**Anticipating your future debt-to-income ratio is a useful tool to assess whether you can manage your student loan payments and other future financial obligations, such as buying a car or home. Once you begin working full time, a general rule of thumb is that your total monthly debt payments (including payments for student loans, credit cards, car, and housing, whether renting or buying) should be no more than 36% to 40% of your monthly gross income. Some experts have historically recommended that your monthly payments for student loans not exceed 8% of your monthly pre-tax income, though others have more recently recommended 10% to 15% as the maximum. Higher ratios may be acceptable for some individuals, such as those with modest living expenses in the first years after college and those pursuing graduate degrees who later will earn substantial incomes.

This calculator is designed to help you estimate the savings effect of increasing payments. It is not designed to model federal income-driven repayment programs, which generally extend the repayment term. Under income-driven repayment options, payments are set as a percentage of discretionary income (the difference between your adjusted gross income and the poverty guideline for your state of residence and family size). The U.S. Department of Education Federal Student Aid Repayment Estimator enables you to model payments under the various income-driven repayment options available.

This calculator only provides estimates intended to demonstrate how much you could pay monthly and overall for the repayment of your loan(s). This tool is offered on an anonymous basis and your selections do not constitute requests for a specific repayment arrangement. This calculator assumes that the interest rate remains constant throughout the life of the loan. This calculator also assumes that the loan will be repaid in equal monthly installments through standard loan amortization (i.e., standard or extended loan repayment). The results will not be accurate for some of the alternate repayment plans, such as graduated repayment and income-driven repayment. This calculator also assumes that you will pay continuously throughout the repayment period with no breaks for deferment or forbearance. We cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information or the calculator's applicability to your circumstances. We suggest that you consult your loan servicer to explore the best repayment option for you.