Don’t you ever wish that someone would just magically appear and help you pay off your student loans? Well, this very thing happened to a very lucky Taylor Swift fan.
Swift sent her body guard to the home of fan Rebekah Bortinger with a FedEx box full of gifts. Among the gifts was a necklace, painting, and note that read, “Rebeka, now you’re $1,989 closer to paying off those student loans,” reports The Huffington Post. The amount given to the young fan, $1,989, is a reference to the name of Swift’s latest chart-topping album.
If you’re a fan of the songstress, then you’re familiar with her acts of kindness. She sometimes shows up at the homes of fans bearing gifts.
But let’s face it—the chances of a celebrity randomly offering to help you pay your student loan debt are slim. So here are a few options for paying off that debt yourself:
Deferment or forbearance. This option temporarily allows you to stop making payments and might be suitable for short-term financial difficulty. If you’re dealing with a financial hardship, increase the term of the loan to lower monthly payments.
Extended repayment increases the term of the loan based on the amount owed. An increase in the term reduces the monthly payment. The only drawback is you’ll pay more interest over the life of the loan.
Graduated repayment starts with a low monthly payment based on your income and gradually increases every two years.
Income-based repayment bases monthly payments on a percentage of your discretionary income as opposed to the amount you owe. (Discretionary income is the amount by which your adjusted gross income exceeds 150% of the poverty line.)
Pay as you earn is a form of income-based repayment. The difference between the two is income-based repayment is 15% of discretionary income and pay as you earn is 10%. After 25 years for income-based repayment or 20 years for pay as you earn, any remaining amount will be forgiven. However, the forgiven amount will be taxable.