Like what you hear? Help us out by writing a review at iTunes. Questions go to money@qdnow.com. Thank you!
Money Girl
124 MG Student Loans Unite!
In Colorado, our freedoms are everything. Gabe Evans would rip them away. Just like Lauren Boebert, he'd ban abortion without exceptions for rape or incest, and overturn the right to marry for same-sex couples. Don't let him take our freedoms. Paid for by DCCC, www.dccc.org, not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. [MUSIC] At Credit Union of Colorado, banking doesn't have to be like this. Big National Banker here, just saying we like to apologize to you for that thing we did. Was it selling your information, canceling your personal loan? Who can say? That's for the lawyers to figure out. So just know, it's not going to happen again, until it does, again. At Credit Union of Colorado, we have better interest rates and seamless mobile banking. All while having a heart, Credit Union of Colorado. Honestly, good. Learn more at honestlygood.org, federally insured by NCUA. [MUSIC] Hello, and welcome to Money Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for A Richer Life. [MUSIC] I'm your host, Laura Adams. This podcast is for all you graduates or parents of graduates who have student loans. [MUSIC] Now onto student loans. This topic was inspired by Stacy from St. Paul, Minnesota, who sent me an email. She writes, "I graduated last May and finished my student teaching this winter and finally started to look at student loan consolidation. None of the websites I've looked at can help me and I don't know where else to look. I've got at least $100,000 in student loan debt, and I really want to make sure that I do this correctly. Please help." Stacy, thanks for your email. First of all, for those who may be unfamiliar with loan consolidation, it's a strategy to help lower monthly debt. A loan consolidation allows you to lump together two or more loans into one new, bigger loan with the fixed interest rate. You can work with any lender you choose, and usually there are no loan consolidation fees. The lender pays off your existing loan balances and replaces them with a single loan, so you just have one monthly payment to make. Both students and parents can consolidate education loans, however, they can't combine loans that are in different names. Only loans from the same borrower can be consolidated. Even married couples must keep their respective education loans separate, and be aware that students can't consolidate education loans while they're still in school. You can consolidate most federal student loans, but finding lenders that will consolidate your private loans is more difficult. And remember that if you only have one student loan, whether it's federal or private, you can always refinance it by itself. You can even re-consolidate a consolidation loan if you have at least one additional loan to add to it. And yes, to make matters even more confusing, you can consolidate to consolidation loans, but you can't consolidate or refinance a single consolidation loan by itself. The same repayment options that exist on underlying loans will also apply if you choose to consolidate them. Some types of loans, such as federal direct loans and federal family education loans, offer a variety of repayment options. They include extended repayment, graduated repayment, income contingent repayment, and income sensitive repayment. I'll include a link to the guide to federal student aid in the show transcript at moneygirl.quickanddirtytips.com for more details on all these repayment options. Consolidation loans are very useful if you need to lower your monthly debt obligation, but many times they accomplish the monthly savings by stretching out the term of the loan, not by lowering your interest rate. The interest rate for a consolidation loan is a weighted average of the interest rates of your original loans, rounded up to the nearest one-eighth percent. So the interest rate for the new loan will be somewhere in the middle of the rates of your existing loans. That means you're basically paying the same amount of interest for a longer period of time, so extending the term will cost you more interest in the long run. Before consolidating, evaluate all the pros and cons. I'll include a link to a loan consolidation calculator that compares the monthly savings to the increase in total interest expense over the life of the loan. Carefully analyze the cost of repaying your original loans against the cost of paying for a consolidation loan. It's possible to get some of the benefits of alternative repayment plans that I mentioned, such as extended or graduated payments, without going through the hassle of consolidation. Also consider any special features of your original loans, borrower benefits such as forgiveness for public service work, forbearance for financial hardship, and certain interest rate discounts and rebates might be lost with the loan consolidation. So be sure to ask potential lenders about any loan options that you'd be forced to give up in doing a loan consolidation. FinAid.org is a wonderful resource for all kinds of student aid information. They have a list of federal and private student loan institutions and lenders that specifically provide consolidation loans. You can also get a consolidation loan directly from the United States Department of Education at loanconsolidation.ed.gov. There's no penalty to pay off a consolidation loan early, so when you land the job of your dreams and start earning the big bucks, save yourself a bundle and interest by making larger student loan payments. In Colorado, our freedoms are everything. Gabe Evans would rip them away. Just like Lauren Boebert, he'd ban abortion without exceptions for rape or incest and overturn the right to marry for same-sex couples. Don't let him take our freedoms. Paid for by DCCC. www.dccc.org. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. AI might be the most important new computer technology ever. It's storming every industry and literally billions of dollars are being invested. So buckle up. The problem is that AI needs lots of speed and processing power. So how do you compete without cost spiraling out of control? It's time to upgrade to the next generation of the cloud. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure or OCI. OCI is a single platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs. OCI has four to eight times the bandwidth of other clouds, offers one consistent price instead of variable regional pricing. And of course, nobody does data better than Oracle. So now you can train your AI models at twice the speed and less than half the cost of other clouds. If you want to do more and spend less like Uber, 8x8, and Databricks Mosaic, take a free test drive of OCI at oracle.com/advanced. That's oracle.com/advanced. I'm glad you're listening. Thanks for all your email questions I've received lately. They've really inspired some great upcoming show topics. That's all for now. Courtesy of money, girl. Your guide to a richer life. In Colorado, our freedoms are everything. Gabe Evans would rip them away. Just like Lauren Boebert, he'd ban abortion without exceptions for rape or incest, and overturn the right to marry for same-sex couples. Don't let him take our freedoms. Paid for by DCCC, www.dccc.org. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. Hey Fidelity. How can I remember to invest every month? With the Fidelity app, you can choose a schedule and set up recurring investments in stocks and ETFs. Oh, that sounds easier than I thought. You got this. Yeah, I do. Now, where did I put my keys? You will find them, where you left them. Investing involves risk including risk of loss. Fidelity brokerage services LLC member NYSE SIPC. [BLANK_AUDIO]