Best way to handle PSLF student loan payments for budgeting / cash flow / net worth?

sneff30
sneff30 Quicken Mac Subscription Member ✭✭
in Budgeting and Planning Tools (Mac)

Version 8.3.2 of Quicken Classic Premier for Mac on macOS 26.1.

For the first time since graduating in Spring 2020 I will start making PSLF student loan payments at the end of November. Up until this point I had just been tracking the balance of the consolidation loan. I would like some advice on how best to reflect the transaction in both my budget and the loan account. My current idea is:

  • Set up an automatic bill from my checking account to my loan servicer with the category "Student Loan Payment". This will reflect the cash flow out of my checking account correctly. Because I am using PSLF I don't particularly care what the interest/principal amount is in each payment.
  • Manually adjust the balance of the loan on the first of each month. Using the built-in payment calculator is incompatible with the way PSLF payments are calculated.

If there is a simpler or more accurate way to go about this I'd love to hear it. Otherwise I think this will be sufficient for tracking budget amounts / cash flow / and net worth.

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Best Answer

  • Jon
    Jon Quicken Mac Subscription SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Answer ✓

    You could create a scheduled split transaction with one part being the principal transferred to the loan reducing its balance and the other part being the interest. But two separate transactions works too.

Answers

  • Jon
    Jon Quicken Mac Subscription SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta

    IMO it would probably be just as easy to adjust the principal/interest split of your payment each month as it would be to create an extra transaction adjusting the loan balance.

  • sneff30
    sneff30 Quicken Mac Subscription Member ✭✭
    https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20520355#Comment_20520355

    If I'm not using the built-in payment tool in the loan then the balance isn't going to change at all unless I manually adjust it. The transaction recording the payment from my checking account would be categorized only as "Student Loan Payment" and would not have a transfer to the loan account.

    I would like to use the payment tool to create the transaction but it doesn't have the flexibility to account for the ways PSLF payments are calculated or the fact that they change every 12 months. I think a manually adjustment once a month would be the most accurate way.

  • Jon
    Jon Quicken Mac Subscription SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Answer ✓

    You could create a scheduled split transaction with one part being the principal transferred to the loan reducing its balance and the other part being the interest. But two separate transactions works too.

  • sneff30
    sneff30 Quicken Mac Subscription Member ✭✭
    https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20520446#Comment_20520446

    No, you're right. Idk why this wasn't clicking with me. No need to use the automatic payment tool. Thanks for the help!

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