“…the Biden-Harris Administration continues to cancel student debt for millions of borrowers and is leaving no stone unturned in the fight to give more borrowers breathing room on their student loans,” the White House said in a public statement.

The SAVE (Saving on a Valuable Education) Plan, an IDR plan introduced in August 2023, like other IDRs, allows qualifying borrowers to calculate their federal student loan payments based on their income and family size rather than their loan balance. This will allow many borrowers to cut their payments to $0, preventing balances from growing due to unpaid interest.

However, while the Biden Administration’s original plan for loan forgiveness was struck down, they have unveiled a new process within the SAVE Plan that will make it easier for borrowers to reach forgiveness qualifications.

Time Frame Calculation for Loan Forgiveness 

While many may be tempted to apply for the SAVE Plan to lower monthly payments, the program also allows specific borrowers to be eligible for forgiveness after only ten years through the Income-Driven Repayment Forgiveness (IDRF) program, equivalent to the amount of time necessary for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) without the restriction of working for a specific employer.

While borrowers become eligible for IDRF after 20+ years of repayment, the timeframe for cancellation with SAVE depends on how much you borrowed, which depends on the individual’s repayment term, which borrowers must reach to qualify.

As the Biden Administration defines it, a repayment term is “the amount of time you need to have spent in repayment before you can qualify for this forgiveness, and it will increase based on how much money you originally borrowed.”

However, the current loan balance you owe doesn’t impact the length of the repayment term.

The shortest term before someone can qualify for forgiveness is ten years (120 monthly payments) with a $12,000 or less loan amount. However, the repayment term increases by one year for every $1,000 borrowed above the $12,000 base.

This increase will continue until you hit your repayment term cap, which is the maximum amount of time your repayment term can be. The repayment term cap is different depending on the type of loan borrowed. For example, it will depend on whether you only have undergraduate loans or a mixture of graduate and undergraduate loans.

The repayment term cap is set to 20 years (240 months) for those with only undergraduate loans. If you have a mixture of graduate and undergraduate loans, the repayment term cap is 

set to 25 years (300 months).

Eligibility for Repayment Refunds

The SAVE Plan’s implementation of loan forgiveness also includes a timeframe for receiving refunds on loan payments, allowing borrowers who qualify for forgiveness to be refunded the amount they paid during or after January 2024, when the cancellation was implemented.

You will be refunded if you reach forgiveness, but continue making payments towards your loan amount afterward. However, these payments must have been made during or after January 2024.

If forgiveness is reached before January 2024, you will only be refunded if you made payments during or after January 2024. This means previous payments made before the start of 2024 will not be refunded if forgiveness was reached priorly.

Eligible Loans Calculated Towards Forgiveness

Based on how your loans are consolidated will determine the eligibility and actions taken on them.

Loans that aren’t consolidated will be considered based on the total of all your loans with an outstanding balance. On the other hand, if your loans are consolidated, the initial balance of all the underlying loans will be considered.

It’s important to note that borrowers who have loans in an in-school status or are in a full- or half-time deferment will not be eligible for forgiveness until their loans are no longer in any of those statuses. Additionally, individuals whose loans have been paid in full, forgiven, or discharged before forgiveness was implemented won’t be eligible.

If you have loans that aren’t eligible under the SAVE Plan but would be if additional steps are taken, your balance(s) will still be considered. This includes all outstanding Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loans. 

However, outstanding parent PLUS loans will not be considered, but the initial balances of parent PLUS loans included in consolidation loans will be.

The Biden Administration encourages individuals with ineligible loans to consolidate them into a Direct Consolidation Loan. This will make them eligible for the SAVE Plan. However, before consolidating a loan, it would be wise to speak to a professional about whether a different forgiveness program, such as PSLF, would be better for your situation. Consolidating your loan can make it harder to reach forgiveness through other programs.

If your loans are paid in full, forgiven, or discharged after implementation, your repayment term will not decrease. However, if a new loan is added, your repayment term will be altered to match the new overall amount.

Additionally, if all of your loans are paid in full, forgiven, or discharged, then the time until forgiveness will be reset and reevaluated based on any new loans taken out in the future.

Currently, Americans owe $1.75 trillion in federal and private student loans. This aligns with the amount of debt that has stacked up over the years, and it doesn’t seem to be going down anytime soon.

Luckily, there are ways to avoid and minimize massive student loan debt. The hardest part is deciding which route you want to go.

Attend Community College

While many students look at out-of-state or top-of-the-line schools, they also realize they come with high price tags. Attending a community college is more cost-efficient and can help you financially.

This may not be ideal for everyone, but it does have a lot of benefits to it. Attending a community college allows students to get an education at a lower cost, save money, earn credits, and then transfer to a different college to finish their degree.

It is crucial to ensure that the college you transfer to will accept the credits you have already earned. Unfortunately, some colleges won’t allow you to move over the credits, so talk to an academic advisor before committing to a school.

Find a Scholarship

Scholarships play a crucial role in securing funding for your college education. 

It’s beneficial to start your search early, as many scholarship opportunities have early submission periods. Researching ahead enables you to navigate the available options and find the best-suited assistance without the pressure of last-minute searches.

When exploring scholarship possibilities, consider looking into local organizations, your college’s offerings, and professional associations aligned with your career path. Each avenue may present unique opportunities that align with your goals and aspirations.

For students in need of financial assistance, delve into need-based scholarships. Additionally, if you’ve excelled academically or athletically, explore the options of merit-based scholarships. 

By strategically approaching your scholarship search, you can optimize your chances of securing the support that aligns with your academic and personal achievements.

Renting Your Class Supplies

Tuition is not the only high-priced item you have to pay for; multiple supplies that you need for class can be expensive as well. This can include textbooks, calculators, and laptops.

While it is nice to own these supplies, it may not be the best financial investment when you might only need them for one semester.

To combat this, you should see if your college offers these supplies to rent. Many colleges allow you to check out textbooks from the library, borrow laptops from the computer lab, and sign a waiver to borrow a calculator for the semester.

If your school doesn’t offer a specific supply, look into third-party suppliers that can lend you the tools required for a lower price than buying them.

Employer Sponsorships

Various employers may offer assistance for your college tuition. This support can be general or specific to a field related to the company.

In May 2023, 48% of employers said they would offer tuition help to undergraduate or graduate students.

Sponsorship might be provided before you start school or even after graduation to alleviate the debt incurred during your education.

It’s crucial to note that many businesses tailor their sponsorship to align with the field you’re pursuing. If your career path doesn’t align with their business focus, you may not qualify for support. Check for subsidies and ensure you meet the requirements before exploring this avenue.

Saving Every Penny

Saving for school is a great way to help with the cost of tuition when the bill finally arrives, but finding outside resources to assist you is also beneficial.

Many people do not know all the resources that can help, but researching and gaining knowledge about them is the right way to find them. Asking a guidance counselor or an academic counselor about different payment assistance is also always beneficial.

College is expensive, so take advantage of the different avenues to help decrease the monetary burden and stress of attending college and getting your degree.

There are many loan providers to choose from, and it can become overwhelming when searching through all of them. Especially since most have to run your credit, you may not want to apply to a bunch in a short period.

Before you pick a loan to apply for, here are some tips on how to find and choose the one that may work best for you.

Know the Loan Options You Have

While student loans all have the same purpose to help pay your tuition they don’t all fit under the same category. There are multiple types of loans, but eligibility is what differentiates them from one another.

Direct Subsidized: These loans are based on your financial needs and do not build interest while you are in school. This loan is specifically for undergraduate students, and eligibility will depend on your financial information with FASFA.

Direct Unsubsidized: Unlike a direct subsidized loan, undergraduate and graduate students can both apply for this loan no matter what financial information is given to FASFA. However, you do get charged interest while in school, so it is best to start paying it sooner than later.

Direct PLUS: This loan is directed towards the parents of undergraduate students or graduated and professional students. However, unlike the subsidized and unsubsidized loans, you must pass a credit check to be approved for this loan type.

Private: These loans are offered by banks and credit unions and generally need to be cosigned by a parent or family member for approval. Searching around and finding the best deal is important before selecting one.

Knowing the difference between each loan and seeing which one best fits your criteria is essential to limiting the amount of financial burden they’ll bring you in the future.

Do Your Research

Once you pick out the right loan, you should do some research to know which options within that group fit you best. For most students, they may have to go towards private loans if they do not qualify for the other options.

The biggest factors to compare within a loan are the repayment options, repayment terms, and interest rates. These three sections should be thought out through long-term and shorter periods so you understand how the full picture will impact you.

Picking a longer-termed loan will help you manage your monthly payments but will also cost more overall. However, shorter-term loan payments will allow you to pay back your debt sooner but the monthly payments will be bigger.

Also, while you most likely will not be fully paying back your debt all at once, picking the lowest interest rate is most beneficial for you financially when looking at the two other factors as well.

Reading Loan Reviews

While not every loan is the same when comparing them to one another, there may be a previous borrower of theirs who is in the same boat as you financially. This is where you will want to read the reviews that are left to get a full-picture understanding of what you are signing up for.

Loan providers will advertise themselves in a positive light to try and have you sign up with them over their competition, but unfortunately, not everything will be positive about them. Reading reviews will tell you about the good and bad experiences that previous or current loan borrowers had with the provider.

This will help you get an unbiased insight into what you will be getting yourself after signing up and taking out the loan. You will most likely be dealing with that provider for years to come, so knowing the most is beneficial to you long-term.

Hard Work Now for Ease Later

It is no secret that student loans are not an enjoyable topic or financial situation to get into. However, by doing your research, you can lessen the financial burden that comes along with them in the long run.

It is also important to remember that you are not alone in this journey. There are financial experts, financial aid officers, and college counselors who can direct you to the right resources and providers to look into based on your financial situation.

Student loans are not the best, but they do provide help with your college tuition, which will allow you to strive toward the future you want. No matter where you are in your scholarly journey, there is no wrong time to do your research when you need it.

With the fear of a recession still on the minds of many people, they may start stressing over how they can save every penny they have. Just this year, 52% of people say money harms their mental health. While it is understandable why people are worrying about their money today, there are ways to help ease the anxiety and potentially avoid feeling burnt out by your finances.

Save Where You Can

While there is not a lot you can do to forgo your stress, there are still ways you can ease it. Looking at what you can control like the amount you spend can help decrease stress and guide you on a path of financial ease.

One area that a lot of people forget about is subscriptions. Automatic payments are beneficial in many ways such as preventing missing a payment and lowering the amount you owe when you enroll — but you may end up like many who “set and forget”.

Take a look at all of your subscriptions and see which ones you can either limit or cancel. A lot of the time, many people can lower their tier for the subscription plan if they do not use it as frequently, or they can cancel it entirely if they don’t use it anymore. Although saving a few pennies or dollars does not seem like a huge dent in your financial life, it can build over time and make a wider difference in the future. Pulling back today will allow you to put forward in the future.

Finding a Side Hustle

In your adult life, it’s important to have a steady income to pay the essential bills, and after budgeting everything out, you’ll want to have money left over for personal use. However, with the price of goods going up, the amount you set aside may become smaller and smaller. Finding a side job, or working a couple more hours on a shift, may help with any increasing bills or putting money in your savings for a rainy day.

As the holiday season starts to approach, many retail companies are looking for seasonal employees to help with the increase in customer traffic. This is a good option for people who want to save a little more for holiday presents or don’t want to commit to a second job all year round.

Since COVID-19, the amount of remote jobs has increased, and even with life continuing to go back to a form of normality, they are still around. Finding a freelancing job that you do on your own time is great to have to store away a little pocket money.

No matter which way you decide to acquire extra side money, there are many different opportunities for you to choose from to help you achieve that goal.

Track Your Financial Spending

Spending money can get away from you sometimes, especially with the increased ease of ordering and paying for goods. While this may have not been a big deal before, it can become one when the price of essentials continues to increase.

Tracking your spending habits is a great way to understand what you have been spending your money on recently and where you can either cut back on expenses or cut out entirely. A lot of native banking apps allow you to see your spending habits within an easy-to-understand diagram and chart. This is a great way to know your financial habits over time.

Knowing your expenses and understanding your habits is a great way to know where you’re at financially, understand where you have to go, and find out how you can get there.

Take Out a Loan

While it may not be ideal, taking out a loan to cover debt or another loan may be beneficial if you are getting buried by the high-interest fees. For some people, they can have debt in many different areas, not just one. It can be on multiple credit cards, multiple loans, or any other area where you can borrow money from.

Taking out one singular loan to cover all of your debt can be good mentally because you’ll have everything you owe in one spot instead of multiple.

It is also good to apply to loans that may have a high interest rate and cover it with one that has a lower interest rate than it. You will still owe the same amount, but you won’t be hurt by the interest fees as bad if the rates are lower.

Again, while not ideal for many, taking out a loan to cover all — or most — of your debt is beneficial because it allows you to consolidate it into one area instead of multiple.

Managing Financial Burnout

Managing and dealing with ways to avoid financial burnout may seem daunting at first and discourage you from doing it, but once you get over that hill, you will realize how beneficial it is for your future finances. There’s not just one way to save money, and you should do what fits best with you, but the outcome is usually the same for anyone who goes on this journey. Saving today will let you expand your finances tomorrow.

Due to the cost of healthcare education being so high, many students will turn to taking out student loans to help pay for it. This will result in an abundance of debt piling up in front of them that will take years to pay off.

Fortunately, for people in the healthcare field, some programs and plans can help them guide their way out of the student loan weeds. Here are some tips on how to make paying back your student loans as a healthcare worker easier.

Your State can Help

If you are looking for student loan forgiveness, specific states will assist with your debt. These programs apply to nurses and various health care professionals.

While it may not be the whole student loan debt healthcare workers carry, any amount helps. Depending on which state you live in will determine how much relief you receive towards your loans.

Only a handful of states offer nurse student loan forgiveness, and those include Alaska, California, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, and Minnesota. 

Contact your state’s Department of Education to learn more about the forgiveness programs they offer for healthcare workers.

Choose a Forgiveness Program

Not only can your state assist you with your student loan debt, but there are specific programs out there for healthcare workers. These programs help eliminate some of the debt healthcare workers collect for education, but they come with qualifications that need to be met before receiving the forgiveness.

Public Student Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)

The top loan forgiveness healthcare workers should go for is the Public Student Loan Forgiveness, but not everyone may qualify for it. Additionally, it takes a long time to qualify for forgiveness from PSLF.

To qualify for PSLF, you must work full-time, have a direct loan that is not private, be repaying the loan(s) under an Income Drive Repayment (IDR) plan, and have made 120 qualifying payments to your loan. That period can equate to ten years of making payments.

Healthcare workers who work for for-profit organizations do not qualify for PSLF. If you have a loan from the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program, or the Federal Perkins Loan Program, then you also do not qualify for PSLF.

Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness (TEPSLF)

If you unfortunately don’t qualify for a PSLF, then the next best option would be Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness (TEPSLF). This helps you find loan forgiveness even if you missed some — or all — of your payments under a non-qualifying repayment plan for PSLF.

However, just like with PSLF, you must have a Direct Loan, made 120 payments, and have had at least ten years of certified full-time employment. Also, FFEL and Federal Perkins Loan Program loans are not eligible.

NHSC Loan Repayment Program (LRP)

The National Health Service Corps LRP also provides loan assistance to healthcare workers in the field. However, to qualify for this assistance, the healthcare worker must have worked at an NHSC-approved site in a Health Professional Shortage for a minimum of two years.

Physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, dentists, dental hygienists, and behavioral & mental health professionals are all approved professions for the Repayment Program.

For full-time service, you can receive up to $50,000 for a two-year initial term. Once you complete the initial two years, you can request additional loan repayment funds through a one-year continuation service contract. NHSC loan repayment funds are exempt from federal income and employment taxes.

Additional Repayment Options

Loan forgiveness most likely will not pay off all your debt, so it is a good decision to look at other repayment options that can make your monthly payments more manageable. 

Income-Driven is the best option to utilize to minimize loan repayments. These are available for federal student loan borrowers and provide more affordable repayment options.

The plans that fall under the IDR plans would be the Pay As You Earn (PAYE), Income-Based, and Income Contingent Repayment (ICR) plans. The Biden Administration also introduced the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan, which calculates your monthly payment amount based on your income and family size, and also provides the lowest monthly payments of any IDR plan available to nearly all student borrowers.

For most borrowers, the SAVE Plan is the best option and can help nurses needing further assistance take control of their loan repayments better than without help. 

Knowing your options on how to bring down, or minimize, your monthly payments is always beneficial. While the toughest part might be reaching the qualifications that each program has, there are multiple programs to choose from to help make repaying your student loans less drastic.

Nursing degrees can cost over $100,000, which results in a lot of students taking out student loans to help cover the cost. This debt can linger for an excessive amount of years after graduating.

The debt can also impact future financial planning for nurses in their post-grad life. This could range from being able to afford groceries, pay rent, or compiling a solid savings amount for any emergencies — just to name a few scenarios.

No matter if you are planning, currently enrolled, or graduated from nursing school, there are multiple ways to prepare and act on the debt you may have.

Paying and Forgiving Student Loan Balances

The first expense that will hit nurses even before graduating is student loan repayments. Interest may start accruing even before you graduate, unless your loan provider states otherwise.

While they need to be paid back, there are multiple services for nurses that can either help repay or cancel a fraction of their loan amount. 

Health Resources and Service Administration Repayment Programs

The Health Resources and Service Administration offers programs to assist nurses with their student loan amounts and helps ease the financial burden that it brings.

The Nurse Corps Loan Repayment Program applies to both federal and private loans. It helps nurses by paying off up to 85% of their nursing school debt. However, students may have to pay federal income tax based on the amount received.

To qualify for this program, you must be a licensed and registered nurse, an advanced practice registered nurse, or a nurse faculty member. You must also work for a minimum of two years at the Critical Shortage Facility or serve as nurse faculty in an eligible school of nursing.

The National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program, unlike the Nurse Corps repayment program, will help repay up to $50,000 of federal and private student loans and is available for part-time nurses. Part-time nurses may only receive up to $25,000 in loan forgiveness.

Non-Nurse Repayment Options

If you don’t qualify for those programs, then there are other programs out there that do not require you to work for specific organizations.

For borrowers who have federal student loans, they should apply for any of the IDR (Income Driven Repayment) Plans that work best for them. These programs consist of the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE), Pay As You Earn (PAYE), Income-Based Repayment (IBR), and Income Contingent Repayment (ICR) plans.

The SAVE plan, which would be the best plan for most borrowers, calculates payments based on a borrower’s income and family size. This is not based on their loan balance and forgives remaining balances after a certain number of years.

If these options are not feasible, then another option that borrowers have is putting their loans into forbearance. This will allow you to either make smaller payments or not make any payments at all.

However, this isn’t the best option because you will continue to be charged interest and possibly not gain any qualifications towards forgiveness opportunities.

Know Your Income and Saving

While paying back your student loans is a top priority, maintaining a healthy savings amount is also important. If it’s for an emergency or a planned vacation, it’s never a bad idea to have a savings account.

However, before you start setting money aside, you should make sure that you know how much necessities cost. This would include housing, groceries, transportation, utilities, and any subscriptions you have. If you find that you will be paying more than you make, then you need to cut back on your spending or find other ways to make money.

Once you sort all your finances out, you can then calculate how much money you can allocate to a savings account. Usually, the bank you use offers savings accounts you can open, but don’t hesitate to look at other options.

The main objectives of financial organization and saving are knowing your weekly income, tracking your expenses, spending less than what you make so you have a financial cushion, and planning for emergencies. Once you have full knowledge of these areas, you’ll be much more at peace with your expenses and be able to maintain a savings account much simpler.

Retirement Plans and Planning

Although it applies later in life, retirement is an area that should be thought of throughout your career as a nurse. You want to make sure that you are covered financially once you decide to retire.

Employers usually offer 401(k) plans to their full-time nurses, which automatically add funds from your paycheck into the account for use when you retire. Many employers will also match the contribution you make up to a certain point — which is great for growing the account faster.

However, please be aware that the government limits how much an employee can contribute to their 401(k) each year. The amount may be based on the age of the employee. There are also IRAs (Individual Retirement Accounts) that you can open. These allow you to deposit money and then deduct the amount you contribute from your income.

Depositing and deducting money from your IRA depends on your marital status and your annual income. You cannot withdraw any amount until you turn 60, without paying any penalties and can only take out $5,500 annually. However, if you are over 50 you can deposit an additional $1,000, which can change each year with inflation.

Conquering Your Finances

Being a nurse is not easy, but it is an important and rewarding field to be in. While the job is very time-consuming, finding time to organize your finances is an important task to prioritize.

Sorting through your finances is not always the easiest task to complete, but once you have a sense of what they are, the road to financial comfort becomes a lot easier. With multiple avenues presented, there are many ways for people in the nursing field to build a stable financial life.