New Bill in Congress Would Help Student Loan Borrowers Get Assistance From Employers

There’s a new effort underway in Congress to help workers repay student loans. A new Senate bill would allow employers to provide up to $5,250 in student loan repayment assistance tax-free to their employees. The bill, sponsored by Senators John Thune (R-SD) and Mark Warner (D-VA), is dubbed the Employer Participation in Repayment Act. If […]

Read This Before You Refinance Your Federal Student Loans

For many people, refinancing your student loans can save on interest. You can refinance just one loan, or you can consolidate multiple student loans into a single loan with just one monthly payment to keep track of. In many cases, refinancing or consolidation can help lower your payments, get you out of debt faster, or […]

Entering the Nuanced World of Student Loan Forgiveness Programs

Student loan forgiveness programs. Many of us have heard of these mystical things that make student loans practically disappear for lucky, chosen individuals. The programs often feel “mystical” in that they seem unattainable or even unbelievable. For this reason I would like to spend time in this and in future blog posts exploring the tricky […]

Investing 101: What are ETFs and Mutual Funds?

Diversification is important when investing, but how can recent college graduates with loans build diverse stock portfolios? The answer is they can’t – at least not by buying individual company stocks. Saving for retirement is important, but big companies like Amazon and Google have four-digit price tags attached to their shares. Can you really afford […]

Four Finance Podcasts All Recent College Graduates Should Listen To

Thanks to the internet, information has never been easier to access. If you’re reading this blog, it’s probably only one of a dozen you follow for news, advice, or laughs. Or maybe you just landed here by clicking a page from a Google search result. But websites and blog posts aren’t the only information sources […]

Investing 101: What’s The Difference Between Stocks and Bonds?

Let’s face it, few topics are more confusing than investing. Unless you’re a finance major, you didn’t have a class in school that taught you about the stock market. The financial sector is full of obfuscation too and even knowledgeable investors need diligence. “Experts” often make things seem more complicated than they are. They’ll say […]

Should I Get A Credit Card If I’m Still Paying Off Student Loans?

If you have a pulse and a mailing address, you’ve probably been deluged with offers from credit card companies in the mail. They come in big, clunky envelopes and usually have numbers like $40,000 printed on the front in heavy font. Despite the endless (and annoying) letters, credit cards can be useful tools for your […]

Retirement Accounts – What Is A 401k Anyway?

Retirement isn’t on the radar for most college graduates dealing with student loan debt, but it’s never too early to plan for the future. And like student loans, there’s a lot of unfamiliar and confusing terminology. Learning about financial assets like stocks and bonds can be bewildering, especially when taxes come into play. Financial products […]

Budgeting Under the Burden of Student Loan Debt

Every week, there seems to be a new story about someone climbing out of crushing student debt. But beyond the headlines, you’ll usually discover a common theme – these people already had a good job and were able to make extreme sacrifices to their budget like selling a car or living at home for a […]

Before and After Debt: The Rise (and Stagnation) of Employer Tuition Payment Programs

The Familiar Issue of Student Debt Debt, by nature, exists as an effect. It is the effect of buying something before we can truly buy it—a borrowing that can loom for a long time, growing with interest, if we do not find an effective strategy to pay it off. As many of you reading this […]

Some Hopeful News on Loan Forgiveness and Debt Collectors

Recent News Changes (or hopes for change) in student loan policy pop up in the news fairly frequently. Here are a couple such changes that will undoubtedly have tangible impacts on federal loan borrowers:  A temporary expansion of public service loan forgiveness, and the recent end to specified government student debt collectors. As we continue, we […]

What’s The Difference Between Refinancing and Consolidating Student Loans?

College students are expected to know a lot of terminology when deciding how much money to borrow.  Unless your major is in finance or accounting, definitions to terms like consolidation, refinance, interest rate, and default might sound like a different language. Kids as young as 17 are expected to understand the magnitude of going into […]