In our most recent article, we presented an initial overview of budgeting basics, while promising to take a deeper dive into the practical side of building (and managing) a household budget. We’ll do just that in this quarter’s post, beginning by revisiting some of our initial recommendations from our last…
The student loan landscape shifts once again
After three years of relief, student loan borrowers received a double dose of bad news in June. First, the debt ceiling deal ended the student loan repayment moratorium once and for all, after several extensions. Beginning in late August, all federal student loans will go into active repayment status again,…
Student loan forgiveness arrives
In late August, just two weeks after the Inflation Reduction Act passed on a party-line vote, President Biden announced a controversial student loan debt forgiveness program, promising what the administration calls “targeted cancellation” of federal student loans for qualified borrowers. Intended mostly for lower-income individuals, the plan’s major provisions are…
529... or IRA?
As a new year dawns, many of us are taking a fresh look at our household budgets, determining where and how we plan to save money over the next twelve months. During that process, we’ll inevitably face tradeoffs between various financial goals—should we pay down debt, or build up our…
Slaying the Student Loan Monster
As college tuition costs have marched ever higher over the last decade, student loan balances have risen along with them, to the point that they now represent a meaningful portion of many household balance sheets. The numbers are staggering: one in five households carry some student debt, a rate that…
