Are there other smart alternative repayment strategies for your student loan?
In today’s episode, we will speak to my friend Mike from LendEDU.
I got in touch with his colleague Nate last year who wrote a guest post for the blog on refinancing one’s mortgage and I also met both Nate and Mike at Fincon last year. LendEDU launched in August of 2014 and is an online marketplace for a variety of financial products including mortgages, student loans, insurances and so on. Although most of their website visitors are looking for information on student loans, their blog articles are pretty informative as well! Make sure you check them out!
Mike is coming on the show today to discuss market trends on student loans, mortgages, and the booming Pet insurance industry (yes, I was surprised as well). We will also discuss refinancing your student loan (including a few helpful repayment strategies) and mortgage and we will also touch upon Mike’s career choice of working for a startup instead of a larger corporation.
Listen here
…or listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
This episode is for you if you are looking at refinancing your student loan or mortgage and if you are curious about what it looks like to work for a startup.
The student loan part of this episode will (luckily 😅) not apply to us here in Europe but there are definitely some parallels to be made with mortgages which we are more familiar with here.
Key Takeaways:
- Student loans and mortgage: Refinancing is an option to lower your monthly repayment, or shortening your loan term,… However, check if it is right for you, Mike’s tip regarding student loans is to wait a few years after you enter the workforce to give you time to build up a better income and improve your financial situation overall so you can really benefit from refinancing.
- Tips for reducing your student loan debt :
- Apply for scholarships and grants before applying for the student loan
- Depending on the profession you will practice, there are some Student loan forgiveness programs.
- Companies in the US are starting to help employees to pay off student loan debts, make sure you include that perk in your salary negotiation (you do not ask, you do not get).
- Mistakes to avoid: Read the fine print and make sure you fully understand the terms: What is the repayment length? Is the rate fixed or variable?
- See the home you are going to take a mortgage on through the lens of an investor: Is it well-located? What is the crime rate? Is there easy access to schools, public transport…? All these factors will help your home increase in value over time (build up equity) and make it easy to refinance at a later stage.
- Working at a startup vs a larger corporation. There are some pros and cons for both and working in a startup is more entrepreneurial. Larger companies can feel more rigid and less flexible (less fun?). In a startup company, there can be a high workload as you juggle between your own role and several additional ones (communications on top of research analyst for Mike) but you will gain a lot of experience which you may not always have access to in larger firms and the rewarding part is that you can grow with the company.
Who is Mike?
Mike is an expert in content marketing and media relations. His work has been featured in all major media outlets including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, CNBC, Bloomberg, Forbes, and Business Insider. He has also been a panelist Speaker at FinCon 2019. In his role at LendEDU, Mike uses data, usually from surveys and publicly-available resources, to identify emerging personal finance trends and to tell unique stories. Mike’s work, featured in major outlets like The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, provides consumers with a personal finance measuring stick and can help them make informed financial decisions.
RESOURCES
- Website: LendEDU
- Twitter: @GoLendEDU
- LinkedIn: Michael Brown
- Guest post from Nate: Should You Refinance Your Mortgage?
- Book recommendation: Make Your Bed Everyday
- Best purchase under 100 USD: Sonicare electrical toothbrush, hey brushing your teeth is important, right 😉?
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