system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5 Why I should pay off my student loans rather than wait 20 years for the government to absorb them?

With the recent change in the law it lowers the age for loans to go away from 25 to 20 years. Right now I am on income contingent which if I stay at this rate I won't even be close to paying them off. Why should I pay more per month to try to pay them off when I could get an even lower payment and let it just go away?
gpt
Fed here. The Income Contingent Plan is going to adjust with your income from year to year.  You'll need to re-certify. So if your plan is to never have an increase in pay, go for the Income Based Plan or ICR. However, if you start making more money in the next 20 years, your payment will go up and you'll most likely end up paying the loan off.

Here's the important part, you NEED to make those payments under the ICR or IBR. Forbearance/Deferment do not count as qualifying payments.  However, if you qualify for a zero dollar payment, those payments do count towards the forgiveness portion.

ELI5 Version - The final boss in your video game has 300 Hit Points. You need to continually strike him with your payment sword each month to take him down 1 HP.  If you use spells Deferment or Forbearance or skip your turn, the boss adds more HP and becomes much harder to defeat. Upgrade your payment sword to do more damage and shorten the battle.