Depending on the amount of student loan debt you have, your payment may take up a sizable chunk of your budget. But keep in mind that debt repayment isn’t something you need to wait until you graduate or even have your first job to do.

EduPlan is a payment calculator for students and their families who are concerned about student loan debt. It gives you an estimated payment based on your loan debt and the wage you’ll make while you’re enrolled in school. It takes your financial situation and your expenses and puts them into a few standard categories to determine what your monthly payment would be if you took out a loan equal to your annual income and were to make an average payment, year-round. You can go through this entire process for as little as $34. For example, let’s say you make $40,000 per year, have a $25,000 credit card balance, and have an average payment of $2,800 per month. Then you’d pay 1.25% interest on $48,120 in debt for a total of $2,785 per month. That’s less than the cost of a few cable TV packages, and it keeps you from going into crippling debt.

EduPlan has a few key elements:

An estimated payment: If you don’t know your debt load, you can enter it here. EduPlan will put a number of factors into play, including interest rate and the pay period you’re in, to calculate your estimated payment.

If you don’t know your debt load, you can enter it here. EduPlan will put a number of factors into play, including interest rate and the pay period you’re in, to calculate your estimated payment. Earning potential and expenses: This is the amount of money you need to make to pay off your loan. This includes monthly incomes, minimum monthly expenses, and your expected salary throughout your repayment term.

This is the amount of money you need to make to pay off your loan. This includes monthly incomes, minimum monthly expenses, and your expected salary throughout your repayment term. Loan repayment term: This is the number of years it will take to pay off your loan.

How To Calculate Your Student Loan Payment

If you know you have student loan debt and you’ve opened EduPlan, just start typing in your monthly payment. You’ll see that you’ll make at least four to five payments that will provide you a bit more certainty to making your monthly payments, but you won’t have to be overly concerned about making sure that you’re making the right payments because the repayment term isn’t forever. You could just decide to get serious about paying down your loans over the course of a few years.

With EduPlan, it’s important to remember that this tool is just one part of how to pay down your loans. The other part is also important to consider:

Payment amount: EduPlan uses a 4% interest rate and an annual repayment period of 20 years to calculate your estimated monthly payment. That’s pretty standard for student loans, and this will give you an idea of what your pay in the future would be. (To compare payments at different rates, look at our infographic on the differences in rate comparisons.)

For further information regarding student loans, visit https://www.sofi.com/refinance-student-loan/.