Student Loan Forgiveness Plan

• On August 24, 2022, President Biden announced $10,000 of debt relief per federal student loan borrower for those who did not attend college on Pell Grants. He announced $20,000 for those who did attend college on Pell Grants.
• The loan forgiveness is for individuals making under $125,000 a year and families making under $250,000 a year. Loans must have been taken out by June 30, 2022.
• If you’re a current borrower and a dependent student, you will be eligible for relief based on your parents’ income rather than your own.
• Borrowers for whom the Department of Education does not have accurate income information (the majority of borrowers) will need to apply for loan forgiveness. The application should be available by early October. It will take four to six weeks for the forgiveness to appear in a borrower's loan profile, so the government recommends borrowers apply before November 15 to ensure the relief is applied by the time payments resume in January 2023. Sign up at studentaid.gov to be notified when the application opens.
• Borrowers will be able to apply for student loan forgiveness through December 31, 2023.
• President Biden also extended the pause on student loan repayments that was set to expire on August 31. Payments will begin again in January 2023.
• Something getting less attention than it should: If you made student loan payments during the pandemic pause, you can now receive a refund. Simply contact your loan servicer to begin the refund process.
• Certain states will be taxing your forgiven loan, be sure to let your accountant know that you had a forgiven loan

Proposed Changes to Income-Driven Repayment Plans

The Department of Education has proposed changes to income-driven repayment plans:

• The proposal would cap monthly payments at no more than 5% of your discretionary income, down from 10% now. Remember, discretionary income is the money left after paying taxes and essential cost-of-living expenses.
• Borrowers with undergraduate and graduate loans will pay a weighted average rate.
• The plan would also forgive loan balances after ten years, instead of the usual 20, for those with original balances of $12,000 or less.
• Under this proposal, loan balances will not grow as long as you make your monthly payments, even if you’re not required to make payments.
• If you have worked for a government agency or a nonprofit organization, you may also qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program

Bloomberg economists have estimated that the average household in the U.S. will be spending upwards of $433 more per month in 2022 than they did last year. This is a minimum of $5,200 per year if you make no changes to your style of living. If your budget has little room for additional expenses, you will need to make some difficult decisions about your budget.

You’re likely reading about an “impending recession,” which sounds kind of scary, especially for those of us who remember the Great Recession of 2008-9. The question right now is: are we already in a recession, or just experiencing another bump in the roller coaster?

Over the last year, and really since the start of the pandemic lockdowns we saw a pattern emerge. Cultural Trends were spreading like wildfire through society. With the help of Facebook/Meta, Instagram and Twitter hierarchical diffusion seemed to be on steroids. Hierarchical Diffusion is the spread of an idea from persons or nodes of “authority” or “power” to other persons and places. We entered the era of “influencers”, and they were talking about everything under the sun but especially investments.

If you are a small business owner in the State of California and do not carry a retirement benefit plan for your employees, the deadline for the CalSavers Program is quickly approaching. If you have 5 or more employees and do not currently offer a workplace retirement plan you must register by June 30, 2022.

Financial Planning is often a term used colloquially to mean managing one’s money, but it isn’t exclusive to saving and implementing market strategies. It is also safeguarding those assets for the future through analyzing special financial needs (death, disability, job loss, monetary windfall), taxation implications, medical/health planning, and liability concerns. Most professionals offer a couple specialized services but not all.

Inflation causes prices of goods and services to increase. Consumers can purchase fewer goods per dollar, input prices go up and revenues and profits go down. If economic growth accelerates very rapidly, demand grows even faster, and producers raise prices continually. In all, this action, slows down the economy so that supply & demand can recoup and become stable again. So, we understand on a base level what this does to our pocketbook but what does it mean for our savings and investments.

Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) is the investment in companies that promote ethical and socially conscious ideals such as environmental sustainability, justice, corporate ethics and/or advocate against discrimination. This can be accomplished by either specifically including companies that are making positive impacts and/or can exclude others that are making negative or questionable impact.

Protecting your ‘Human Capital’

Human Capital refers to the monetary value of a worker’s experience, skills and working years available. Employer/state sponsored disability is inadequate or, at best, a limited solution to risk of loss of the ability to work. With that in mind it is important to acknowledge that every household faces the potential of unexpected disability or death and the loss of income associated with that. In order to mitigate that risk, individuals should consider certain additional insurance products to protect against loss.

Insurance is the base of the financial pyramid, creating a solid foundation upon which you will build your wealth. It provides protection against any unforeseen event that can potentially jeopardize your long-term goals. The most important idea to understand about insurance is that it is pure and simple the best way to protect yourself against the risk of loss. If you do not put anything aside for your financial protection you are exposing your plans to risk.