How to Maximize Your Nurse Loan Benefits: 5 Strategies for Managing Your Loan Repayment

Maximizing your nurse loan benefits is a crucial part of succeeding as a nurse/homebuyer. 

As a nurse, you may find that getting a mortgage to fit your unique financial situation is a bit of a challenge. 

But you may also be pleased to find out that there are some awesome nursing mortgage loan programs available for people who are either going through (or have been through) nursing school. 

With that being said, figuring out the proper steps to take to maximize the benefits of your nursing loan repayment strategy is going to be crucial if you want to save as much money as possible, cut down your debt at the fastest possible rate, and just in general take better care of your financial outcomes. 

Here’s everything you need to know. 

1. Find The Best Mortgage Loan Program For Nurses

First off, as a nurse, it’s important for you to know that you’ve got quite a few mortgage loan program options to choose from—including options that are specifically designed for nurses. 

This is a good thing because nursing school can be rough on your credit and on your debt-to-income ratio at first. 

But it can also be challenging when you take into account how you get paid for your work. 

Some nurses travel on short-term contracts. And some nurses get paid in ways that otherwise deviate from ‘normal’ payment structures. And these payout methods can really affect their ability to get a traditional mortgage. 

So shopping around to find awesome loan program options for nurses is critical. 

If you need some help finding the right program for you, check out this blog post. 

You’ll find a list of some of the best mortgage programs that are actually nurse friendly. 

 

2. Take The Time To Understand The Terms

Every financial institution is going to offer slightly different terms and conditions for their mortgage loans. 

For example—interest rates may be slightly different, payout structures may be slightly different, etc. 

The main thing to think about is this…

It’s really important that you understand all of the terms so that you can make sure that you don’t rack up needless, expensive fees by accidentally missing a payment, underpaying, etc. 

So, make sure that you take the time to understand the terms. It really matters, and it’ll save you money in the long run. 

 

3. Talk To More Than One Lender

Sometimes, it sucks to go around and talk to different lenders. 

It’s time-consuming, and it can often feel like a waste of time. 

But here’s the thing. 

The more you talk to other lenders, the better off you’re going to be in the long run—because it’ll allow you to compare rates and deals to get the best terms for you. 

When you walk into a financial institution to get a mortgage loan, you’re not glued to that institution. 

In fact, you should hold off on having them check your credit until after you’ve shopped around—just to make sure that you don’t end up getting your credit pinged needlessly (until you’re actually ready to do business). 

 

4. Plan Out Your Payments

Making payments every month on your mortgage loan may not be the ‘funnest’ thing in the world to think about. 

But it’s a crucial thing to cover if you really want to make the most of your financial situation. 

In other words—make sure that you’ve got the income to cover the payments. 

Also, make sure that your payments match your situation well. 

One thing that you don’t want to do is this…

You don’t want to sign up for a mortgage loan that you just can’t afford. 

If in doubt, you may want to size down the house and loan, so as to get a smaller, more manageable payment. 

This can make a surprising difference! 

 

5. Try To Increase Your Credit Score

At the end of the day, some nurse mortgage loans are a bit ‘rougher’ on the interest rates (due to their added flexibility). 

But sometimes, this is just unavoidable. 

If you want to plan best for the future in such cases, it might make sense to get a ‘nurse-friendly’ mortgage loan now, and then refinance in the future after you’ve improved your credit score and changed your financial situation. 

Sometimes, this can yield much better long-term financial outcomes. 

 

Conclusion

There you have it. 

5 strategies to help you manage your loan repayment to get your debt paid down faster and more efficiently. 

You can do it! 

All that’s left now is to get out there and make it happen.