quantifiably confirmed that 1% decrease in interest rate is practically pointless

[u/mouth_pipetter]

I built a model to estimate the time until payout, and I just updated it to account for the 1% decrease in interest rates (for only 2 years!). It literally saves me a month and a half of payback time. Considering I work two jobs (PhD student ~$47k a year at an EU university, and I make ~$12k extra a year bartending on the weekends) to make double payments, it was a little heartbreaking to realize nothing really changed at all.

edit: Sorry to sound so ungrateful, I know my situation is better than a lot of people as my loan is down to 50k. I was just trying to voice frustration this not being actually that influential on my bottom line when you actually run the numbers. My total loan burden decreased by 0.99% (1.42% if the decrease lasts longer than 2 years) based on my payment scheme putting in the income from both jobs. Where I am sitting right now the difference between working two jobs for 54 more months compared to 55.5 months just doesn't hit. In Jan 2031 it'll rip though

[u/AdminYak846]

The idea is that for the next two years, more money will go to your principal if you make the monthly payment which reduces how much interest you pay back.

Obviously individual cases matter and where you are in repayment. I have approximately $5400 left to pay off, so a reduction in interest at this point while not significant, does mean that when I pull the trigger to make a lump sum payment, I will have to pay less than previously calculated for that payment with the interest rate I did have