Here's the situation.
I am a teacher paying my federal student loans on the PSLF program. Basically, I make 120 on time minimum payments and I am done. Payments will never be higher than 15% of my post-tax income (not exact, but pretty close, the formula is long).
Right now I am married, but we file separately so that only my income is taken into account. Because 403B's and 457 accounts are taken out pre-tax, it's not calculated into the payments. What this means for me going into the future is that my monthly payments will actually get lower as I put more and more into my 403B and 457 account. Right now I pay $278 a month, and it will only be lower from there as I increase my savings rate.
Additionally, I get an increase in pay for every 15 credits I take. It's not much, but when I calculate it out, it really adds up. I would also get an increased pension. Here are my estimates with our current contract (attached- unions must publish these things):
Now with Masters with 45 more credits
$55,854 $61,839
*20 more years totals:
Masters only: 1,408,728 (not counting for money made through investing)
Masters with 45 more credits: 1,514,951
=106,223 more
I would additionally get over 2,000 per year more on my pension, which I estimate I will be receiving at age 48.
The cost would be a little more than 16,000, which is what around 5 more years of payments would be to the government (120 payments for each loan, so it's stretched when new loans are put on). I would even be able to take out more in loans that I would even need to pay for classes, because the government always thinks I'm poor or something;)
Am I missing anything? This is a no brainer, right?