John Smith Student Loan Calculations and Budgeting Exercise

John Smith recently graduated from an in-State University with a degree in physical therapy.  He is about to embark on his career as a physical therapist at New Haven Physical Therapeutics, and is expected to make $46,300 per year. In order to get his degree, John had to take out $35,000 in student loans (Stafford loans plus Student Plus loans).

Please click on this link to access an Excel spreadsheet that we'll use to calculate the costs and duration of paying off John's student loans.  You will also learn how to use the CNN Money student loan calculator to help John determine whether he should try to pay off his tsudent loans in 5, 10 or 15 years.

In the next exercise, we will take a close look at John's monthly cash flows - since he plans on creating a budget to monitor his spending habits across expense categories.

For some guidance on an average household's spending habits (expense allocations), please check out this monthly cash flow analysis calculator.

You will use it along with the expense spending cash flow spreadsheet that you downloaded for the student loan calculation above, to calculate John Smith's average monthly net income.