Paying off $50,000 in student loans takes between 10 years to 25 years, depending on the interest rate, repayment plan and the monthly payment amount for the student loan.
For a standard 10 year payment plan on a $50,000.00 student loan with monthly payments of between $530.00 to $550.00 at 5% to 7.5% interest takes 10 years.
Extending your student loan to 20 years to 25 years lowers the monthly payments, although it also increases the total amount of interest you pay.
Student loans also do not disappear or go away after 7 years, although after 7 years, the negative marks on your credit from late payments or default status of your student loan fall off of your credit report around 7 years.
Although the student loan debt remains until it's either paid off or discharged or if the student loan debt is forgiven, which often requires rehabilitation or debt consolidation to get you out of the default status.
And closed or paid off loans stay on your credit report longer than 7 years.
The 7 year mark refers to when the adverse credit information is removed from your credit report and not the obligation of the student loan debt.
Student loan debt can continue indefinitely or until you address the student loan debt through student loan debt forgiveness programs like PSLF or repayment plans or bankruptcy with strict rules.
The dark side of student loans are overwhelming and long term debt which restricts your financial freedom and the student loans can take years to pay off.
Having student loan debt also delay things like buying a home, starting a family or saving money for retirement.
Student loan borrowers also face high interest, potential default and wage garnishment.
And the debt from student loans can also lead to significant psychological stress and your credit score could be harmed if you fail to make the payments or cannot pay the student loan back at all.
And many people who take out student loans cannot afford the student loan payments, which leads to delinquency of the student loans, default and ruined credit, which can make it hard to buy cars, rent homes or apartments or take out credit card or other loans.
Student loans can also take your house although it's not a direct or immediate process.
If you default on the student loan, whether private or federal student loans, the lender can sue you and obtain a court judgement against you and can place lien on your house and property, which could eventually lead to a sale of the house or property to repay the debt.
Lenders for loans including student loans cannot take your home simply because you are behind on payments, and instead you must first be in formal default of the loan, which often takes months on non payments.
And a judgement has to be made against you and approved in court by a judge before the lien can be placed.
Student loans can also lead to tax withholding and wage garnishments as well.
If you can't pay your student loans you should contact your student loan lender to explore options like Income Driven Repayment or IDR plans, which can help you lower your student loan payments to as low as $0.00 per month.
Or you can also request temporary deferment or forbearance to pause any payments.
Other options if you cannot pay your student loans is to do debt consolidation, refinancing or for federal student loans you can look into the Fresh Start program for the defaulted student loans.
If you don't pay your student loans, you will get late fees and interest added to the student loans, damage to your credit score and loss of benefits.
Failure to pay your student loans can cause you to lose access to flexible repayment options or deferment/forbearance benefits.
Failure to pay your student loans and even just missed student loan payments are also reported to the major credit bureaus, which lowers your credit score and affects your future ability to get another loan or other loans.
And your student loan becomes delinquent the day after a missed payment, which often results in fees and for private student loans a loss of interest rate reductions.
Eventually if you fail to pay the student loans they can garnish your wages, withhold tax refunds even sue you, which can also ruin your credit for 7 years.
For federal student loans they often go into default status after 270 days without payment or shorter for some private student loans.
Failure to pay your student loans can also cause the entire balance of the student loan to become due immediately.
Student loans are reported as installment debt to the major credit bureaus which include TransUnion, Experian and Equifax.
Making consistent and on time payments to your student loans will boost your credit score overtime, and making late or missed payments to your student loan will negatively impact and lower your credit score.
Student loans also influence your credit mix, total debt and the average age of your accounts.
Federal student loans and private student loans can also be paid off early without prepayment or early pay off penalties.
Paying off your student loans early saves you money on interest and shortens the term of the student loan.
To pay off your student loan early and effectively, you should ensure that your extra student loan payments are applied directly to the principal balance of the student loan, instead of future payments.
Make extra payments to your student loans and pay more than the minimum monthly amount to your student loans, and specifically target the principal of the student loans.
You can also biweekly payments on the student loan, by making half payments on the student loan every 2 weeks, which results in you making 13 full payments on the student loan per year instead of just 12 payments on the student loan in the year.
Or use bonuses, tax refunds or unexpected cash to make large one time payments on the student loan to help pay the student loan off faster.
You can also consider refinancing your student loan to get a lower interest rate, which can also help pay off the student loan faster, although you may lose your federal benefits.
When paying off your student loan early, you should also explicitly instruct the student loan servicer to apply any extra payments to the principal and not future payments.
And while rare, some older private student loans may have prepayment penalties.
And you should also consider if you have high interest debt or lack an emergency fund before you aggressively pay off the lower interest student loans.
You can also get a payoff quote for your student loans by requesting a formal pay off quote from the student loan lender for the exact amount needed to pay off the student loan and close your account.