For nearly two decades, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program has offered a straightforward promise: make 120 qualifying payments while working full-time for a government agency or a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and any remaining federal student loan balance will be forgiven. The idea helped schools, hospitals, local governments, and nonprofits recruit workers who might otherwise avoid lower-paying public-service roles.

That certainty shifted when the Education Department finalized a regulation allowing the Secretary to declare an employer ineligible if it “has a substantial illegal purpose.” Though the Department says the rule targets organizations that knowingly engage in conduct that violates federal or state law, the standard is broad, unclear, and open to interpretation.

The rule is currently scheduled to take effect July 1, 2026. Borrowers don't have anything they can do to prepare - except to watch and wait...

The Trump Administration continues its efforts to hollow out the U.S. Department of Education by sending six programs to other federal agencies. The U.S. Department of Education announced the changes in a press conference on Tuesday, November 18, 2025. 

Although federal law assigns responsibility for these programs to the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon is making an end-run around the law by entering into contracts with the other federal agencies to operate the programs under U.S. Department of Education oversight.

These interagency agreements (IAAs) send the six program to the following four agencies:

• U.S. Department of Labor (DOL): Elementary and Secondary Education Partnership and Postsecondary Education Partnership. DOL will be responsible for grants relating to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority-Serving Institutes (MSIs), as well as grants focused on improving student success for college students
• U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI): Indian Education Partnership
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): Foreign Medical Accreditation Partnership and Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS)
• U.S. Department of State (DOS): International Education and Foreign Language Studies Partnership, including programs administered under the Fulbright-Hays grant

U.S. Department of Education staff who manage these programs will be transferred to the four federal agencies. 

The agreements were signed on September 30, 2025, but not announced until now. It will take several months to transfer the programs to the other federal agencies. 

In 2011, some protestors encouraged borrowers to refuse to repay their student loans as part of Occupy Wall Street. They said that if enough borrowers joined this protest, the lenders would have no choice but to cancel the student loan debt.

Few people participated, and even those that did only lasted for a month or two. Nobody went into default as part of this protest.

More recently, after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked President Biden’s broad student loan forgiveness plan, some student loan protestors are once again urging their fellow borrowers to intentionally default on their federal student loans as a form of debt disobedience.

This kind of strategic default on federal student loans was a dumb idea then and it is a dumb idea now.

When a borrower defaults on their federal student loans, the only one hurt is the borrower, not the federal government.

Borrowers can’t force the federal government to forgive their student loans by refusing the repay them. Borrowers have no leverage, not even if they act together as a collective.

Even if the borrowers had some leverage, the U.S. Department of Education does not have the legal authority to forgive student loans, just as it doesn’t have the authority to incarcerate defaulted borrowers. Only Congress has the ability to pass laws to forgive student loan debt.

We live in a world of unprecedented consumer guarantees. When you buy a t-shirt online, you expect to be able to return the shirt if it doesn’t suit you.

If your pineapple from Aldi turns out to be rotten, you can get your money back and get a new pineapple for free. 

We’re used to guarantees that protect us from all kinds of minor financial setbacks. Unfortunately, guarantees don't work the same way when it comes to investing.

If you expect a guaranteed return on your investment, your portfolio could end up underperforming (or even worse, you fall victim to an investment scam). Here’s what you need to know about guarantees when it comes to your investments.

Investors have likely heard that investing in stocks is a smart move for your financial future. But that’s only true if you build an investment portfolio that aligns with your financial goals. 

Unfortunately, the process of investing in stocks seems shrouded in mystery for many beginners. The good news is that researching stocks doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Like all skills, you’ll need to learn the basics to get started.

Robert was on Money Life with Chuck Jaffe this week discussing how Google AI overviews get the answer wrong over one-third of the time. This has serious consequences and you need to be mindful about what you're reading.

Being on top of your finances means that financial mistakes become fewer and farther between. But tax filing happens just once per year, and it’s easy to make mistakes that lead to overpaying the IRS. When that happens, filers have the opportunity to correct their mistakes by filing IRS Form 1040-X. Once the amended return is processed, the IRS cuts overpaying taxpayers an extra refund check.

If you’ve ever made a mistake on your tax return, you may have the opportunity to correct it. We dive into how to file an amended tax return.

College tuition can vary widely between in-state and out-of-state rates — often more than double the cost for nonresidents. To make higher education more affordable, many states have entered regional tuition reciprocity agreements.

These programs allow students from participating states to attend public colleges in neighboring states at discounted rates. While programs vary, these options offer matching in-state tuition or other big discounts to make college more affordable.

There are four major programs that serve clusters of states:

• Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE)
• New England Tuition Break (NEBHE)
• Midwest Student Exchange Program (MSEP)
• Souther Regional Education Board's Academic Common Market (ACM)

For many families, understanding these programs can open the door to colleges beyond state lines without the steep price tag.

President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that his administration plans to send “a dividend of at least $2,000 per person” to most Americans, excluding high-income households. The payments would allegedly be financed entirely by tariffs collected on imported goods, rather than through borrowing or new taxes.

Trump described the initiative as both a payment to everyone and a tool to reduce the national debt, now approaching $37 trillion. 

This post comes after a tough week for Trump at the Supreme Court, where his tariffs faced skepticism from multiple Supreme Court Justices.

Starting July 1, 2026, the federal student loan system will enter a new era.

A sweeping set of federal policy changes will reshape how families and graduate students borrow for college starting in 2026. The legislation, passed this summer, eliminates some long-standing loan programs and replaces them with new caps and repayment plans.

While the reforms aim to contain debt growth and improve accountability for colleges, they also mark a clear shift away from the flexible borrowing model that has defined federal student aid for years. 

The Result: fewer borrowing options, stricter limits, and new tradeoffs for both students and parents.