Love this post and want to
see more like it? Each month through 2012 I will be tackling different
topics and creating free printables to go along with the project. View
the projects here.
I graduated from college in May of this year and Chris graduated in May 2010. We both have student loans out the wazoo. Not all of our loans are from the same company - some are private, others through various lenders from the government. Keeping all of Chris' straight for the last year has been a challenge, and now my loans start repayment next month. I've been keeping all of Chris' loan info in a binder and my school stuff has been in an expanding file. (Chris' was also like this until he graduated, then I got rid of the unnecessary stuff.)
Since I'm in charge of paying the bills, I needed a system that was going to work for me. Here's what I came up with...
This is the binder Chris' stuff used to be in.
Everything is tabbed by the lending company. I labeled the tabs with my label maker.
I decided to switch to a prettier binder, but kept the same tabs, just adding more to the back for my section.
This is the pile of loan bills I received in the mail on Monday. Yuck.
Due to the nature of the papers inside the binder, it wouldn't make sense for me to take pictures of everything and blur everything out. So trust me when I say that transferring everything from an accordion file to a binder (in this case) has made my bill paying life so much easier.
I just keep the binder stashed with all of my other important stuff on my desk. I'm thinking the spine of the binder needs some vinyl love. Ya know, something cool like "loans"...lol.
And I promised a free printable. Here's the loan repayment log I created and have filed out and placed in the beginning of each section of tabs. This makes life so much easier and allows me to see the total going down over time...motivation I guess I'd call it. This PDF file is editable (you can type into it) if you save it to your computer (you can't edit it in Google Docs).
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| loan repayment log |
Student loans..... *gag*. We have student loans coming out of our ears too! Ours are all through the same lender though so it's not too confusing. Don't let that fool you though!!! Our 2 student loan payments every month are slightly less than our mortgage payment.
ReplyDeleteWe're on the 25 and 30 year payback plans..... :(
Wow that printable is awesome! I will have to pass this link along to some friends!
ReplyDeleteWow this is great... just gotta find a way to make it fit in my planner and I am going to put this doc into use!
ReplyDeleteHello and Thank you so much for this Loan repayment log. As well as keeping track of student loan repayments, it can be used for any type of loan you might take out...
ReplyDeleteokay so I couldn't figure out a way to fit this in my planner... so I made a binder. My question is.... Besides the log, what else do you have in the binder? Usually when I get a bill... it goes in the file folder for the week it is due so that it is there when the week comes (and I am not late). After I pay the bill it stays in the folder till the end of the year, when I go through them and move what I need to keep to where it goes and then toss the rest. I know loan documents you are supposed to keep till the loan is paid (at which point you really only need to keep the final one that has the big fat 0 balance on it) and there really isn't enough room in a binder for all of the loan papers for every loan you get (that would probably require a 5 inch or bigger binder!). So what else is in your loan repayment binder? Right now I just printed out the printable (love it!) filled out all the info for my loans (gonna have to tackle hubbys later when he can help me) and put it in the binder. I don't have the dividers because I figured I can just flip to the page I need, since I have them in due date order for the month. Just trying to figure out the best use of this awesome idea!
ReplyDeleteHi Kristina -
ReplyDeleteI use the dividers to separate each loan by person (my husband's or mine) and by company. Then within each section I keep important loan docs - such as terms/info with interest rates, etc./bill invoices. Each year I'll probably clear out each section so I'm not overloaded. All of the original documents - such as when we signed up for the loans - are kept separately because there are so many documents. This binder is pretty much like a bill paying binder, but specific to student loans and motivation for me to see how much each loan is declining in debt each month/year. Due to the amount of debt we have in student loans, I think it deserves it's own binder so it serves as a reminder as to how important it is to conquer this debt. All of my other bills (internet, electric, rent, etc.) are kept in my home management binder and then filed away in my filing cabinet.
I hope this gave you some sort of idea as to what's inside. There's always half inch binders as well, if you're looking for a smaller/thinner option for a binder.
Thanks for sharing this! I am drowning in my student debt and recently took on the task of trying to get all the thousands of papers organized. This is the only way I can tackle the payments and try to work through it. Your system is very helpful and I'm going to try to put it to use. :)
ReplyDeletethe best thing about this post is that it give great information on loans, the essential factors that are needed in this process. I appreciate with the information given in this article. Nice post
ReplyDeleteThis is great...thanks so much! Even icky things like paying back loans can be colorful :)
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ReplyDelete