Hello all, I am new to the forum and attempting to grow a stache! I'm getting serious about debt and savings, and I am going all-in on paying my wife's student loans. Currently, we have about $75K spread across the loans listed below:
Lender A
$1,264 at 6% fixed, subsidized
$1,251 at 5.6% fixed, subsidized
$1,686 at 6.8% fixed, unsub
$1,902 at 6%, subsidized
$1,247 at 5.6%, subsidized
Lender B
$4,038 at 4.5 variable
$14,516 at 4.5 variable
$3,398 at 4.25, variable
$12,296 at 4.5, variable
$12,134 at 4.5, variable
Lender C
$18,212 at 4.5, variable
Lender D
$720 at 8.5, fixed
$3,319 at 8.5, fixed
Initially, I was thinking I would pay the higher interest first, but now I'm not quite sure what strategy we should take. I reviewed her recent minimum payments, and the higher fixed rate loans (lenders A and D) were covering a good amount more principal than interest, while the minimum payments on the bigger loans with lower, variable rates (lenders B and C) were covering about 45% principal and 55% interest.
My thought process now is to tackle those big loans first since we are paying more in interest, and keep making the minimums on the smaller, higher rate loans.
I've got a good chunk of money coming to throw at these - I'm closing a CD with about $8500 in it, withdrawing a roth IRA with about $7500 (former employer retirement plan rollover, contributed $7650 in 2013 and never made contributions, so if I'm understanding correctly, will be a penalty/tax free withdrawal), and selling my clown truck to net about $5000-6000. I plan to go car-less (and thus auto insurance-less) until we get these loans paid off. We both make pretty decent incomes and have reduced a ton of unnecessary spending. We are in a position where she can pretty much put all of her take home pay to her loans, so we should be able to tackle this in a matter of a few years. I just want to know which plan will be more efficient.
Also, I am not interested in investing as opposed to making extra payments. I want to eliminate this debt, so any extra money will be going to these loans. I have considered using SoFi for refinancing/consolidating, but was curious what you guys thought about that as well.
Thanks in advance!