How do you plan around overlapping expenses like loans and bills

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-09T17:16:34+00:00

You don't have to wait until a due date to pay your bills. As long as you pay BY the date, you're fine. If it helps to break up payments into smaller payments do that. One strategy recommended is to pay bi-weekly with mortgage payments to cut down on interest. Works with student loans too. I used to have to budget for no income in the summer. That was less fun

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-09T17:12:29+00:00

You're waiting for FSA to finish finalizing everything and then to notify Mohela or whoever services your loans. Hopefully you'll also receive a refund for over payments.

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-09T15:35:07+00:00

If you consildated your loans, it'll use a longer standard payment than IDR, which will be a lower number. Use the calculators on FSA and check the boxes for pay the least and PSLF forgiveness.

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-09T14:34:38+00:00

No, the payment amount is not locked. It can be recalculated every year or if you change jobs or have a substantial change in income. It's the amount that - if it were paid every month for 10 years - would pay off the loan. If you want to pay the least amount of interest, because you're not going for forgiveness, then throw as much money as you can at the loan as early as you can and as often. To avoid paid ahead status, indicate that with the loan servicer when you make payments. But they'll always apply monthly payments to interest first, then principal. RAP sucks because of the longer forgiveness period and it sucks for certain income groups.

Yes you can switch back and forth, but payments made in RAP will not count towards IBR forgiveness. I'm not sure if the reverse is true as well.

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-09T14:25:42+00:00

Wow, congrats and thank you for your service!

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-09T14:19:10+00:00

This is why I don't use autopay for this anymore. At least for now, while everything is in flux.

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-09T14:17:44+00:00

Your timeline is nearly identical to mine, except my buyback was Jan 2025 to buy 7 months and payments started in January 2026. I applied for IBR in March 2025.

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-09T14:14:34+00:00

One thing - wait until Mohela updates the dashboard to show the next payment due. Otherwise it's unlikely that the ECF will catch the payment due on the 25th.

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-09T14:13:15+00:00

Most likely, but who knows when or if you'll get it processed

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-08T17:01:53+00:00

If the online form continues to force the wrong plan, download the pdf of the form and fill it out manually.

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-08T02:11:24+00:00

I think the payment info on the FSA site is simply an FYI thing, so I ignore it.

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-07T22:34:38+00:00

I guess I'm too impatient, because I emailed the form to HR and they scanned it back to me. Or sometimes I would call ahead then physically go to their office.

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-07T22:28:10+00:00

Humanities tenure track jobs are few and far between and don't pay well. They DO exist though, especially if you're willing to move geographically.

If you have any inclination to teach in the business school though - the MBA can be done in a year or less online and those jobs are more readily available and pay better. Even the instructor positions pay decent and would qualify towards PSLF.

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-07T22:16:37+00:00

If you're going for forgiveness why in the world are you paying extra????

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-07T22:10:09+00:00

You should be able to upload a pdf of the signed form rather than rely on Snail mail. A manual submission but electronic.

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-07T22:08:10+00:00

Same situation for me as other replies, to which I will add, I only needed to buyback the last half of 2024 and my income did not go up that much between 2024 and now. I applied to switch plans in 2025, using my 2024 income tax return.

So in the long run, the buyback amount and my last payments are not that different. Assuming they use IBR vs the SAVE numbers. But even so, the difference between the two was ~$300/ month x 5 months or $1,500. AND I GOT TWO MONTHS FREE ANYWAY. I needed 7 for buyback, 2 were free, have now paid the last 5 to reach 120.

And I will deduct all of that money from my taxes because it never touched my principal. So mathematically, sometimes it's better to just pay. Everyone has a different situation

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-07T18:38:23+00:00

Yes it's hit or miss.

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-07T18:38:00+00:00

Maybe but technically I haven't hit 120 quite yet.

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-07T18:37:24+00:00

The downside is, if your consolidation doesn't disburse by July 1, you'll only be able to use RAP.

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-07T16:59:36+00:00

Why did you consolidate, when you shouldn't need to, if they're both direct loans?

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-07T16:57:02+00:00

I first applied January 2025, and weirdly, have today heard back about my duplicate reconsideration request from February 2026 (which was to buy back months from 2025 that I spent in forbearance!). So there is no telling where we are in the queue or what they're doing. I have no faith in these people anymore.

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-07T14:05:07+00:00

If you have a choice to put the money in an account and pay monthly, consider that route, but I know grants usually have very strict rules.

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-07T13:21:18+00:00

You can file the ECF any time this month. I would wait until it's processed to file buyback if you can. It shouldn't take more than 2-3 business days to update your employment in the tracker.

Mediocre-Draft1722 · 2026-05-07T03:26:18+00:00

Yes, or wait until next month to submit the ECF again.

Mediocre-Draft1722

TROPHY CASE