everyone has their own unique views and needs when it comes to financial success if you'd like to leave your financial woes behind and live a life of Financial Freedom you've come to the right place welcome to the saving with Steve show hosted by Steve Sexton the show will help you with the ins and outs of money we talked about financial issues that could be costing you thousands of dollars and keeping you up at night we talked about money tax reduction saving more spending less 401K risk management retirement and everything under the sun that relates to you having a healthier happy relationship with money now here is your host of saving with Steve Steve Sexton<br>hello welcome to the saving of Steve shall we talk about the ins-and-outs of money pretty much everything under the sun to release of you having a happier healthy relationship with money my name is Steve Sax and I want to thank you for joining us today we have one heck of an episode before we get a tax code I want to thank you all for sharing this with your friends and family we've exceeded the 750000 listener Mark we're very excited still keeps crying and we don't know why but we thank you for that thank you for sharing this with everybody today we're talking about student loan debt currently there's over 40 3.4 million borrowers with federal student loan debt and that totals / 1.62 3 trillion dollars as September of this year turns out less than 1% of our student loan debt is in default and invited ministration is an able to reduce some student loan debt specially for those people who sign<br> El puertos companies that were supposed to train but they've got a not a real degree or the school went bankrupt so they forgave that debt which is rightly so we have an expert here from wallethub her name is Cassandra happy she's a Consumer Finance expert financial literacy Advocate with 15 years experience in the credit union interest rate and she's here to walk in through what's going on with student loan debt with so many students have large payments I know my daughter just finished with her Bachelor's in her master's that's a $50,000 debt and her first bill is 600 bucks and thank God she's got a job but that's a lot larger than she thought Cassandra welcome to the show thanks for being here our audience an overview of what's kind of going on with the student loan industry. Everybody knows that nowadays when people go to college and college has a really expensive so<br> most people can't afford to just write a check so they have to borrow in order to get in school but when somebody goes through getting their degree then you know what a certain point they're going to have to start making payments that correct yes usually there's a. Of time about 6 months between when you graduate and when your payments typically start basically student loans are looking at what they're looking at my daughter's is a 10-year type situation you can actually go longer they can have higher payments lower payments how does that work on what kind of plan you get into with your student loan provider that's the key thing now is to look at the different plans that are available and see what's going to work best for your budget I know there's a study here<br> with the states that have the highest student loan payments and I see Maryland's on top in Vermont and Hawaii Massachusetts New Hampshire is a lot of east coast states other than Hawaii that are in the top 10 there is there a reason why do states have larger payment is it just because the college systems are more expensive there or students take on more dad or is there any rationale behind that I think I think part of it is just that students are taking on more debt and it just happens to be kind of concentrated in that area I think it's important to note that in a lot of people go to school out of state from where they live so even though we're seeing kind of that concentration on the East Coast I don't think it's necessarily indicative of anything in particular because they could have taken on that. You know on the West Coast or in the midwest so it really isn't indicative to you know it cost more to go<br> school here it's just these people are more likely to struggle now that moratoriums ended I was just thinking about that because we're in California and my son went to a California college and my daughter went to college out of state and the out-of-state tuition is almost twice what the Insight tuition is for California so I can see where the amount of debt that can be built up if you specially if you're going to school out of state you can be much more significant I think that's obvious your choice of people want to make but it's in something to look at when you're looking to finance college cuz it's nice to get all the money up front but when you have to start paying for it to the right out of state tuition is an important thing to to keep in mind out of the gate when you're looking at your different options if you can get the degree that you want from a reputable College that's in state usually ask<br> save you a pretty penny would like to do is just start talking about some of the things that people with student loans can do to start paying off the student debt faster well after I mentioned you know it's important to really look at your options if you're looking to pay it off faster there's options typically available it just depends upon the student loan provider but just keep in mind that that's going to be more typically more out-of-pocket today but it's going to save you in the long run. It's just basic compound interest so what are the typical interest rates of student would be paying nowadays for a student loan<br> what is a great question I don't have that in front of me at the moment<br> bad cuz it was it's really interesting cuz where I was just looking over this with my daughter and she actually got out of got her Master's in May of this year and some of the loans that she has the interest rates like 2.7 something 5.7 Summit 7.7 so they kind of all over the place and then and I'm just this is from experience and then she looked at consolidating everything and the average rate is like 5.7 and with that consolidation they will adjust the payments but it's hard to figure out what's the best way to go but when you like you said that shorty you pay it off<br> the better because you're going to pay less interest cuz I was looking at the interest if she pays it off in 10 years she paying about $20,000 in interest but if she pays it up long over a longer period of time with a lower payment she's actually paying three times I was four times that three times that much and interest so it gets really really really you know makes it much harder so to speak some<br> yeah it gets tricky especially with those student loans because you don't typically a student will take on multiple loans and then you got as you said multiple balances and multiple interest rates that are coming into play other some great tools out there that can help navigate that for your specific situation I'll wallethub has a student loan calculator that you can use to kind of walk through those different scenarios and see if what would be the better option<br> my folks you can go to wallethub they have a student loan calculator to help you walk through the different options so that's that's something you know what I know or average listeners between 45 and 65 but many of our listeners have children there in college age they're getting out of college you know what being able to find a calculator that can go walking through the different options would be very very significant if you want to do that just go to wallethub and look for those student loan calculator now what we're going to do to take a quick break will be right back with Cassandra happy here and wallethub on saving with Steve<br>more expert advice for having a happier relationship with money still to come on the saving with Steve show<br> don't let your financial woes keep you up at night and prevents you from living a life of Financial and personal freedom hi I'm Steve Sexton post of the saving with Steve show where did he talk about the in an ounce of money those financial issues it could be costing me thousands of dollars causing stress keeping you up at night we're going to talk about money tax reduction saving more spending your investment risk management retirement and everything is so sweet with you having a healthier happy relationship with money soon as you've ever dreamed of living a life of Financial and personal freedom you owe it to yourself and your family to tune in to the saving with Steve show join me Steve section of the saving with Steve show as we talked about everything under the sun when it comes to money to learn more about the show visit saving with Steve. Us that's saving with Steve. Us saving with Steve. Us will see you soon<br> welcome back to the show that is here to help you achieve your financial goals it's the saving with Steve show now here's your host Steve Sexton<br> who is Steve<br> hey welcome back from the saving with Steve show where we talked about the ins-and-outs of money I just want to share with you all the replays are available at saving with Steve. You as if you're enjoying the stories of helpful information inside and saving with Steve and I encourage you to subscribe to your YouTube channel see you never miss the show check out a few of our Affiliates of UK Health radio bvs radio talk radio in New York City e360 TV and Las Vegas TV network all these networks are dedicated to empowering you to solve problems uplift your spirit and live a life of personal financial Freedom also enjoy the same thing with Steve Sexton insiders club and get all the replays guest gifts look at all behind the scenes stop and all that and with that I want to bring back to hear Kathy here is getting with wallethub one of the things I'd like to do talk about this the second segment Kathy is this there's a number tips that you<br> put out for paying off your student loan debt faster and you know what I'd love to just you know walkthrough the first ones make a budget<br> yes making a budget that's a great place to start really take a look at where you're spending your money and see where you can cut back in order to afford that payment and potentially make large payments to pay that down faster once you have that plan in place it's important to try to follow it as fast as you can and then review it periodically for any additional cost cutting opportunities near things change and it's important to keep looking back at that and another thing that you can do to help balance a budget and paid on the Quaker is try to increase your income you can look into some additional cash flow with like a part-time job or a side hustle you know drive for Lyft or Uber there are you like Uber Eats delivery and I just get a little extra funds coming in or you can just consider a different job altogether if you have the opportunity to you could potentially fine<br> a job that pays better<br> it's great now what about you know what research loan forgiveness and repayment programs I think a lot of people don't really pay attention to that or don't know<br> yeah there's some great programs available you know on I believe will state and federal levels for certain Professionals in certain professions such as like teachers and doctors nurses and other medical professionals they can qualify for Unique forgiveness programs for being we're going into that profession I've heard of this for teachers my sister was going to school to be a teacher and she was able to get a good amount of her student loans forgiven because she was going into that field my understanding is also works for a charitable organizations that actually have a 501 c 3 is well and that that's pretty nice what about chicken with your employer<br> so if you're especially a non-traditional student you know going back for your degree later in your career as some employers offer perks to employees who further their education they might offer tuition reimbursement or even just some some sort of reimbursement for books and things like that so it's important to see if your employer offers anything that can help cut down on those cars<br> well in addition to that most recently with a B Administration they pass the ability with I think there's a secure act 2.0 and I might be have the other than the Actron but in 2020 for employers that the employer offers it'll give you the opportunity to besides contributing to your 401k you can contribute to pay I used to use the same money that goes on a tax-deferred basis to pay off your student loan and they give the opportunity for the employer to match what you're putting in there or match a certain portion of it my daughter's looking into that for her company and as a way to reduce it now when I think that's really nice about that is if you're contributing to its going straight to college you can do it almost on a tax-free basis which reduces the ability for you to pay taxes on it now which is wonderful so that's something else to check out now<br> you did talk about checking with your employer what about you know the big thing about making payments on time how it how really important is that<br> on-time payments are very important especially when you consider you have the compounding interest that comes into play so if you the longer you have that balance the more interest is going to come pound on that and just keep adding to the balance even though you're paying it down as well and it just makes it more difficult to keep on that downward track with that balance in fees fees are just unnecessary expenses at that point if you can make the payment on time it's always best to do that to avoid a fee that you know what that's just money coming out of your pocket<br> you know what about reading and what refinancing student debt you know what what's what's the tips for actually doing this how could you how should people go about doing that because there's a lot of how to put it a lot of people look into this and sometimes it go to places that charge him a fee and it's not really all they don't get that great of a deal as they thought they were getting so could you help with some understanding of how this works and what people's options are<br> that's so as far as refinancing his student debt this is really geared towards looking kind of outside of the student loan debt or the student loans feel there's other loan options available where you could potentially refinance for as low as 0% depending upon the balance here talking about if it's someone that has a smaller student loan balance moving that till I get 0% intro APR credit card eliminates that interest that they would be getting charged I saw in the long run that's a much better deal and there's other options to do you know depending upon where rates are that the biggest thing you can always look at doing a secured loan using a different piece of collateral that you don't currently have a loan out against so if you have a car that has some equity in it you could potentially use<br> what is the collateral to take out a loan at a lower rate if the rates the current rate is lower than what you'd be paying on the student loan so it's kind of shopping around at that point to see what other loan options are available to potentially refinance and it's one's come from our our listeners you know what there are students should have got laid off they're not in the best financial situation is there options like forbearance or anything like that that students could go back and talk to the student of student loan providers and possibly you do not have to make a payment for specific. Of time and then start payments up again is that is that something that's available there<br> yeah typically there are options and I definitely encourage people to have those conversations with your student loan provider or any lender if you get into a sticky Financial spot most lenders will work with you and potentially you know go into forbearance or just defer your payments for a few months so you don't have to worry about that additional payments while you're getting back on your feet so communication is really key at you know it's not a fun conversation to have but in the long run it will end up saving you if you have the conversation as soon as you start having issues<br> I agree with you the key is to have that communication as soon as possible so you don't have to stress about it and you can work out a payment plan you know and I think they do a good job with that especially since right now there's only one percent that are in default or delinquency so that means the student loans they do they really work with you so make sure you take that step and don't make it look don't feel like you can't talk to somebody else can I see I want to thank you for being here today shedding light on the student loan situation and what students can do or people who are the workforce that had a student loan for a long time and I want to thank wallethub for just you know providing the information because without it you know what people would know so again I want to thank you for being here thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise and is there a dessert where can people go is it just wallethub.com that people go to<br> yes head over to wallethub.com we have a lot of great resources information out there that you can reference but also if you're looking to potentially improve your financial situation you can always sign up for a wallet Hub account and take advantage of the free credit monitoring we check scores daily and update them so it's a it's a great tool if you're trying to get your finances on track<br> Kathy thanks for being with us today I hope you have a wonderful holiday season and will look forward to seeing you again sometime thanks take care by take a quick break we'll be right back with Mark saving with Steve<br>more expert advice for having a happier relationship with money still to come on the saving with Steve show<br> don't let your financial woes keep you up at night and prevents you from living a life of Financial and personal freedom hi I'm Steve Sexton post of the saving with Steve show where did he talk about the ins-and-outs of money those financial issues it could be costing me thousands of dollars causing stress keeping you up at night we're going to talk about money tax reduction saving more spending your investment risk management retirement and everything is so sweet with you having a healthier happy relationship with money soon as you've ever dreamed of living a life of Financial and personal freedom you owe it to yourself and your family to tune in to the saving with Steve show join me Steve section of the saving with Steve show as we talked about everything under the sun when it comes to money to learn more about the show visit saving with Steve. Us that's saving with Steve. Us saving with Steve. Us will see you soon<br> welcome back to the show that is here to help you achieve your financial goals it's the saving with Steve show now here's your host Steve Sexton<br> hello welcome back to the same thing with Steve show where we talked about the ins-and-outs of money I want to thank you for joining a singing for sharing this with your friends friends and family today segment or this one we're going to talk about planning distributions okay folks again and set time of year we're all getting ready for family time holiday time spending time with ones we love and of course those things going to go or I'll get going around with a big day always taxes this is jumping up like I say every year when it comes to tax planning so many people you know what look at this and do this in a rear view mirror planning<br> you know what we always look in the pants and will always look in the past that thing we need to do is I want to encourage you each and every one of you to start doing your tax planning and looking into the future so for example when it comes to distributions it comes down to the type of account you have and then play it in place and how much money you need to pull from these accounts so let's take a look according to secure Act<br> change the few things when it comes to the requirement distribution that you're going to have to take those minimum distributions are pushed the starting age from 70 have 72 now is 73 in a 2030 to be 75 so<br> one of the things thing is when you only want to talk about the requirement Egyptians they're called aggregation rules because it's their area that there's a lot of confusion what can be co-mingled with can't be co-mingled and things like that so let's take a look at where it where gag rogation is when it comes to qualify plans and when I say qualified plans I'm like the IRA Roth 401k vs. 403b versus 457 is the Thrift Savings Plan those are the type of things that were talking about right now in the IRS is very very clear on what they say you can't go mingle and what you have to take separately so what I mean by this is it when it comes to the requirement and distribution the IRS says you have to take out so much money OK and if you have a 401k in your 73 or 4:57 to 4 3 b a p s a r t a t o<br> you must take out that requirement of distribution separately from each one of those accounts so for example is he have two hundred thousand a hundred thousand of 401k and $100,000 in a 457 the IRS says that you have to calculate your requirement of distribution out of a 401k and take it separately and you have to take out the you have to calculate it separately in the 457 and take it out separately if you don't you get hit with that 25% tax penalty it's critical that you understand that this is their reason<br> why there's so much confusion and I just think it's another way for the you know the federal government to hit you with a gotcha so you know and on top of that when it comes to these things called qualified charitable distribution a lot of people when they start taking the required minimum distribution or via when they get over 70 and all that stuff and have to take the required minimum distributions<br> will say hey I don't need it so you don't maybe I should give it off to a charity and you don't want to say they have to take out twenty thousand for the required minimum distribution okay no problem 2000 dollars everything we need $10,000 to spend so the other $10,000 they'll have their custodian send it directly to that 501 c 3 charitable qualified charitable distribution and what'll happen is the money that goes to the charity you only get taxed if you have a $20,000 required minimum distribution at ten thousand goes to charity you only getting a 1099 for $10,000 and you know what and the other thing that you want to take a look at his things like this net unrealized appreciation thank you work for the Ford Motor Company and you bought Ford stock in your eye<br> Ray and place it in there and Camp growing and growing and growing it when you separate from the company or turn 59 and a half you have the opportunity to use was called net unrealized appreciation and what that means is it say you paid $100 for that Ford stock when you bought it okay and that value that account is a doubled since you had it and you're ready to use Metreon realize appreciation and here's the way that works that net unrealized appreciation work this way where<br> you take out the whole amount all the shares of stock but you're only paying tax on a capital gains in<br> for the appreciation so that means you're getting $200,000<br> but you're only paying tax capital gains rate on $100,000 that's the appreciation now if you don't if you miss those windows when you separate from the company when you're 59 and a half what will happen is you got that $200,000 sitting in your IRA and you know what if you withdraw. You're going to have to be taxed at ordinary income on $200,000 so it's a wonderful way to save you a ton of money is one of those things is often overlooked so you want to talk to your CPA or visors that want to make sure you have the opportunity to that young folks I want to thank you for joining us here today on saving with Steve Say Say Say healthy have a happy holiday season will see you next time bye bye<br>thank you for joining us for the saving with Steve show hosted by Steve Sexton to learn more about the show and how to become a guest or sponsor visit saving with Steve. Us that saving with Steve. Us join us again next time as we continue to talk about everything under the sun that relates to you having a healthier happier relationship with money this has been the saving with Steve show hosted by Steve Sexton<br>