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Speaker 1: Hey, hey va fam, what's up? And welcome back to

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Speaker 1: Brown Ambition. It's your girl, Mandy Money, and I'm so

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Speaker 1: excited to be here at Iheartstudio. I'm in the red room, y'all.

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Speaker 1: Like I think the chair I'm sitting on many a

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Speaker 1: famous butt has been on it, not just you know mine.

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Speaker 1: I'm so so happy to be here with y'all. Ba fam,

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Speaker 1: it's the b AQA. This is where I take your

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Speaker 1: questions and I give you my lowercase A answer. So

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Speaker 1: let me get this out of the way. Do not

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Speaker 1: come for me. Do not try to sue me. I

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Speaker 1: have children to put them through college. Okay, when I'm

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Speaker 1: giving y'all my advice is my best take as a

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Speaker 1: longtime business and financial journalist, personal finance expert, career coach,

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Speaker 1: queen all the above. All right, so again, don't sue

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Speaker 1: me now before I get started, please send me your questions.

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Speaker 1: You can hit me up at Brown Ambition Podcast at

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Speaker 1: gmail dot com, or you can slide into my DMS

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Speaker 1: Brown Ambition Podcast on IG. I love actually getting y'all's

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Speaker 1: of voice notes, so if you want to just get

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Speaker 1: it off your chest, go ahead drop me a voice

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Speaker 1: note in IG or if you know more of an

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Speaker 1: analog girly, then you can hit me up via I

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Speaker 1: so look forward to hearing from y'all. I love love

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Speaker 1: answering y'all's questions. Let's start with a really juicy one

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Speaker 1: from listener Sydney. All Right, Sydney, Sidney says, hey, friend

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Speaker 1: in my head, I am a thirty four year old

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Speaker 1: full time nurse, married with no children, currently managing a

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Speaker 1: student loan balance of roughly thirty thousand dollars with a

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Speaker 1: monthly payment of five hundred dollars. Based on my calculations,

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Speaker 1: I've got about three years of payments left before I

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Speaker 1: qualify for public service loan forgiveness. I am also starting

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Speaker 1: my master's degree, and by securing in state tuition, I

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Speaker 1: was able to reduce the total cost of tuition from

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Speaker 1: sixty five thousand to twenty thousand dollars. Yes, for in state,

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Speaker 1: with employer tuition reimbursement of five thousand, two hundred and

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Speaker 1: fifty dollars per calendar year, my remaining out of pocket

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Speaker 1: costs should be relatively small. My husband and I currently

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Speaker 1: own a home, but we are planning to sell and

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Speaker 1: purchase a new one that's closer to work as my

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Speaker 1: current commute is thirty three miles each way out. Earlier

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Speaker 1: this year, I had to purchase a new car due

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Speaker 1: to commute demands, resulting in a monthly car payment of

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Speaker 1: nearly six hundred dollars. Both my husband and I have

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Speaker 1: excellent credit. He carries about fifty grand and student loans,

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Speaker 1: but no car payment. Okay, what a man. We maintain

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Speaker 1: just under three months of savings in a high yield

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Speaker 1: savings account as we navigate these financial and life transitions.

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Speaker 1: So here's my question. Since my loans are currently in

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Speaker 1: deferment due to being a student again, do I stop

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Speaker 1: making payments and focus on the hopeful move and new

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Speaker 1: mortgage payment or do I push forward and keep making

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Speaker 1: that five hundred dollars payment to get closer to loan

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Speaker 1: forgiveness because who knows if that will go away with

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Speaker 1: the current administration. I've already delayed my public service loan

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Speaker 1: forgiveness by not making payments during another deferment period working

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Speaker 1: toward my second degree, as well as during the COVID pause,

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Speaker 1: So I'm kicking myself for not being done by now.

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Speaker 1: Any in suggestions you may have to improve my financial

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Speaker 1: situation are welcome, okay, miss thaying well, First of all, congratulations,

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Speaker 1: I'm being married with no children. Enjoy it. So get up.

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Speaker 1: You're so rich and you don't even know you don't

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Speaker 1: even know it's Sydney. Okay, But it sounds like you

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Speaker 1: and your husband are actually in a really great financial situation.

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Speaker 1: I know that the pressures of student loan would weigh

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Speaker 1: on anybody, but the fact that you're making these really

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Speaker 1: savvy financial moves and thinking things through strategically just tells

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Speaker 1: me that you're actually well positioned to get this debt

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Speaker 1: paid off. But let's talk about it, because you've got

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Speaker 1: a lot going on, all right. So you're three years

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Speaker 1: away from potentially qualifying for public public service loan forgiveness.

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Speaker 1: And for those who don't know, public service loan forgiveness

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Speaker 1: or PSLF is a very fraught student loan forgiveness program

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Speaker 1: where if you are a public service employee, so you

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Speaker 1: work for the government for a qualifying public role like

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Speaker 1: a nurse, for example, or a teacher, you potentially are

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Speaker 1: qualified to have your remaining student loan balance forgiveness after

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Speaker 1: making ten years of qualifying payments. We're going to come

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Speaker 1: back to this, but the keyword here is qualifying. All right,

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Speaker 1: So you're going for your Masters, which is mostly covered

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Speaker 1: via in state tuition and your five thousand dollars employee reimbursement.

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Speaker 1: All of that, you're about to do a home upgrade

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Speaker 1: to get rid of that brutal thirty three mile commute.

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Speaker 1: You have a new car that's costing you six hundred

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Speaker 1: bucks a month, and you have just under three months

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Speaker 1: of saving. So the tension is real here. You're asking yourself,

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Speaker 1: do I keep on paying these student loans while they

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Speaker 1: are deferred just to stay on track for PSLF, or

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Speaker 1: should I press pause to shore up my life and

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Speaker 1: my savings. So here's a key key nuance. I remember

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Speaker 1: I said qualifying payments when it comes to PSLF. So

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Speaker 1: for PSLF only payments made while you were in a

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Speaker 1: qualifying repayment plan and working full time for a qualifying employers.

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Speaker 1: A lot of qualifying there count toward that. Ten years

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Speaker 1: of payments or one hundred and twenty months of payments.

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Speaker 1: Payments that are made when you are in school deferment

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Speaker 1: typically do not count as qualifying PSLF payments. So if

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Speaker 1: your loans right now are in an in school deferment period,

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Speaker 1: and you just keep voluntarily throwing five hundred dollars a

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Speaker 1: month at them. You are essentially reducing your balance, which

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Speaker 1: is great, we love that, but you're actually not buying

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Speaker 1: yourself any extra credit towards your goal of getting public

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Speaker 1: service loan forgiveness. Those payments that you're making are wonderful,

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Speaker 1: but they are not typically they're not considered a qualifying payment. Okay.

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Speaker 1: That means you're not getting closer to forgiveness, although, of

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Speaker 1: course you are getting closer to paying down your debt

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Speaker 1: and paying less interest, which is also great. Now that

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Speaker 1: debt may be forgiven back in about three years if

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Speaker 1: you stay the course. But given that and you have

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Speaker 1: other priorities, it's not about right or wrong situation. It's

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Speaker 1: more about you know what means what makes the most

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Speaker 1: sense for you in this moment. So think of it

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Speaker 1: this way, like, if those PSLF payments are not getting

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Speaker 1: you credit towards your goal of that loan forgiveness, it

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Speaker 1: could potentially be reasonable to redirect that five hundred dollars,

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Speaker 1: like you were saying, toward your savings goal. Toward yeah,

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Speaker 1: any goal that you may have, even you know, taking

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Speaker 1: care of that car payment that you now have. I

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Speaker 1: will say though, that it's true, payments made during in

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Speaker 1: school deferment typically don't count toward public service loan forgiveness

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Speaker 1: because they have to be in repayment status.

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Speaker 2: However, you still have the opportunity to contact your loan

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Speaker 2: servicer and ask if they can waive in school deferment,

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Speaker 2: which would allow you to make qualifying payments while you're employed.

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Speaker 2: But you have to still be employed full time by

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Speaker 2: a qualifying employer. Now, this may be a little bit confusing.

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Speaker 2: This is one of the reasons why public service loan forgiveness.

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Speaker 2: It even made me nervous answering this question because I'm like,

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Speaker 2: so much of it is like very gray, and there's

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Speaker 2: so many but these and if this, and sure you

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Speaker 2: know so as much as I want to be like,

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Speaker 2: here's the firm, tried and true answer, you know, one

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Speaker 2: hundred percent, the reality is that things can change, and

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Speaker 2: but for the time being, this is the latest information

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Speaker 2: that I have. So you can go to studentaid dot gov.

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Speaker 2: If you don't know your loan servicers, if you already do,

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Speaker 2: contact them directly and you can request this this waiver

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Speaker 2: for the for the deferred payments. And I would say,

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Speaker 2: go ahead and do that asap, so you can at

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Speaker 2: least know, you can know with one hundred percent certainty,

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Speaker 2: like Okay, it's worth it to keep making these payments,

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Speaker 2: or all right, if they're not going to qualify, then

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Speaker 2: you know the it's probably better off for me to

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Speaker 2: maybe put this money in another and another bucket for now.

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Speaker 2: So here's where that like, let's just say, hypothetically, you've

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Speaker 2: got five hundred extra dollars, Like, let's talk about how

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Speaker 2: we can make that money work harder for you. So

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Speaker 2: if you pause that extra student loan payment while you're

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Speaker 2: in deferment, you could use that five hundred bucks a

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Speaker 2: few different ways. First of all, about three months of

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Speaker 2: an emergency fund is wonderful, and if it's worth ten

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Speaker 2: years ago, and I was a baby business reporter, you know,

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Speaker 2: hitting those streets that Business Insider and y'all have finance

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Speaker 2: and trying to give great personal finance guidance for millennials,

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Speaker 2: I'd be all about that three month emergency savings goal.

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Speaker 2: The honey, we are not in those times anymore. And

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Speaker 2: unfortunately three months is a drop in the bucket. So

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Speaker 2: you could use that five hundred dollars to try to

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Speaker 2: get even higher with that saving school, you know, get

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Speaker 2: that emergency fund to even that six month mark. So

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Speaker 2: you're in a season of transition. You want to buy a.

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Speaker 1: New house, You got that big commute, got the card

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Speaker 1: note grad school. So think about what that buffer of

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Speaker 1: six months can give you in terms of peace of

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Speaker 1: mind if anything were to happen, if you were to,

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Speaker 1: you know, think about changing career paths. I mean, I

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Speaker 1: know we need our nurses, and I'm sure you love

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Speaker 1: what you're doing, but you never know, right, the more

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Speaker 1: cash you have on hand, the more tempted you'll also

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Speaker 1: be to rely on you know, those I don't even

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Speaker 1: want to say it, credit cards Okay, loans, we don't

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Speaker 1: want to talk about those. So that's your first option.

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Speaker 1: Put that need toward an emergency fund. Try to hit

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Speaker 1: that six month savings mark. Now your next option is,

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Speaker 1: you know, use that money to prepare for your move.

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Speaker 1: Moving is expansive, Okay, five hundred dollars, that's like what

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Speaker 1: maybe two hours if you're lucky of a mover's time.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't sound like you're making a huge move, but still,

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Speaker 1: I mean, you know what cardboard boxes cost this time?

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Speaker 1: Like this time this day and age, like it's it's

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Speaker 1: the little nuts. So you could set that cash as

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Speaker 1: side for moving cost Maybe you have inspections, you got

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Speaker 1: to pay for an appraisal, closing costs. I'm trying to

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Speaker 1: take myself back to twenty eighteen when little baby Mandy

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Speaker 1: was buying her first house. I mean there's so much.

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Speaker 1: I mean, let's just not even talk about going into

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Speaker 1: home goods thinking you're going for one little stack of paper,

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Speaker 1: paper towels, one little stack of wash claus and walking

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Speaker 1: out with like an entire living room worthless stuff. So

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Speaker 1: those expenses can pop up as a new homeowner, So

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Speaker 1: you could set that aside, and like I said, before

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Speaker 1: you got that extra five hundred you know, dollars in

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Speaker 1: your pocket, much less likely to put those expenses on

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Speaker 1: a credit card or dip into you're already you know,

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Speaker 1: respectable but not truly popin' savings fund right now. Next

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Speaker 1: option is you could attack that car payment now in

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Speaker 1: this interest rate environment, I know, when I got my

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Speaker 1: car note, which, oh my god, thank goodness, I'm about

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Speaker 1: to pay off my car this tune, I could not

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Speaker 1: be more excited. I hate car notes. However, my interest

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Speaker 1: rate is like two percent interest rates today for a

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Speaker 1: you know, even great credit on a car a lot

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Speaker 1: more than that, So you could take that extra money

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Speaker 1: and pay down, you know, work toward paying down your

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Speaker 1: car note. That's one option I think when it comes

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Speaker 1: to car notes, I mean, it's a personal preference. They

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Speaker 1: are not typically the highest cost loan for a lot

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Speaker 1: of people unless you have poor credit, and then that

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Speaker 1: could be a very different case. So it could just

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Speaker 1: be like me personally, I don't like having a car

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Speaker 1: note over my head. I liked I liked it thinkes

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Speaker 1: me feel rich. I don't care what kind of car

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Speaker 1: I'm driving. If I'm driving around and I know that

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Speaker 1: I own it outright, I'm not making any payments. I

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Speaker 1: just better. So for me, that's something that I may do,

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Speaker 1: but that for you may not be the case. So

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Speaker 1: it's a personal preference, all right. So let's get back

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Speaker 1: to the idea of public service loan forgiveness and will

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Speaker 1: they kill it? So here's what I'll say, PSLF. I've

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Speaker 1: been covering that ever since it was it was rolled out,

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Speaker 1: I want to say, in the early twenty teens, maybe

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Speaker 1: during the Obama administration the first one, but regardless, it

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Speaker 1: has survived multiple administrations, even the one of he who

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Speaker 1: must not be named. Okay, so is it likely that

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Speaker 1: the program is going to get asked? I would say,

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Speaker 1: like any other, you know, federal program, there's a chance

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Speaker 1: that it could change if the wind changes, or if

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Speaker 1: I don't know, someone tweets about it, or you know,

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Speaker 1: our current administration suddenly has a vendetta against someone in

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Speaker 1: the DOE. But right now it's it's not looking like it.

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Speaker 1: So I think the angst about it, you know, is

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Speaker 1: it going to be take off the table? Is there

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Speaker 1: a point in continuing to make these payments, these qualifying

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Speaker 1: payments to qualify I think yes for now. I mean

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Speaker 1: there's just it's just impossible to predict, so I think

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Speaker 1: why worry. Additionally, there's so much else to be concerned

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Speaker 1: about right now. Also, like, look at it this way.

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Speaker 1: You're a nurse. So I think politically, we love our

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Speaker 1: healthcare workers, and I'm trying to think. I think of

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Speaker 1: all the you know, the doge of it all, and

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Speaker 1: the different groups that this administration seems to target, I

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Speaker 1: think we can all agree that we need our healthcare workers.

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Speaker 1: So even if they were to alter the PSLF, I

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Speaker 1: just can't imagine a world and this is just my assumption,

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Speaker 1: my prediction. I can't imagine a world where they're going

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Speaker 1: to take it away from our healthcare workers. And if

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Speaker 1: they do, it's just one more reason to get them

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Speaker 1: up out of here. I need a passport, another one

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Speaker 1: and another, I need another citizenship asap. Okay, because if

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Speaker 1: they take away for goodness from nurses like I just

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Speaker 1: I don't know if I want to raise my kids

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Speaker 1: here anymore. But for now, I think you're good. If

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Speaker 1: you're not sure about your qualifying payments for PSLF, and

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Speaker 1: this is for anyone who's listening, here are a couple

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Speaker 1: of things you should do right now. So the first

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Speaker 1: powerful thing you can do is make sure that every

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Speaker 1: qualifying payment you make is currently logged and certified. Submit

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Speaker 1: your employment certification annually once a year, and any time

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Speaker 1: that you change employers once you're out of deferment. So again,

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Speaker 1: when you're in deferment, payments that you make toward that

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Speaker 1: loan are not a qualifying PSLF payment, right, So if

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Speaker 1: you get out of deferment, you can get back into

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Speaker 1: a qualifying income driven repayment plan as soon as possible,

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Speaker 1: so that every monthly payment you make counts, So don't

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Speaker 1: starve your life and your safety net to pay on

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Speaker 1: loans that really aren't even earning credit towards your PSLF forgiveness, right,

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Speaker 1: But do treat it as like probable a program that's

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Speaker 1: probably going to be around, not guaranteed, but probably going

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Speaker 1: to be around. So let's continue making sure that our

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Speaker 1: ducks are in a row, that our paperwork is completely

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Speaker 1: taken care of and pristine, and that you're back in

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Speaker 1: a qualifying repayment schedule. Okay, so where do you actually

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Speaker 1: go to check? You can confirm with your loan servicer.

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Speaker 1: You can go to www dot studentaid dot gov to

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Speaker 1: find out who your student loan servicer is, get your

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Speaker 1: contact info, and just ask them straight up, while I'm

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Speaker 1: in school deferment, do my payments counterward PSL left qualifying payments?

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Speaker 1: And if the answer is no, which it probably is,

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Speaker 1: give yourself permission to pause those extra payments while you're

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Speaker 1: in deferment. Then you can redirect that extra money that

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Speaker 1: you have coming in for the next six to twelve

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Speaker 1: months while you complete your master's degree, so the priority

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Speaker 1: list for you and maybe topping out that emergency fund

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Speaker 1: getting it up to six months of savings. And let's

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Speaker 1: not forget the extra expenses of being a homeowner that

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Speaker 1: you may have. So maybe it's even setting up a

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Speaker 1: separate fund just for those maybe unexpected costs of a

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Speaker 1: new home, putting that extra money towards just your moving

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Speaker 1: expenses as well, and then if you're comfortable, you can

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Speaker 1: send not Eve don't have to do you do all

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Speaker 1: the five hundred dollars towards your savings and toward the

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Speaker 1: moving expenses goals. You could break it up and do

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Speaker 1: a little bit toward the car note again if that

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Speaker 1: feels good for you, or a future car note savings

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Speaker 1: fund to pay that down. Now, when you finish school

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Speaker 1: and we're all on a rooting for you, you finish, you're

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Speaker 1: going to get that degree, you can immediately make sure

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Speaker 1: that you are in rolling in a qualifying income driven

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Speaker 1: repayment plan that's going to put you in a position

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Speaker 1: where the payments you're making are going to count toward

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Speaker 1: your public service loan forgiveness. And then you can turn

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Speaker 1: that This is the best part you can turn that

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Speaker 1: muscle that you've now been exercising of that five hundred

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Speaker 1: dollars per month going toward a goal. You can use

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Speaker 1: that muscle, put that money towards your student loan payment

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Speaker 1: or toward any extra principle on that student loan payment.

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Speaker 1: If for any reason, public service loan forgiveness falls through,

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Speaker 1: the debt is still there, so you'd still be putting

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Speaker 1: a debt in your debt, which is a worthy goal

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Speaker 1: any day of the week. All right, Sidney, thank you

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Speaker 1: so so much for your question. That was really fun

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Speaker 1: and juicy, and I wish you all the best. Good

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Speaker 1: look on finding your new home. And again, you ain't

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Speaker 1: got no kid's girl. You rich. You're rich, have fun,

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Speaker 1: stay up late? What do you do like? What do

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Speaker 1: you do after you get home from work? In school?

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Speaker 1: Do you like watch TV? You have energy for that?

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Speaker 1: That is rich, honey. I am so happy for you

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Speaker 1: and a little jealous sound heulp for me. Feel free

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Speaker 1: to send your questions to Brown Ambition Podcast at gmail

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Speaker 1: dot com. You can send me a voice note on

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Speaker 1: ig I am at Brown Ambition Podcast there and I

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Speaker 1: can't wait to hear from y'all. Don't forget to share

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Speaker 1: this episode with a friend. If you found it useful,

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Speaker 1: and if you feel so moved, leave me a review.

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Speaker 1: On Apple, podcasts on Spotify, or if you're watching this

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Speaker 1: on YouTube. Hey YouTube friends, y'all are the best. Leave

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Speaker 1: a comment, make sure you're subscribed. Thank y'all for all

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Speaker 1: the support. Until next time, BAFAM, take care,