The College Investor Audio Show
The College Investor podcast is a daily audio show that's dedicated to bringing you the best of TheCollegeInvestor.com. We discuss a variety of topics, all relating to millennial money - including student loan debt, investing, earning more money, and more! Robert Farrington, the founder of The College Investor and a Millennial Money Expert, shares how to get out of student loan debt so that you can start investing and building wealth for the future. Instead of cutting expenses and living a frugal life, he advocates side hustling and entrepreneurship to earn extra money to achieve your financial goals.
10
8 Last-Minute Tax Reminders For 2026
<p>The tax deadline is almost here! Here are some last minute tax reminders if you're still working on filing your taxes.</p><p>Although it might not be the most enjoyable financial task, it's a necessary obligation that we each undertake every year. And if you use great tax software, filing taxes doesn’t take as much time as you may dread.</p><p>But tax filing time isn’t only about filing returns. There are things you can do today to help you save money on your tax bill, and help you save time on filing.</p><p>Here...
Student Loan IDR Backlog Drops To Record Low, But PSLF Buyback Issues Remain
<p>The Department of Education’s income-driven repayment application backlog has dropped to its lowest point on record, according to a new court filing submitted March 16 (PDF File).</p><p>But that progress is overshadowed by a continued delays on IDR loan forgiveness and a growing queue of public servants waiting for PSLF buyback decisions.</p><p>The data comes from the latest status report filed in American Federation of Teachers v. U.S. Department of Education, a federal lawsuit spearheaded by the teacher's union that requires the Department to provide monthly updates on its loan servicing operations.</p>
Average Tax Refund Up 10.6% This Year, IRS Data Shows
<p>Tax refunds are running more than 10% larger this filing season, the IRS reported, with the average individual refund reaching $3,742. That's up from $3,382 at roughly the same point in 2025.</p><p>The increase is being driven in part by new deductions signed into law by President Donald Trump that are appearing on returns for the first time.</p><p>The IRS released its cumulative filing season statistics through Feb. 27, 2026, comparing them to the same period in 2025. The data covers roughly 51.5 million individual returns received out of approximately 164 million expected before the April 15 deadline.</p>
GAO: FSA Halted Student Loan Servicer Reviews
<p>The federal government quietly stopped independently checking whether student loan servicers are keeping accurate borrower records (and stopped monitoring the quality of calls with borrowers) in February 2025. More than a year later, it still has not resumed those reviews, according to a new report released by the Government Accountability Office.</p><p>The findings come at a precarious moment for the nearly 43 million Americans with federal student loans. Major repayment plan changes are underway, millions of borrowers are in or approaching default, and the very oversight designed to catch servicer errors has gone dark.</p><p>For an administration...
SAVE Student Loan Plan Officially Ended By Court Order
<p>The SAVE student loan repayment plan is dead — and a federal appeals court just made that official.</p><p>The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled on March 9, 2026 (PDF File) that a lower court wrongly dismissed the Republican states’ lawsuit against the plan, directing the district court to enter a December 2025 settlement agreement that permanently bans the Biden-era income-driven repayment program. </p><p>The request to force the joint settlement was one of the alternatives presented in the GOP appeal to the 8th Circuit Court.</p><p>Here's what borrowers need to know.</p>
Lawmakers Warn Student Loan Oversight Is Slipping
<p>Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley accused the U.S. Department of Education of obstructing congressional oversight of federal student loan servicers. In a letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon (PDF File), the senators wrote that the department “appears to have progressed to active obstruction” of lawmakers’ efforts to obtain servicer performance data.</p><p>The dispute centers on basic service metrics: how long borrowers wait on hold, how often calls are dropped, how quickly written inquiries are answered, and how satisfied borrowers report being.</p><p>For families navigating student loan repayment (especially with all the changes), those detail...
86,000 Public Servants Stuck In 3-Year Loan Forgiveness Queue
<p>A new federal court filing (PDF File) shows that borrowers seeking Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) credit through the buyback process could face waits approaching three years under current processing speeds.</p><p>The latest status report from the U.S. Department of Education reveals that 86,520 PSLF Buyback applications were still pending as of January 31, 2026. During January, only 2,430 buyback applications were decided.</p><p>At that pace (and assuming no new applications were submitted) clearing the existing backlog alone would take roughly 35 months. In reality, new requests continue to arrive each month and processing times have varied month-to-month...
The Most Educated Religious Groups In America
<p>A new report from the Pew Research Center offers one of the most detailed looks at how educational attainment differs across religious groups in America.</p><p>The findings come from Pew’s 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study, a survey of 36,908 U.S. adults. Because of its large sample size, researchers were able to analyze not only broad religious categories, but also specific denominations within Protestantism and other traditions.</p><p>The headline finding: Hindus and Jews stand apart by a wide margin.</p>
Judge Dismisses SAVE Plan Lawsuit — SAVE Borrowers Still In Limbo
<p>A federal judge on Friday dismissed the central lawsuit challenging the Biden-era SAVE student loan repayment plan — not because the court endorsed it, but because there is no longer a dispute to decide.</p><p>The ruling clarifies the legal posture of the case but does not immediately end the administrative forbearance for the roughly 7 million borrowers enrolled in SAVE.</p><p>The decision (PDF FIle), issued by Judge John A. Ross of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, ends the case State of Missouri v. Trump without prejudice and rejects a joint request fr...
Opinion: Moving Education Programs Around Washington Is Bad Policy
<p>The U.S. Department of Education has announced two new interagency agreements, handing off selected responsibilities to the Departments of State and Health and Human Services. The stated goal: break up federal education bureaucracy, improve efficiency, and return education to the states.</p><p>As someone who believes deeply in higher education (and in the value of federal student aid programs that expand opportunity), I also believe in an efficient government where tax dollars are spent purposefully to achieve specific goals. </p><p>That’s why these interagency agreements deserve a closer look.</p><p>Shifting programs from one fe...
