How to Assess Your 2018 Student Loan Progress

It’s December, and amid the hustle and bustle of the holidays you might be wondering about your personal financial situation. If you’ve got student loans you can’t think about your money without thinking about your debt. So what’s a borrower to do? The answer, a 2018 student loan debt assessment. Read on for the top three things to look at when you assess your progress on student loan debt. 

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1. Total Balance Change

The first place to start is with the objective progress. Look at your statements back to Dec 2017, and write down your student loan balance. Now take a look at this month’s statement and write down your current balance. How’s your student loan balance looking compared to the end of 2017?

Hopefully your debt has gone down since December of 2017. The degree to which it has gone down will depend on your personal repayment strategy and your interest rates.

2. Current Repayment Strategy

The next thing to review in your annual student loan assessment is your repayment strategy. If you have a mix of Federal and private student loans you might have different strategies for different loans.

Federal student loans will be on one of the federal repayment plans i.e. Standard 10 year, extended repayment, income-based repayment, etc. Private student loans will have a fixed monthly payment for a certain number of years. Your student loans could also be in the grace period, deferment, or forbearance.

3. How Student Loan Repayment Fits

The last thing to look at is how your year of repayment felt. This step is entirely subjective, but here are two questions to ask yourself. How did your student loan repayment approach fit in with all your other competing financial needs in 2018? How does repaying your student loans impact your future financial goals?

Answering these questions will help you decide if your current repayment strategy is working out for you. If you feel like you’ve had enough extra money to spend on wants and didn’t make the progress you wanted on the principal, it may be time to look for a repayment plan with a higher monthly payment or pay extra each month.

Taking time to assess your student loans at the end of the year can set you up for financial success in 2019. I love hearing from my fellow borrowers, so if you want to share the assessment of your student loan progress leave me a comment below or on the Repayable Facebook page.