The College Investor Audio Show

A new federal court filing (PDF File) shows that borrowers seeking Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) credit through the buyback process could face waits approaching three years under current processing speeds. The latest status report from the U.S. Department of Education reveals that 86,520 PSLF Buyback applications were still pending as of January 31, 2026. During January, only 2,430 buybac...

A new report from the Pew Research Center offers one of the most detailed looks at how educational attainment differs across religious groups in America. The findings come from Pew’s 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study, a survey of 36,908 U.S. adults. Because of its large sample size, researchers were able to analyze not only broad religious categories, but also specific denominations within Protest...

A federal judge on Friday dismissed the central lawsuit challenging the Biden-era SAVE student loan repayment plan — not because the court endorsed it, but because there is no longer a dispute to decide. The ruling clarifies the legal posture of the case but does not immediately end the administrative forbearance for the roughly 7 million borrowers enrolled in SAVE. The decision (PDF FIle), issued...

The U.S. Department of Education has announced two new interagency agreements , handing off selected responsibilities to the Departments of State and Health and Human Services. The stated goal: break up federal education bureaucracy , improve efficiency, and return education to the states. As someone who believes deeply in higher education (and in the value of federal student aid programs that exp...

Borrowers who were a part of a years-long legal battle over student loan servicing practices are now seeing tangible results: compensation checks arriving in their mailboxes. According to the CFPB’s website , a third-party administrator began issuing payments on or about February 13, 2026, from a $100 million fund tied to a 2024 enforcement settlement with Navient, one of the nation’s largest form...

When voters think of student loan forgiveness, they often picture executive actions and legal battles . Under President Biden, student loan debt relief efforts dominated headlines, particularly after the Supreme Court struck down his broad cancellation proposal . But what you may not realize: The Trump administration could be on track to oversee one of the largest dollar amounts of student loan fo...

The Trump administration is once again weighing whether to sell off parts of the federal government’s $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio to private investors — a move that could reshape the nation’s higher education finance system and affect more than 45 million borrowers. According to reports , senior officials at the Education Department and Treasury Department have been exploring how to offlo...

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Harvard University , arguing that the university has unlawfully withheld admissions records needed for a federal civil rights compliance review. The complaint (PDF File), filed February 13, 2026, in federal court in Massachusetts, seeks declaratory and injunctive relief to compel Harvard to provide applicant-level admissions data and inter...

Student loan borrowers in the SAVE forbearance may be getting some relief. Borrowers are reporting that when they login to their online accounts there is a new message: “Your Account Balance was Adjusted.” The notices, now appearing in some borrowers' portals, state that loan servicers recently conducted a review and made changes based on SAVE administrative forbearance and a 0% interest period. F...

Headlines warning that Social Security is “running out” have sparked fresh anxiety among younger investors. Some stories highlight a potential $460 monthly benefit cut. Others suggest the system may collapse entirely. The reality is more complex. According to the 2025 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Federal Disability Insurance Trust Funds...

When you’re unemployed, it’s hard enough getting out of bed in the morning, let alone searching for a job . Add to that the stress of dealing with your student loans and it’s a wonder you can get out of bed at all. Student loan debt and unemployment is not a fun combination. We wish we could snap our fingers and make your student loans disappear when you can’t pay them (and even when you can). Ins...

Front-loading of financial aid like grants and scholarships is a form of bait-and-switch, where a college gives a better financial aid offer to freshmen than to sophomores, juniors and seniors. When a college practices front-loading of financial aid, the average grant per recipient decreases after the first year and/or the percentage of students receiving grants decreases. This means students get...

Almost 50% of students borrow student loans for community college . It's no secret that the cost of going to college and debt from student loans have significantly increased over the past several decades. Although wages have also gone up, the cost of higher education has increased more than inflation. The average cost of tuition for a four-year private college is $43,775 and $28,238 for public. An...

There are many benefits to 529 college savings plans . They provide tax and financial aid advantages to families who save for college. However, the 529 plan does impact your financial aid and you likely need to report it on your FAFSA. Saving for college reduces student loan debt at graduation and increases college choice. But it can also affect eligibility for need-based financial aid. Depending...

Robert joined Lacy Langford on the MILMO® Show to discuss everything that's happening with student loans right now - from changes to repayment plans, new borrowing limits, and loan forgiveness. Check out the MILMO® Show here to learn more.

Workforce Pell is a new legal pathway within the Pell Grant program that’s intended to cover short-term workforce training - the kinds of programs that historically have fallen outside Pell rules because they were too short. Under the new rules, eligible programs generally must run at least 8 weeks but fewer than 15 weeks , and include 150 to 599 clock hours (or certain credit-hour equivalents). T...

Major changes to Parent PLUS loans are coming in 2026 , and for many families, the timing could not be more complicated. Parents with students starting college this year or next (or already have kids in college), need to make plans for how they will pay for school. For decades, Parent PLUS loans acted as a backstop. When grants, scholarships, and student loans fell short, parents could borrow the...

There are many different ways to invest in the stock market —some people prefer to buy and hold, while others trade stocks on a more frequent basis. Day traders and other stock investors have a lot of different indicators to measure performance and provide insights on when and how to invest. There are also a lot of weird indicators for stocks and other odd hypotheses when it comes to stock market...

In the last few years, rising college costs have been at least partially blamed on a simple and provocative idea: administrative bloat. The claim is easy to repeat and hard to forget. Some versions suggest that elite colleges employ one administrator for every two students, or even several staff members per student. These figures have even made it to Congressional policy debates , opinion pieces,...

Yale University will allow students from households earning up to $200,000 a year to attend tuition-free beginning in fall 2026, the university confirmed this week, expanding a financial aid policy that has been in place for several years. The threshold had previously been set at $150,000. Under the updated policy, families earning up to $100,000 annually will continue to pay nothing at all — cove...

For years, income-driven repayment has been a dividing line between federal and private student loans . Federal borrowers could tie monthly payments to income but historically, private borrowers could not. That line is starting to blur. RISLA (Rhode Island Student Loan Authority), a nonprofit student loan lender based in Rhode Island, has introduced an income-based repayment (IBR) option for borro...

The U.S. Departments of Education and Treasury released new details on the Education Freedom Tax Credit , a centerpiece of President Trump’s Working Families Tax Cuts Act . Administration officials describe it as the largest expansion of education choice to date, with the potential to steer billions of dollars toward private scholarships and education services outside traditional public school fun...

The idea of saving money in college might sound impossible - but it's totally doable! For most college students, this is the first time really having to budget and manage money on your own. You might not know all the tips and tricks to make your money last. That's what this list is for. Here's some of the best ideas on how to manage your money and save money in college. These all come from experie...

Looking for the best ways to save your tax refunds? We have seven ideas that can help you build wealth with your tax refund. The April 15th tax filing deadline may bring dread to taxpayers everywhere, but the storm cloud comes with a silver (or dollar-covered) lining. Last year, nearly 100 million taxpayers received a refund, with the average refund being $3,138 . This sizable payday could be the...

Audit protection is a service most tax preparation companies advertise as an upsell to help you if you get a notice from the IRS. These services can involve responding to IRS letters, representing you when speaking with the IRS, or even reimbursing you if the tax prep company made a mistake. I hate dealing with bureaucrats. The thought of spending time in line at the DMV is so repulsive that I tri...