student aid

Should I Pay My Student Loans or Wait for Student Loan Forgiveness in 2023?

by
student loan payments

Update: The Biden administration has elected to erase $10,000 or $20,000 in student loan debt via executive order. The website to apply is already up, and the Republican lawsuits to stop it are already filed. If you have more than $10K or $20K, keep paying, although it will help a lot, it won’t erase all of your student debt. Updated Update: A federal judge blocked Biden’s student loan forgiveness program. I don’t understand the logic of the decision, but it isn’t up to me. The government has appealed, but for now, the form to register for student loan forgiveness has been taken down, and no forgiveness payments or updates have been made. During the 2020 Democratic Primary election, all the candidates threw their weight behind some form of student loan forgiveness. It isn’t hard to see why. Forgiving student loan debit is extremely popular, especially with those burdened by large student loan payments. Now that Biden has announced his partial student loan forgiveness program is it time to financially plan for student loan forgiveness? Let’s dive in and answer the question, should I pay off student loans or wait for forgiveness? The government posted a registration form for student loan …

Read More

FAFSA Scam on FAFSA.com

by
fafsa real website

A FAFSA scam is a bad way to start off your hunt for financial aid. If you, or someone you know, is going to college, or starting at a university, then chances are you need to apply for financial aid. Even if you don’t think you’ll qualify, there are often partial grants, federal loans, and various work-study programs that can help pay for college. Remember: the legit FAFSA website is FAFSA.gov. To apply for any federal financial aid, you’ll need to fill out a form called the FAFSA, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. This form requires you to submit detailed financial information, which is verified against IRS records, and requires you to sign that all information is true under penalty of perjury. This is better than anyone else can really do as far as verifying your financial status, so many other financial aid grantors, including the universities themselves, rely on your submitted FAFSA. You have to fill out a FAFSA every year you are in college to continue to qualify for need-based financial aid. This is not one of those programs where you fill something out once. The easiest way to submit your FAFSA is online at fafsa.gov …

Read More

Covid Student Loan Relief Ending Soon

by
covid student loan relief

In March, the government began offering options to help benefit borrowers with student loans during the Covid pandemic. The Covid student loan benefits were to stop collecting on student loans, to charge 0% interest rates on student loans, and to suspend student loan payments. Basically, you could turn off paying on your student loans with no detriment. Or, if you were one of the lucky ones still doing well during the Covid crisis, you could keep making loan payments and get ahead thanks to zero percent interest. The benefits only applied to federal student aid loans, and do not apply to private student loans. One of the downsides of programs like SoFi student loan refinances is that the refinanced loans become private student loans and no longer benefit from any federal student loan programs, even though the Sofi student loans interest rates can be much lower than regular student loans. Private student loans are not regulated by the Department of Education Student Loan Covid Scams Unfortunately, as is often the case, scammers were not far behind the news announcing these student loan aid provisions. They came back out when Congress passed a law making the Covid student loan aid last …

Read More

Complete Definitive Guide to 529 Plans

by

For some reason, I thought I had written about 529 plans to death. After all, figuring out a way to pay for a child’s college education is a top priority for many people, and something I worked on a lot when I was a financial planner. More than that, I’m also a dad with a couple of rug rats that I’ll want to send off to get a great education, and then on to a wonderful life in the real world unencumbered by the all too common, crushing student loan debt. So, naturally, I think a lot about how education planning and college savings fit into a person’s personal financial plan. And, usually when something money related stays on my mind, I write about it a lot. Then, a family member shot me a message asking a question about paying for college for her growing sons. I figured I’d send her a dozen links to all my best college saving advice and 529 plan information. Only, it turns out, I haven’t covered near as much over the years as I thought I had. So, starting Wednesday, I’ll be cranking out the Complete Definitive Guide to 529 Plans and College Savings …

Read More