This is going to be a short post, but it should help a lot of people.

Since I’m a finance nerd and think about debt payoff and investing a lot, financial calculators take up a lot of my time.  While there are a lot of good investing calculators out there, I could never find a nice debt payoff calculator.  Here’s what I look for in a good debt calculator:

-The ability to enter multiple loans with different interest rates.  This is really helpful for people with student loans.  Sadly, most calculators don’t even have this seemingly basic feature.

-A graphic representation of my current loans and when they will be paid off.

-The ability to see the effect of increasing or decreasing your extra loan payment on your loan payoff date.

Ready For Zero had a program that did exactly this, and it was great!  I used it for a few years until they suddenly stopped offering it this year.  Huge bummer.

I searched futilely for a similar calculator with no luck.  Recently, I tried to search for a calculator again and an old friend resurfaced…

Unbury.me

I wrote about unbury.me a few years back because the calculator had everything I wanted.  It even showed how much more time and money you’d save by using a debt avalanche instead of a snowball!  It was a very no frills and basic looking calculator but it got the job done.

Like Ready For Zero, it mysteriously disappeared.  But now it’s back with a nice updated look.  Here is a look at the home page:

Everything I want is right there on the home page looking all simple and clean.  From here you can add as many loans as you want and enter the balance, interest rate and monthly payment.  And you can select if you want to pay them off using the avalanche (highest interest loan first) or snowball (lowest balance loan first) method.

Once you enter your information, you’ll be redirected to a cool dashboard with a lot of nice colorful looking graphs.  It’s a nice little control center that gives you a ton of good information.

But the best part is the top of the dashboard which looks like this:

All the information I need in a nice little toolbar.  I love being able to see the exact month my loans will be gone (less than 2 years!)

There are a lot of other cool graphs and numbers to play with.  Number junkies like myself will spend a lot of time on this site.

Having a good student loan calculator like this can be a very motivating factor in paying off your loans quickly.  It’s great seeing the exact month you will be debt free and the powerful effect of paying more on your highest interest loan.

I recommend setting aside a nice half hour to enter all of your student loans and looking at all the nice graphs they have on here.  Another feature is that you can create a profile and save all of your info.  Saves having to re-enter all of your loans again.  Unbury.me is simply an awesome student loan calculator.  Enjoy!

Everybody with student loans should consider refinancing.  It might not be the right choice for everybody, but you’ll never know unless you take a look.

At worst, you get some quotes and realize it’s not worth the effort or you don’t want to give up Federal loan perks.  But at best, you can potentially save tens of thousands of dollars worth of interest payments and pay your loans off years earlier.

When you look at it that way, it doesn’t hurt to try now does it?

I’ve written before that my two favorite refinance companies are SoFi and Earnest.  That still stands.  I’ve personally refinanced loans with these companies and had a great experience.  People I’ve referred for refinancing have had great experiences as well.

But as with any industry, new players continue to pop up.  It would be a disservice not to mention quality companies in the student loan refinance arena.

One such company is Credible.  We used them to refinance my wife’s student loans and had a great customer service experience along with a great interest rate.  Plus they gave us a nice little sign up bonus.

If you’re already convinced, sign up here to get some quotes.  If you end up applying for a loan before December 31, you get a sweet $200 bonus sent your way.

Need a little more convincing?  Read on about how Credible provides a fantastic student loan refinance experience.

Choices.  So Many Choices

The thing I like about Credible is that they give you so many more loan choices than other companies.  You can essentially find any combination of interest rate, loan payoff time in a fixed or variable loan product.

This flexibility is amazing because not everyone wants or is able to go with the lowest possible interest rate with the shortest payoff term.  Many people have other goals such as investing for retirement, buying a house or funding a business.

These goals take money, so it’s a good idea to find the most manageable payment you can without sacrificing your other goals.

The dashboard neatly lays out all the different offers available to you.  After checking your credit and asking for some pieces of information, you will quickly be able to see what offers are available and find the best one for you.

Since Credible is more of a clearinghouse than a bank, you will see multiple offers from different institutions.  Most refinance companies will just give you their own rates.  So it’s nice to be able to compare rates from a number of companies.

Once you find the offer that works for you, Credible will do a little more background work and in a week or two the process should be complete.

Potentially huge interest savings and a nice $200 bonus to boot.

The Offer

If you sign up with this link and are approved for a loan by December 31, you will get a $200 bonus.  The normal bonus is $100, so it’s a great opportunity to look into refinancing if you’ve been on the fence.

Like I said before, there is no downside in looking into refinancing your student loans.  You can even get your quotes before your actual credit report is pulled.  So no need to worry about your credit score being dinged.

So check out your rates before the year is up.  There could be huge savings and a $200 bonus waiting for you.

Get some quotes people

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People tend to need some hand holding when trying something new.  I’ve found this to be the case when recommending student loan refinance to colleagues.

I recently wrote why everyone with student loans should consider refinancing.  The best that could happen is that your interest rate goes down substantially and you save tens of thousands of dollars over the life of the loan.  The worst that could happen is that refinancing is not beneficial and you stay right where you are.

Nothing to lose at all.

And while people generally like doing things that will benefit them, sometimes a little prodding is still necessary.

For example, I know it’s a good idea to try and fix things around the house myself before I call someone.  But I need to watch a couple of good step by step videos on Youtube before anything actually gets done.  That’s just the way I am.

Many people are like this when it comes to saving money.  They know it’s a good idea to open up a savings account and contribute to it automatically, find a less onerous checking account or sign up for a rewards credit card. But sometimes a little kick in the pants is needed to get going.

This post will serve as that kick in the pants.  I will show you how easy the student loan refinance process is and what companies you should consider.  Let’s get started.

(I will use screenshots from SoFi since they do not require a hard credit check before getting quotes.  More on that later.)

Step 1:  Go to the lender’s website

Just type in SoFi.com (or better yet use this link and get $100 if your loan gets approved.)

Most online student loan refinancing companies have easy to use interfaces.  Once you’re on the home page, simply click “Find My Rate” on the top right.

Step 2:  Enter Your Personal Information

In order to give you an accurate quote, lenders need some information from you.  The type of information required will vary between lenders, and some lenders will do a credit check before you get your quotes.  So the experience with each company will vary.

(By the way I did not hack into Bill Nye’s SoFi account I just made up an account with his name.  I’m fairly sure he doesn’t have a need for student loan refinancing.)

Typically, the information most lenders require is:

-Basic demographic information

-School information

-Employment information

-Current student loan balances and rates

-A little later in the process, you will probably have to send proof of income and a picture of your license or passport.

Some people are wary of giving companies too much information.  This is not really anything to worry about.  In reality, Facebook has a whole lot more information on us than these companies ever will, so I’m okay with letting them know how much money I make.

Step 3:  Analyze your quotes and make a decision

This is where the fun begins.  After you enter all of your information, companies will run a soft or hard credit check.  A soft check won’t affect your credit score but will still allow you to see some quotes which are going to be pretty close to your actual quote.  A hard credit check will show up on your credit report but will give you very precise quotes.

With the example I used, I assumed a student loan balance of $100,000 with a 7% interest rate and a 25 year term.  The minimum payment would be $706.78.  Making just the minimum payment over those 25 years would amount to a total payment amount of $212,000.  More than double the original loan amount!

I advise to go with the shortest payoff period you’re comfortable with and can afford.  But as you can see, even if you go with a 20 year term it would still result in a lifetime savings of more than $43,000 with a slightly lower than original monthly payment!  That’s why I say refinancing is a no-brainer.

A shorter payoff term will also result in a lower interest rate.  So the shorter you can go, the better it will be.

Fixed or Variable?

The other consideration is if you should go with a fixed interest rate or a variable interest rate.  This discussion deserves a post of its own (that’s a good idea!), but if you opt to go with a longer payoff period, about 10 years or longer, I would suggest sticking with a fixed interest rate.

Interest rates are sort of predictable as far as if they will be going up or down, but the uncertainty lies in when that will happen.  Right now in 2016, for instance, interest rates are pretty low so they are bound to go up at some point.

But that could be 6 months from now or 6 years from now.  There is too much uncertainty over a long period of time.  So for shorter term loans, less than 10 years, variable rates are a good bet and for longer term loans, it’s better to stay with fixed.  Everyone has different risk tolerances so use that as a general guideline.

The last thing to consider is that your rates will probably vary from my results, and will probably vary from someone in your same class.  Companies take into account your credit score, credit history, loan balance, interest rate, where you live, where you work and who knows what else.  The screenshot above is just for illustrative purposes, so make sure to get quotes after putting in your own personal information.

So Which Refinance Company Should I Use?

The student loan refinance arena is growing rapidly.  I keep get letters in the mail from new companies claiming they can refinance my loans at the lowest rate possible.

But let me give you the short answer.  There are only two companies worth your trouble:

#1: Earnest (get a $200 bonus by using this link)

#2: SoFi (get a $100 bonus by using this link)

I ended up going with Earnest for my refinance, just because their quoted rate was .05% lower than SoFi’s.  Everything else was pretty much the same with both companies.

Both companies make the onboarding process easy and both companies have great customer service.  You may get different quotes because both companies have different underwriting standards, so get quotes from them both and compare.

If you really truly want more quotes, a good place to look would be Magnify Money.  They will give you a list of all the best student loan refinance companies.  They are also a great resource to find the best checking and savings accounts.

Looking at the potential savings from refinancing I don’t know why anyone would not get a few quotes and see how much they could save.  Refinancing is not a good choice for everyone, but getting quotes online is so easy it really is in your best interest to just take a look.

So to conclude: Earnest. SoFi.  See how much you can save.

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Paying off student loans is a battle.  It’s a battle fought against multiple enemies while running a marathon.  Sounds difficult, but it takes consistent work and sacrifice for new professionals to become debt free.

In any battle, you need a good strategy and weapons.  Ideally, Matrix amount of weapons:

One weapon I should have used sooner is student loan refinancing.  In my case, it saved me a lot of money.  And if you have a nice chunk of student debt, it can save you a lot of money too.

How much?  Let’s take a look.

Simple case study

Let’s look at the case of a medical school graduate with a run of the mill $100,000 of student loan debt.  To keep things simple let’s assume this is one giant loan with an interest rate of 7% and a 25 year payoff.

And let’s also assume this particular graduate is a big spender and has no extra money to put towards student loan payments.  (I’m going to have a talk with him later about priorities)

With help from this handy student loan calculator, here’s how much this graduate will owe with these initial terms:

Original loan: $100,000

Interest rate: 7%

Minimum monthly payment: $706.78

Total interest paid: $112,033.35

This doc would have to pay a total of $212,033.35 on a $100,000 loan!  That’s one expensive education.  He would have to shell out over $700 every month for 25 years.  That does not sound like a good time.

Now let’s see how he would have fared if the student loan was refinanced at a lower rate of 4.5%, which is pretty average nowadays for a fixed rate according to SoFi:

Original loan: $100,000

Interest rate: 4.5%

Minimum monthly payment: $555.83

Total interest paid: $66,750.38

Through a simple student loan refinance, our doctor lowered his monthly payment by over $150 and reduced his total interest payments by more than $45,000!

Why in the world would anybody not want to take this deal????!!!!

Even if you’re eligible for a government program like income based repayment, these types of programs will almost always have you paying more in total interest payments.  I would much rather get my student loans refinanced to the lowest interest rate possible and then pay them off quick.

Very Easy Process

I graduated optometry school in 2009.  Doesn’t seem like a long time ago, but when it comes to student loan refinancing, it’s an eternity!  There were very few companies around and the process usually required physical paperwork.  Smartphones were not even a big deal back then so that should tell you something.

Today, there are so many companies that will refinance your student loans.  I continue to get emails and letters from these companies.  And many of these companies are very good.

There are two companies in particular who I feel are the best.  They are SoFi and Earnest.

I have personally refinanced student loans with both of these companies and they are listed #1 and #2 on the popular comparison website Magnify Money.

Refinancing with these companies is done completely online and is very streamlined and simple.  I walk you through the experience in a previous post here.  It’s easy enough to open an account and poke around just to see how easy the process really is.

Honestly, unless you’re getting total student loan forgiveness, there is no reason anyone with student debt should forgo the refinancing option.  It costs nothing to get some quotes and more likely than not, you will find an option to lower your interest rate.

Conclusion

Paying off student loans isn’t complicated.  Consolidate your loans if that makes sense from an interest rate point of view.  If not, pay off your highest interest rate loan with reckless abandon while paying the minimum payments on the rest.  Then move on to the next highest rate loan.  Rinse and repeat.

To make this easy process even more effective, refinance your high rate loans.  This will accelerate your loan payoff process and get you debt free even quicker.

Getting your student loans refinanced early in your career will provide the most bang for your buck.  This is the time your balance will be highest which means higher potential interest payments.

Being debt free requires resilience and consistency.  And a little help from others never hurt:

Check out your rate with SoFi.  You will receive a $100 bonus if approved for a refinance.

Also, check out Earnest.  You will receive a $200 bonus if you are approved for a student loan refinance.

My advice is to get a quote from both companies and see what the best deal would be.  Both companies use different underwriting methods so you don’t know what you can get unless you try!

If only we could go back in time…

At some point in our lives, we wish we could go back in time and give ourselves some advice.  If we performed better in some key points in life, who knows how different everything could be?

Life’s all about the journey as the saying goes, but it would be nice if I was able to tell my 20 year old self the winning lotto numbers.  Might be a more luxurious journey at least.

But I’ve watched enough movies to know that telling ourselves winning lotto numbers or sporting event results would disrupt the space time continuum.  (Back To the Future 2 anyone??!!)

So I would be content with teaching my college self a few solid life lessons.  College is a critical crossroads for many.  Make the right choices and getting your degree will most likely get you a nice job.  Drop out and start a company and you will become the next Mark Zuckerberg.

If only it were that easy.  There are a few lessons I would like to impart to my college self (geez has it been 15 years???):

Figure Out What You Want Before You Start

I didn’t really know what I wanted to do as a college freshman.  I started with a general “business” major, then Philosophy and finally settled on Biology after I decided to become an optometrist.  This was a 2 year process that should have been completed before I got into school.

I tell you, my college bound self,  decide what you want to do with your life before you start college.  That way you can have laser like focus on what classes you need to take.  Taking classes you don’t need for your degree is a waste of time and money.

It will also allow you to work on your career outside of the classroom.  You could find a mentor, look at potential graduate schools or find out how you want to live your life in your chosen career.  This is a much better use of your time than eating mediocre nachos on campus while thinking about what the heck you want to do with your life!

So figure out what you want to do early on, and make that the focus of your time at college.

Student Loans are Easy to Acquire, but Hard to be Rid of

Think about how you want to pay for college before you get in.  If student loans will be your primary tool, so be it.  Just remember that you will be able to get a LOT more money than you really need.  And that can get you in a lot of trouble once real life starts.

When you get that sweet looking award letter, don’t be fooled by all the money the school will want to give you.  You don’t need all of it no matter what the projections say.  All you have to do is sign on the dotted line and your school will benevolently give you as much money as you want.

Only it’s not your school that’s giving it.  It’s most likely the government.  And the government always gets its money back.

So make that sacrifice by eating cheap meals at home rather than eating out every day.  Try to walk or bike whenever you can instead of saddling yourself with a car payment in school.  And ask family for help.  There is no shame in using your brother’s old sofa for your living room.

Consider Refinancing As Early As Possible

College self didn’t know too much about personal finance.  During my second year of graduate school, we were informed that the interest rate on student loans will be going up from around 2% to 6%.  I thought nothing of it at the time, but those 6% loans are the ones that seem to keep hanging around after all these years.

Education is key, so learn about how loans and debt repayment work as early as possible.  Preferably before you get into school.  Along the way you will find out about refinancing, and it is a wonderful thing.

Plan to pay off your debt by paying off the highest interest loan and then moving down the list.  This will allow you to pay off your loans in the most efficient manner possible.

Consider refinancing your loans to get that interest rate down lower so you can pay the loans off even faster.  I didn’t even think about refinancing until about 5 years after school.  Dreaming of the money I could have saved makes me hate student loans even more.

Where to refinance?  Earnest is a great company to work with.  I have had a couple of loans refinanced with them and the process has been great.  They were able to cut my interest rate by a couple of points and I saved hundreds of dollars in interest payments by refinancing with them.  If your goal is to pay off your loans as quickly as possible, what’s not to like?

College is a time for discovery and growth.  It’s when students explore new horizons and find themselves.  But it would be nice if future me just found me pulled me aside and gave me the lowdown on how to prepare for life the right way.  I’m sure he would mention the wonders of student loan refinancing.

Recent graduates of professional school are in a unique position.  They usually have high amounts of debt and low savings. Not a good recipe to buy a home.  Almost everybody with high debt and low savings will get denied for a traditional mortgage.

But one thing almost all professional school grads have is high potential income. So a number of banks offer Physician Loans (also called Doctor Loans) geared towards new professionals.  Most of these loans are geared towards MD’s.  But other health professionals, such as optometrists, can take advantage of them also.

Nuts and Bolts

I wrote about Doctor Loans in a previous post, but since I’m now a few years into having one, I wanted to revisit the subject.  Here are the key aspects of a Doctor Loan:

Pros

• Requires little to no down payment
• Doesn’t require Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI)
• Doesn’t factor in student loan debt, which is usually high for professionals
• Will accept a job offer or contract as proof of earnings

Cons

• Available only to new grads, usually a maximum of 5-10 years out of residency or school
• Can have higher fees and interest rates than conventional loans
• Certain types of homes may be restricted
• Some banks might require the customer open a checking or savings account with the bank

It’s also important to know why banks would offer a Doctor Loan.  Lenders are looking for customers who will make their payments on time and have a good relationship with the bank for years to come.  Professionals usually have high income potential, so banks want them as customers for life.  They will offer premium checking accounts and preferred rates for customers with mortgages.

My Take on Physician Loans

Now that we have the pros and cons out of the way, let me give you my opinion of the Doctor Loan.  I decided to use the Doctor Loan because we wanted a house after renting for a couple of years but didn’t have the 20% down payment needed for a conventional loan.  By not having at least 20% for a down payment I would have to pay Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI).  This is just an extra monthly payment to the bank that would not even be tax deductible in our case.

After finally finding a bank that offered Doctor Loans for optometrists, I went thorough the usual ton of paperwork required for a mortgage.  I’ve heard some horror stories from others who went through the mortgage application process, but luckily it went pretty smoothly for us.

I ended up selecting a no down payment Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM).  While this sounds scary on paper, I believe it was the best decision for us.  Doctor Loan interest rates are usually a little higher than conventional loans. Going with an ARM allowed me to get a rate in line with the average 30-year fixed at that time.

The interest rate on my ARM doesn’t increase until after 10 years, which is a few years longer than we plan to live in the house before selling.  Even if we end up living there a little longer than 10 years, we can still handle the maximum possible payments so it shouldn’t be an issue.

Our plan is to build up enough equity in the house to eventually get a conventional loan on our next home.  The Doctor Loan allowed us to take advantage of low current rates and have an affordable payment.  I don’t regret going with the Doctor Loan, but if we had waited a few more years to build up enough of a down payment for a conventional loan, we might have scored a lower interest rate.

No Free Lunch

Not paying PMI and not having to fork over a large down payment sounds like a good deal, but the advantages of that can be erased if you decide to sell too early or you have to settle for a high interest rate.

So are Physician Loans for everyone?  Absolutely not.  Homes are expensive (taxes, maintenance, homeowners association fees etc).  If you rush into a purchase too fast and aren’t ready for the upfront costs, then a Doctor Loan is probably not a good option.  You would be better off learning the basics of home ownership while building up enough of a down payment for a conventional loan.

Mortgage lenders essentially work like see saws.  They can offer low down payment and no PMI, but will have to increase the interest rate.  If you want a lower interest rate, you should be able to offer a good down payment and maybe even pre-pay some of the interest.

There really is no one right answer.  Deciding if a Doctor Loan is right for you depends on your income potential and how long you decide to live in the house, among other things.  Run the numbers and ask those who have been through the mortgage process to see if it would be a good option for you.

If you need some more information, here is a great overview about student loans from Ricardo at Doctor Loan USA.