For several years, I’ve been reading and compiling articles from around the web on all things related to student loans. It can be overwhelming, and there’s a reason a small industry has been spawned to help debtors best deal with their student loan balances.
Most of the time, you will be best off doing one of two things: pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness while making the lowest monthly payment possible for ten years or refinancing and paying off the loans relatively quickly (within ten years).
However, sometimes a third option may be better. And doing one of the first two options in an optimal way requires a fair amount of learning and doublechecking, dotting of “i”s and crossing of “t”s.
Below, I share a bevy of resources that can help you do the right thing.
If you don’t have the time or interest level to read dozens of blog posts and run multiple simulations via various online calculators, a student loan consult with a professional can save you many hours and possibly tens of thousands of dollars.
I trust Travis Hornsby and his team at Student Loan Planner. Some financial advisors offer similar services as a small part of their practice, and I’ve heard of a lot of bad advice given.
Student loan planning is all Travis does. It started with helping his physician wife manage hers, then her friends, and the business snowballed from there. Check out what Student Loan Planner has to offer.
If you’re ready to go it alone, read on for tons of resources.
The Student Loan Resource Page
Jump to:
This is a frequently updated page I’ve created, combing the web for all the best student loan information I can squeeze onto one page and working with refinancers to offer you excellent bonuses.
As an added bonus, if you end up refinancing via my referral links, I’ll make a donation of $50 to your charity of choice. Just be sure to follow up after you’ve refinanced and be sure to collect your cash-back bonus (see below) and ask me to make the donation. More details on that at the end of this page.
I have three goals with this page:
- Share some of the best posts I can find on the subject.
- Save you money on refinancing if  that’s your best option.
- Advance the site’s charitable mission and help you with yours.
I have arrangements with the top student loan refinancers. You may find similar offers on other sites, but I doubt you’ll find another blogger who promises to donate so much of the profits from these referrals to charity.
With that in mind, I am comfortable sending you away to the farthest reaches of the web to show you some of the best write-ups I can find to help you in this decision-making process.
I do so with the trust that if you choose to refinance your loans, you’ll do so by returning here and using one of the links on this page.
As a way of saying thank you, I’ll remind you that if you refinance via one of my links, I’ll donate $50 to a charity of your choice.*
Before closing, please be sure to verify that both you and I receive credit for the referral. If not, you may miss out on the cashback bonus and my bonus donation on your behalf.
Earnest Welcome Bonus Offer Disclosure: Terms and conditions apply. To qualify for this Earnest Welcome Bonus offer: 1) you must not currently be an Earnest client, or have received the bonus in the past, 2) you must submit a completed student loan refinancing application through the designated PoF link; 3) you must provide a valid email address and a valid checking account number during the application process; and 4) your loan must be fully disbursed. The bonus will be automatically transmitted to your checking account after the final disbursement. There is a limit of one bonus per borrower. This offer is not valid for current Earnest clients who refinance their existing Earnest loans, clients who have previously received a bonus, or with any other bonus offers received from Earnest. Bonus cannot be issued to residents in KY, MA, or MI.
*Offered terms are subject to change and state law restriction. Loans are offered by CommonBond Lending, LLC (NMLS # 1175900), NMLS Consumer Access. If you are approved for a loan, the interest rate offered will depend on your credit profile, your application, the loan term selected and will be within the ranges of rates shown. If you choose to complete an application, we will conduct a hard credit pull, which may affect your credit score. All Annual Percentage Rates (APRs) displayed assume borrowers enroll in auto pay and account for the 0.25% reduction in interest rate. All variable rates are based on a 1-month LIBOR assumption of 0.15% effective Oct 10, 2020 and may increase after consummation.
The Student Loan Resource Page
Blog Posts & Additional Resources
Post from Physician on FIRE:
- Top 5 Ways for Physicians to Attack Student Loans
- Student Loan Case Studies # 1, 2, & 3
- Student Loan Case Studies # 4, 5, & 6
Posts by Student Loan Planner
- Why Refinancing as a Resident is Usually a Bad Idea
- REPAYE Could Save $1,000 on Student Loans with One Phone Call
- Discretionary Income Definition Determines Student Loan Payments
- Here’s What the Latest PSLF Lawsuit Actually Means and How FedLoan Servicing Messed Up Big
- The Only Student Loans I Don’t Regret
- Important: Check PSLF Before Refinancing Your Student Loans
- What Student Loans Are PAYE and REPAYE Eligible?
- This Hospital Pharmacist Student Loan Benefit Could Be Worth Over $100,000
- Why Direct Grad Plus Loans are Really Expensive
- Georgetown Law School PSLF Abuse Shows Why Program Will End
- How to Hedge Against PSLF Repeal
- How to Spot a Student Loan Scam
- The Major Student Loan Mistakes Doctors Make in Residency
- Top 40 PSLF Tips
- Top 50 Loan Forgiveness Tips
- Is Financial Independence With Student Loans (Even Six-Figures of Debt) Possible?
- A Complete Guide to Getting All Your Student Loans Forgiven With PSLF
- Physician Retirement Planning: Your Options When You Owe Student Loans
- Student Loan Forgiveness After 20 Years or 10 Years — How to Decide
- How to Pay for Medical School and Get Loan Forgiveness
- Why the PSLF Success Rate Will Hit Over 50% by 2024
- How to Avoid Student Loan Forbearance
Posts from The White Coat Investor:
- New Student Loan Refinancing Options For Residents
- Refinancing Medical School Loans During Residency
- Buying a Home While You Owe Student Loans
- 12 Things To Know About Student Loan Refinancing
- What Should I Do With My Student Loans?
- Student Loans vs Investing
- Student Loan Management Issues
- The Doctors’ Loophole – Student Loans and PSLF
- 10 Reasons to Pay Off Your Student Loans Quickly
- Student Loan Refinancing- A Head to Head Competition
- REPAYE vs Refinancing Student Loans As a Resident
- Refinance and Pay Off Or Go For PSLF
- Ultimate Guide to Student Loan Debt Management for Doctors
- You Can’t Wish Your Student Loan Debt Away
- Build Wealth and Save on Taxes Pursuing PSLF
Posts from Future Proof MD
- Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Application Walkthrough
- PSLF — The Time Bomb Goes Off?
- To Be, or Not to Be…Consolidated/Refinanced…On Your Student Loans…
- REPAYE Revisited
- GUEST POST: I Switched to REPAYE and I Like It
- GUEST POST: Navigating between Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) and Student Loan Refinancing
- PSLF – Why REPAYE May NOT be the Best Plan
- Public Service Announcement: Recertify for Your Income Driven Repayment (IDR) Plans
- Invest Early or Pay Off Your Student Debt?
- Pay as You Earn (PAYE) vs. Revised Pay as You Earn (REPAYE)
- Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Revisited
- Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)
Posts from Dr. Wise Money
- 10 Weapons to Terminate Your Student Loans
- How I Pay My Student Loans Using Passive Income by Passive Income MD
- How I Paid Off My Student Loans at 30 as PGY1
- Be a Student Loan Terminator
- Is Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) Repayment Plan for you?
- How I Take Charge of MY $375K Student Loan
- How I Accelerated My Student Loan Payoff
- Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) or Refinance?
- PSLF – Why REPAYE May NOT be the Best Plan.
- RePaye vs. Paye vs. IBR vs. Refinance
- YOUR “Personalized” Student Loan Management Strategy
- Student Loan Refinance 101
- Not going for PSLF? Why wait to lower your interest rate?
Posts by Live Free MD
Posts by Investing Doc
- The Student Loan Repayment Guide
- Steps to Take If You Have a Lot of Student Debt
- An Update on My Debt Payoff
- Average Amount of Debt for Graduating Doctors
- The Golden Handcuffs For Doctors – Loan Forgiveness
- REPAYE vs PAYE for Medical Students and Doctors
Posts by Wealthy Doc
Posts by Big Law Investor
- Does Anyone Know If They Qualify for PSLF?
- Save Money on Your Student Loans
- Student Loan Refinancing Guide
- 5 Facts About REPAYE, IBR and PSLF
- Student Loan Repayment Term Length
- We’re Abandoning PSLF
- Private Student Loans – An Introduction
- Federal Student Loans – An Introduction
Post by Wealthkeel
Posts by Ben White
- How/Why to Consolidate Federal Student Loans When You Graduate Medical School
- Pros and Cons of REPAYE
- Yes, you can switch back from REPAYE to IBR & PAYE
- Planning for PSLF (public service loan forgiveness)
- Switching from REPAYE to PAYE after Residency
- Effective Rates of Negatively Amortized Federal Student Loans
Resources from AAMC FIRST Program
- Loan Repayment Timeline
- 2018 – 2019 Education Debt Manager (EDM) for Graduating Medical School Students
- MedLoans® Organizer and Calculator (MLOC)
- Living on a Resident’s Salary AND Paying Your Student Loans – You Can Do It!
- Effects of Federal Student Loan Consolidation
- Consolidation Quiz
Posts from Student Loan Hero
- Calculators. Too many to list.
- Guide to Income-Driven Repayment Plans for Federal Student Loans
- Should You Refinance Your Federal Student Loans?
- Navigating Federal Student Loan Repayment Programs
- 120+ Student Loan Repayment Assistance Programs
- Student Loan Refinancing 101
- A Simple Guide For Determining Which Student Loans Are Best for Consolidation and Refinancing
- Student Loan Deferment and Forbearance: How to Pause Your Student Loan Payments
- Is an Income-Driven Repayment Plan the Best Choice for You?
Posts from The Simple Dollar
- Student Loan Consolidation Guide
- How to Spot Student Loan Forgiveness Scams
- What I Wish I Knew Before Taking Out Student Loans
- Using Credit Card Rewards to Pay Off Student Loans
- How to Take Out Student Loans Without a Cosigner
- Cancer Patients Can Now Defer Student Loans Without Accruing Interest
- Student Loan Forgiveness: Jobs That Pay Off Your Debt
Don’t forget to request your donation!
*To qualify for the $50 donation, I need to have proof that you did indeed refinance through one of the links or images found on this site. That is typically supplied by the refinancing entity, but if you’ve additional evidence, please share that info with me via e-mail.
Also, the charity you choose must be a registered 501(c)(3) charity that accepts tax-deductible donations. I’ll be donating anonymously from our donor advised fund and will send you proof of donation in the form of a receipt.
I can’t donate to a GoFundMe or similar fundraiser; it has to be an actual charitable organization in the eyes of the law. Fortunately, there are more than a million to choose from. Please supply me with as much information as possible (from Guidestar search)Â to fill out the donation form, which looks something like this.
If you’d like advice from a former Vanguard bond trader who has consulted on over 1,000 individual’s and couple’s student loan scenarios, or would like a second opinion, consider a consult from Travis, the Student Loan Planner.
If you owe more than $100,000 in student loans and aren’t 100% sure that you’re doing everything the right way, he finds projected savings of 125 times his consulting fee on average (that one-time fee ranges from $295 to $595). That’s tens of thousands of dollars.
If you’d like a custom plan, book a time at this link .You’ll get a consult form to fill out in your confirmation email. Make sure to mention that you heard about it from Physician on Fire on the consult form (currently question #28).
WCI is having a sale on all courses with a free bonus course included with your paid tuition this week!
In honor of Financial Literacy Week, if you buy either the Fire Your Financial Advisor or the 2020 Continuing Financial Education course, you will not only receive 10% off, but also receive the Physician Wellness and Financial Literacy Conference - Park City course for free.
If and when you’re ready to pull the trigger and refinance your student loans, I sincerely hope you will return to this page, collect your bonus from these links and let me know where you’d like your donation to go!
Awesome resource page, thanks! Bookmarking this for sure!
Thanks! I’ve got about 100 articles and resources curated already. Expect that number to grow over time.
Cheers!
-PoF
TVM – I love one-stop resource pages like this. Will be sharing with residents and new attending clients.
I appreciate that, Johanna.
Best,
-PoF
This is an incredible resource for student loans! Will definitely be sharing with friends, both online and in real life. Lots of valuable content here to work through and research.
Another mistake I see people making is deferring loans by continuing with higher education.
Yes, your loans can be deferred while you’re working on a graduate or doctorate degree, but they are still incurring interest, and you’re probably taking out new loans for the higher degree, which just adds to your overall debt.
So not worth it unless you have a very specific career plan that requires a higher degree. This post is very much helpful and a lot of students didn’t know where they are getting themselves into and then regret it afterwards.
Hopefully more students would be able to reach this post for them to be reminded. Thank you for sharing this list!
Great resource! You may want to consider adding information about the National Health Service Corps and State Loan Repayment Programs for primary care physicians. There are eligibility requirements and not all physicians are eligible, but it’s tax free money to pay down student loan debt if admitted into the programs.
Great list! I had Travis Hornsby on my podcast, Married To Doctors, and since then many questions for student loan resources.
I’ll keep this in mind!
Thanks
Wow. This is an excellent list. I will be sure to let people know.
Thank you,
Miriam
HOW I GOT A LOAN WITHOUT PAYING ANY UPFRONT
Hello all, I want to quickly say a big thanks to Access Quick Loan who resuscitated my business by giving me a loan without requesting me to pay any upfront unlike other loan companies who demands for upfront. It happened that my business crumbled because my husband was so sick and I used my business capital to save his life so I was left with no dine. I contacted so many loan firms and they demanded upfront money from me which I don’t have until I found someone on the internet who testified how he got a loan from the Access Quick Loan without any upfront so I took their contact details, and then contacted them behold they confirmed to me that they don’t take upfront before they give out loans. To cut the long story short they gave me a loan of $100,000.00 USD without any upfront and now my business is back again. Please if you need a quick loan without paying any upfront quickly contact the Access Quick Loan on [email protected] get your loan now and be happy again.
Hi,
Great post, very useful for me i definitely share this article with my friends.
Thanks for the article
yes it is use full for me ..thanks for it and keep posting.
I’m thankful to be 0% student loan free. Never had to take out a student loan. 🙂
Thank you for all of this great content and thank you to everyone that posts and the comments, this is all great information.
I have a little bit of a complicated situation…
I am currently a GI fellow in my 2nd year of fellowship. My wife is an attorney working at the law firm in a major city. I am lucky enough to not have any student loan debt however, my wife has around 300k in student loan debt from undergrad and law school at variable interest rates (4.5 to 6.8%). She has previously had late payments/missed payments so we no longer qualify for refinancing through SoFi or any other company that refinances loans.
We currently have no savings since we just paid for our wedding recently and have had other major expenses. As a result, we are currently not paying off her student loans. Combined we are making $60k after taxes.
My plan has been to buy a house after fellowship (for the approximate amount of my wife’s student loans, roughly 300k) and pay it off as quickly as we could (using a 15 year mortgage with low interest). After paying off the house, I wanted to take out a home equity loan at a lower interest rate to pay off her loans.
My question is if this is a good idea and if anyone has had experience with this?
PoF,
First of all, congratulations on your recent retirement – I hope things are off to a great start! Secondly, thank you for all your fantastic insights via your own content and objective views but also the countless links to other’s (ie. Links and Sunday Best) and the many additional resources you’ve provided (and continue to update!) over the years! This has been beyond helpful in my own FI Journey and I truly appreciate your guidance and time\effort to making this site one of my personal favorites as well as easily one my most recommended (even as a non-physician), so thank you! Lastly, as I’m enjoying a nice cup of coffee this fine overcast morning in beautiful Plymouth, Mn (small world!) looking at this page to see if there are any new student loan refi cash back arbitrage opportunities (now that’s a mouthful), I wanted to reach out to see if you might be willing to donate retroactively per your note above as I just noticed this as well as recently refi’d via your commonbond back in April\May? If so, it’d be great help further support our current\future Gophers via any scholarship fund!
Cheers,
Fellow Gopher
I will make it happen!
Awesome, thank you sir!
Cheers!
Solid page. Nice work.
Loans are good when you know you can pay it back and inch closer to achieving that “850 credit score.”