more than tax savings. Guess I will see.

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Ok I am just going to keep this going. This thread is becoming a good live reference for myself lol.

 

 

So I was looking into taxes and aside from a couple of straggling student interest 1098's (that likely wont affect it) it is looking like a no-brainer to file married-separately.

 

Together we get 3066.

Separate I get 3031 and she owes 216. So that equals, we get 2815.

 

When I go to her loans and check them out as her being 'married-separate' on the tax status I get ranging payment quotes of 89-133 / month. That is way below the 340 we are currently dropping each month. That's at least 2400/yr saved.

 

Question though....when filing married-separately does your AGI equal the Box 1 Wages? I put all our stuff into Credit Karma Tax and that is what happened to happen...seems odd.

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Ok I am just going to keep this going. This thread is becoming a good live reference for myself lol.

 

 

So I was looking into taxes and aside from a couple of straggling student interest 1098's (that likely wont affect it) it is looking like a no-brainer to file married-separately.

 

Together we get 3066.

Separate I get 3031 and she owes 216. So that equals, we get 2815.

 

When I go to her loans and check them out as her being 'married-separate' on the tax status I get ranging payment quotes of 89-133 / month. That is way below the 340 we are currently dropping each month. That's at least 2400/yr saved.

 

Question though....when filing married-separately does your AGI equal the Box 1 Wages? I put all our stuff into Credit Karma Tax and that is what happened to happen...seems odd.

 

You can run all the way through TurboTax and it will tell you. Typically the income based payments are based a foemula that is 10% or 15% of your disposable AGI. If she is on IBR it will only calculate her AGI for the payment. If she is on PAYE or REPAYE it uses the joint AGI either way.

 

I dont see how your difference can be that small as you are already losing a $1200 childcare credit, and a $2500 interest deduction, as well as a smaller deduction for each income, and only 1 income claiming the child

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She is on IBR, so that is good.

 

 

edit: the only thing I can see CK might have messed up that Turbo Tax didn't was give me 1000 child credit too. I think if Sarah is claiming Hadley I just put a 0 and she would also claim the 14000 in childcare paid? Its weird, it feels like I am filing taxes as a divorced person or something here.

 

Anywho, that makes my return 2031 instead of 3031 and hers is all the same. Still owes the 216 bucks. Together it still would have been 3067.

 

So now we lose 1252 by filing separately. That makes it a little closer to compare routes. However, still remains, if that loan could go to around even $90-100/month from 340, we could be saving 250/month, and still get a little return at least. Worth it I think.

 

 

Turbo Tax also teases you with 'what your return would be' after tax reform....over double! Is that true?

Edited by iwashmycar
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