If you’ve learned anything now, more than six years as a certified student loan counselor, then your higher education debt will hit your home. My landlord’s daughter and neighbor are down the street. Volleyball teammates and work colleagues. My wife’s client and the parents of a friend of my daughter.
Clearly, student loan debt is also growing widely. I counseled a small percentage of the 43 million borrowers, a $1.6 trillion red group. But my half dozen as a pro bono counselor has taught me a lot of things that may be useful when you process your own student loans. So I’m going here.
Six Things I Learned as a Certified Student Loan Counselor
1. Many of us have never learned basic personal finances (but we can still do it).
As you know, paying back your student loan requires know-how that our high school and college classes remain discovered. For example, consider budgeting. Creating and maintaining a budget is important to zero all types of debt, whether you’re making minimum or additional payments.
That’s why budgeting is often the first step for borrowers I advise. It reminds me of a couple in their 30s who were back at school for a nursing degree. They took out student loans, personal loans and car loans, all simply by estimating their bank accounts and estimating side-job revenue.
So we created a budget together and started assigning payments to the best profit obligations (trimming some unnecessary expenses along the way). They also needed to understand how interests work. This is another basic topic that you often learn after leaving school. Fortunately, you don’t need to remember algebra to calculate your interest. To do this, use a student loan payment calculator.
2. There is very little “basic” about repaying student loans (but you can understand).
When interviewing the last student loan ombudsman of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), she explained the system for repaying federal education debt with “labyrinthine.” It certainly has a maze-like character. There are so many places to consider, and there are so many obstacles that it gets in the way.
“When I heard about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, Illinois spokes-language pathologist Kasi said, “When I heard about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, I looked at it as a strategy to ease the loan. “I applied based on my experience working in a public school for four years. But I was denied.”
Especially after such obstacles, the job of a counselor is to help you figure out where you are and which routes lead to your destination. However, with student loans, possible routes may appear (or disappear) in front of you. For example, the Biden administration offered a save repayment plan in 2023, but the court simply knocked it down. The Trump administration then temporarily removed access to all income-driven repayment (IDR) plans in 2025.
On the bright side, trust me. There is one. Everyone has at least one pathway to either a successful payoff or a much-helpful relief. As a borrower, your job is to take part in finding it.
3. There are very few quick fixes (but you can find a solution).
The first and most frequent questions I usually get from clients:
“How can I get rid of these loans?”
If that was very easy.
I usually tell borrowers that there are two main ways to “remove” education debt. It’s particularly aggressive or strategically slow approaches.
- Particularly offensive: Borrowers with excellent credit and strong cash flow that do not rely on federal lending protections are likely to benefit from refinancing with private lenders multiple times, perhaps in order to continue to lower overall interest rates. Even better if they can make additional, biweekly payments, especially after blowing away like tax refunds and pay raises, to cut the principal faster.
- Strategically slow: Borrowers working in government, nonprofits, or simply low-wage careers are more likely to benefit from keeping monthly payments low on their IDR plans while working towards forgiveness or loan repayment assistance programs. It can take years for relief to arrive.
Whether they are more closely equating with good credit borrowers or low-wage workers, there is somewhere in between, but the hard truth for everyone is that there is no fast and easy solution. (If someone promises you, it’s the red flag of a potential student loan scam.)
That being said, identifying the right strategy and sticking to it will help you achieve your zero-balance goal.
4. It’s easy to spin in the student loan news cycle (but you can keep yourself involved without stressing yourself).
I’ve always heard from borrowers who are riding the roller coaster height and lowest on what certain politicians are saying in public. This is not unique to one political party either. For example, even as they reached the Biden administration, and the proposals for forgiving for large numbers of student loans, have become the topic of lightning rods across the country. And recently, the Trump administration’s recent targeting of the PSLF and the massive demolition of the Department of Education is undoubtedly uncertain for many of us, and even confused what the future holds.
It is difficult to blame borrowers for lifting up their hopes or hanging their heads. Frequently in media coverage of student loan policy suggestionwe don’t fully contextualize. There is caution with every grand promise from someone in the District of Columbia. This is not the change itself, but the idea of change. And even if it does happen, it may not affect all borrowers and not be enforced anytime soon.
So my advice to the client and you: behaviour with words. And if the words stress you out, avoid headings altogether. Instead, with some support, you will stay above the news molsels that are important to you.
5. It’s hard to find it, of course, to ask for help (but you’re happy that you did).
Contractors in the education sector are well known for providing spotty (or bad) services to federal loan borrowers. And I don’t see enough evidence that private loan borrowers are pretty happy with lenders.
“People overwhelmingly know what to do with the loan, but then they get bad information from their servicers who cause them to re-estimate themselves or make bad decisions,” says Education Debt Attorney Stanley Tate. “We’re talking about the world’s most complex consumer loan products, so we’re advise people who are call centre employees what to do when so many tripwires are built into the system.”
Please don’t get me wrong. Your federal loan servicer or private lender (such as a bank, credit union, online company, or state agent) is a good place to get information about your loan and a menu of repayment options that is perfect for all sizes. the do not have A good place for subtle guidance.
Instead, look for a certified professional who can tailor your plans to suit your situation. And while you’re in it, yes, skeptical. The client asked me what my company name (nothing) and how long I was doing this. It is also wise to ask whether you have successfully helped a borrower who is experiencing what you are experiencing, such as a counselor, lawyer or something.
6. The average borrower doesn’t have all these times (but take the final tips into consideration anyway).
There are only a few borrowers I spoke to. Sometimes they just ask the same questions they raised in the past and want a different answer. I usually remind them of that…
- There is no so-called quick fix (for most borrowers).
- News is sometimes misleading (because there is no context).
- The best way to end your debt is to set up a strategic plan (and stick to it).
It’s not the most uplifting message. It explains why it sometimes shrugged and similar calls met a year or so later.
Again, that’s not to blame the borrower. However, it is common for people to “do not have time.” And I get it. Life happens. The loan can wait, or at least they seem to be able to.
Consider Oshi, a pathologist with a six-figure student loan balance.
“Beyond (PSLF), I’m not considering any other strategies,” she says. “My family and I have moved between states for the past few years, but we are still calm before we try to reassess our situation. I hope we will be in a better position a year from now.”
My advice for Kasi and all student loan borrowers: If you don’t have time to concentrate on paying off your student loan, you’re probably right. But schedule it anyway. Write on your calendar, set alarms, choose a week or month to check in your debt, see where your strategy is standing, and whether your options have changed.
Yes, as with the rest, this is easier than ever to say, especially when there are all the normal duties of families, jobs, other bills, and adults. But I still say I will devote my time on a repetitive basis to your student loan. At least it will give you a break from everything else.
Let’s get started
Start where it makes the most sense to you and think about it in stages. You can start by learning your budget, connecting with professionals, or logging in to dusttainid.gov or the private lender portal. The key is to get started and be consistent.
