Purpose

To help choose the payment plan with the lowest possible required payments between now and PSLF.

Instructions

1) Enter all your Direct student loans, separating them into Undergraduate and Graduate loans. You can lump subsidized and unsubsidized loans together. If you have not yet started payments, enter the total balance for each loan (principal AND interest). If you have previously entered a payment plan, enter only the current principal balance.

2) Enter your estimated AGI and family size for the next 1 to 10 years.

3) The calculator will update in real time as you enter data, with a short delay. If it doesn’t sense data entry for a long period of time it might “freeze” and require a browser refresh (and reentry of your data).

4) The most relevant output is the “Running Total” calculations which show the total dollars you will be towards your loans between now and expected PSLF.

Please read the important disclaimers and additional info at the bottom of this page.

Important

For making tax filing decisions (separate vs joint) you should run the calculator 3 times: your AGI alone, spouses AGI alone, and joint AGI.

If you have subsidized loans the calculator will slightly underestimate your accumulating interest in the PAYE situation during the first 3 years of payments.

This spreadsheet is meant only to illustrate general principals and we make no warranty as to the accuracy of any of the calculations. While we believe it to be accurate, there are some simplifying assumptions made which may not apply to you.

This spreadsheet is free for individual use and for use by student financial aid offices but cannot be shared or reverse engineered and the copyright is reserved by DOCTORED MONEY.