The political season is starting to heat up. Without getting into many of the heated topics that will no doubt be a part of the debate, I want you to know the one you do not have to worry about. Public Service Loan Forgiveness is going nowhere. The last four years have carried a lot of talk about the current administration wanting to eliminate PSLF, but while it has been a talking point in the media, there is nothing to fear. Let's talk about why. Please note, this is not an endorsement of any candidate or party. 1. $ 350 Million Recently a Republican congress and the Trump administration passed legislation to grant $350,000,000 to cover some of the loopholes in the for the first round of forgiveness applications. They did change the program, but they did put aside a large chunk of money to help people that would have qualified had they been on the correct payment plans. This $350 million is a great sign to the livelihood of the PSLS program. With all the talk about this administration and the Republicans wanting to remove the program, the fact that they dumped more money into it is a positive [...]

The headlines were wrong, but fear equals clicks. Toward the end of 2018, all the headlines spoke about "The Evil Government Lied!" and "No Forgiveness of You!". Ok, I made those up, but they are not that far off. Most headlines said, "The government had denied 99% of student loan forgiveness requests." With every lousy headline, there is some truth. The sad truth is that the PSLF program is complicated, your loan servicer is no help, and most people are making critical mistakes. Now, in mid-2019, a ray of hope is shinning. The Department of Education has released March numbers showing that a 52.5% approval rate. There were 2,181,000 applications filed in March and 1,148,911 approved. In an attempt to be 100% transparent, these were not final requests, but employment certification forms submitted. In other words, it wasn't final approval, but a sort of mid-course check-in being approved. Deeper Into The NumbersTaking a more in-depth look at the number, we can see why some were denied. The Department of Education denied 60% of applications due to missing information. Reasons for this denial could be a simple as a missed signature or a portion of the form not filled out completely. [...]

Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSFL) was in the news a lot over the last six months. Mostly negative and utterly sensational. The stories revolved around the Department of Education, denying, 98% of forgiveness applications. The news stories imply the program is broke, and people will never receive forgiveness. While the program can be improved, the earlier mentioned denials were not the Department of Education (DOE) trying to force people to pay. Borrower mistakes caused these denials. Public Service Loan Forgiveness revolves around making 120 qualifying payments. The applicants that the DOE denied had made mistakes over their loan term. The following will guide you through the qualifications needed to make sure each monthly payment qualifies. Loan TypeNot all loans qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. You should already know that private loans, loans funded by private companies, do not qualify. PSFL will only forgive your federal loans; but not all federal loans. Only Direct federal loans. If you have FFEL, Graduate Plus or Parent Plus loans you may have to consolidate those loans into a Direct Consolidation Loan to qualify. Payment PlanLike loans, not all payment plans qualify for PSFL. Only the ten-year standard payment and income-driven repayment plans qualify. [...]

Not going to lie, 98% is a lot of people for the Department of Education to decline for student loan forgiveness. It makes for great headlines and a lot of outrage. It's also a lie. It is true that 98% of people were denied, but the real surprise is that 2% were approved. The whole store needs to be known, and it is nothing overly complicated. The biggest problem is, the media is scaring people away from seeking forgiveness.Why did this happen?The simple answer, the program was designed by our government, and they have shown a consistent inability to do anything right. The more detailed explanation? The plan was put in place before the tools needed were available. In 2007, Congress created the Public Service Loan Forgivenss program. At that time, people were receiving FFEL loans. These loans do not qualify. It wasn't until 2010 that borrowers began using the correct loans. Picture this. You graduate in 2018 and dive right into teaching or a nursing job at a hospital. You hear rumors of a forgiveness plan and know you have federal loans. Not only do you have federal loans, but you also work for a qualifying employer. This is [...]

Last week a news article was written about a single mom having a wage garnishment for her student loan payments. While this is no doubt a difficult situation, she should not have gotten to this point. While it might sound uncaring, if you are in default on your student loans, it is your fault because you should have used the flexible payment options available to you.Avoid ForbearanceThe first step toward defaulting on your loans is allowing your loans to go into forbearance. Forbearance is a temporary waiver in your payments. It is designed to get you past a short term financial setback without going into default. Forbearance is not just a “Get out of payments free” card. It will show on your credit report and lower your credit score. When you fall behind you can request a forbearance, but your lender may not always approve the request. If they do not accept the request, the next step would be a default. Delinquent and DefaultIf you are one day past due on your loans, you are delinquent. Default begins when you are 270 (for FFEL, but may vary by loan type) days behind; almost nine months. 
There are significant ramification to [...]