How to make sure you qualify for pSLF: episode 2

Check Out More Podcasts Here

In This Episode:

- Understand Why Its Hard To Get PSLF Help

- Identify The Risk Of PSLF

- Understanding What Plan You're On

- Risk #1 Of PSLF

- Risk #2 Of Not Having Payments Count

- Risk #3 Over Paying

- Other Risks To Know

- Setting Up A Plan To Reduce The Risk

- How To Implement Your PSLF Plan

- The Best Way To Sleep Easy At Night

Understand Why Its Hard To Get PSLF Help

One of the big questions we get at FitBUX is why is help so hard to find for student loans? This doesn't have to do just with PSLF but any type of plan.

The reason is a lack of financial planners or industry experts that know anything about student loans. I.e. there is not training on student loans. That is why its virtually impossible for traditional advisors to give advice to those that have student loans. 

Joe discuss this in the episode. However, if you want to dive deeper into this topic be sure to check out why finding a student loan planner is so hard.  

Also, we have been called student loan experts by many. Therefore, we at FitBUX are student loan planners.  Check out our page dedicated to our student loan planning service (its free).

Identify The Risk Of PSLF

There are 3 major risks associated with PSLF:

1. Understanding what plan you are on.
2. Fed Loan Servicing not giving you credit for each qualifying payment.
3. Fed Loan Servicing over charging your monthly payments.

Risk #1: Not Understanding What Plan You Are On

Public service loan forgiveness is not a repayment plan. It is a feature of income-driven repayment plans. This is extremely important to understand.

Joe, breaks down the income driven repayment plan and how it works. He then goes into how to qualify for PSLF while on one of these plans. 

Risk #2: Fed Loan Servicing Not Counting All Your Payments

We've helped thousands of recent graduates figure out their student loan repayment strategy.  Often times we catch Fed Loan Servicing making mistakes.  

One major mistake is not counting ALL qualifying payments that should be counted against your required 120 payments. This can cost you tens of thousands and extra monthly payments you should not have to make.

Joe explains how and why this happens and what you can do to catch these costly mistakes early. 

Risk #3: Fed Loan Servicing Overcharging You Monthly

As we've established, PSLF is a feature of different IDR plans.  This means that your required monthly payment will be calculated as a percentage of your income.

Well, we've seen instances where Fed Loan makes mistakes when calculating the required monthly payment and overcharge borrowers. In one year this can cost you thousands. Imagine if they did it in multiple years!

Other Risks To Know

Beyond these 3 "top level" risks, Joe covers elements you need to take into account.  This includes the type of loans you have to the the (very) negative impact of making prepayments while pursuing PSLF and more.

Setting Up A Plan To Reduce Risk

A key benefit of pursuing PSLF is that your loans will be forgiven and the forgiven amount won't be taxable.

Joe goes over what you should do early when planning for PSLF in case you no longer qualify for it down the road or if the program is canceled while you're pursing Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

How To Implement Your PSLF Plan

Once you have a good understanding of PSLF and have devised a customized strategy, it's time to implement it, and diligently follow through.

 This podcast episode details how to implement your PSLF efficiently and make sure that you stay on track and maximize the amount that will be forgiven at the end of your PSLF period.

The Best Way To Sleep Easy At Night...Yes We Are Bias!

The average amount forgiven under PSLF to date is approximately $62,000 and our PSLF Solution costs as low as $15/month to ensure you qualify.

Here Joe gives you an overview of what our proprietary PSLF Solution does, how it works and why we think this is a no brainer for people pursuing or exploring Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).

PSLF Resource Page 

FitBUX's PSLF Solution

PSLF "How To" Written Guide

Public Service Loan Forgiveness Calculator

PSLF Update

Income Driven Repayment Plan Guide