Hi,
Stumbled upon your site while I was searching around the internet for advice on getting a handle on student loans.  I didn’t see my question asked anywhere, so I was hoping for some help with it.

I have a part time job and want to start repaying a part of my student loans.  I have a few different federal student loans (Subsidized Stafford, Direct, Federal Perkins).  I accessed the listing of all of my loans on nslds.ed.gov, so I think I have most of the relevant information.  However, as I would only be making small payments now, I’m unsure which loan to try to pay off first.

Any advice on how to evaluate which loan to pay off first?  Also, would this have any effects on the grace period for repayment?  Thanks!
~Michael

A few things to think about:
Perkins loan has a 9 month grace
Stafford has 6 months
You can send money whenever you want to, that doesn’t end the grace period
After grace, the loan “enters repayment”
Choose a repayment plan and then you must pay at least as much as what is due on each loan each month
If you want to pay more, consider:
Perkins loans have lower interest rates and offer some cancellation provisions so probably not the one to pay extra on.
Stafford loans could be at different interest rates depending upon when they were borrowed.
In general, it makes sense to pay higher interest rate loans first.

But I would encourage you to also consider your complete financial circumstances and think about the value of saving an emergency fund.