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.
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43 Million Americans Have Some College But No Degree — Here’s Why They Left
<p>A new Trellis Strategies survey (PDF File) of 3,182 former students who left college without a credential finds that financial pressure and life circumstances (not academic struggles) are the top reasons they walked away.</p><p>This matters because students who leave college without a credential are usually the ones that face the most financial difficulty after leaving school. When you drop out of college, you still owe any you student loan debt you've already taken and may face repayment of other aid.</p>
Education Department Tells Borrowers To Expect Repayment, Not Forgiveness
<p>Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent told an American Enterprise Institute audience on Thursday that federal student loan forgiveness “is not happening,” highlighting the administration’s tone as it moves defaulted accounts to the Treasury Department and winds down the SAVE plan.</p><p>This comes from a livestream Q&A session, which marks one of the most public conversations yet around the massive changes to student loans coming this year.</p>
Judge Approves $425M Capital One 360 Savings Settlement — Payments Expected July
<p>A federal judge has approved a $425 million class action settlement with Capital One over allegations that the bank paid low interest rates to older 360 Savings account holders while offering a nearly identical product (360 Performance Savings) at substantially higher rates.</p><p>U.S. District Judge David J. Novak signed the final approval order on April 20, 2026 (PDF File), clearing the way for payments to go out to millions of eligible customers. Capital One denies any wrongdoing.</p><p>Compare the best high-yield savings accounts today here >></p>
New Analysis Projects Class Of 2026 Will Borrow $43,500 For A Bachelor’s Degree
<p>High school seniors heading to public four-year colleges this fall could graduate with more than $43,000 in student loans, according to a new NerdWallet analysis of National Center for Education Statistics data.</p><p>Why It Matters: The projection lands as federal repayment plans change on July 1, the SAVE plan ends, and AI pressure on entry-level jobs pushes more students to question whether a bachelor's degree still pencils out.</p>
Treasury Set To Ramp Up Defaulted Student Loan Collections In July
<p>Hundreds of thousands of federal student loan borrowers in default could start hearing from the government and their debt collectors as soon as July, as the Treasury Department prepares to take over a piece of the Education Department's collection work, Politico reported.</p><p>Why It Matters: This would be the first major step in moving the $1.7 trillion federal student loan portfolio out of the Education Department and the first sustained collection contact most defaulted borrowers have received since the Covid-era payment pause began in March 2020. Collections have been delayed various times since that paused ended in 2023.</p>
Democratic Senators File Resolution to Block Trump PSLF Employer Restrictions
<p>A group of Democratic senators led by Tim Kaine (D-VA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) introduced a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution (PDF File) this week to overturn the Trump administration’s new PSLF rule that gives Education Secretary Linda McMahon authority to disqualify certain public service employers from the program. A companion resolution was introduced in the House by Reps. Joe Courtney (D-CT), Alma Adams (D-NC), and Scott Peters (D-CA).</p><p>The resolution currently has 27 Senate cosponsors, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Once the senators collect 30 signatures, the re...
California Tops List of States With Highest Student Aid Fraud at $171 Million
<p>The Big Number: $1 billion — that’s how much the Department of Education says it saved taxpayers by cracking down on student aid fraud over the past year.</p><p>Why It Matters: The Department of Education announced that its identity verification requirements for first-time FAFSA applicants, launched in summer 2025, have blocked more than $1 billion in fraudulent federal student aid. The fraud prevention push came after colleges and universities across the country reported being targeted by sophisticated fraud rings that exploited weakened safeguards during the Covid-19 pandemic.</p><p>That created openings for criminals to file fake FAFSA applications and siph...
554,000 Borrowers Still Stuck in Student Loan Repayment Backlog Despite Record Processing
<p>The Department of Education processed more IDR applications in March than any month since court-ordered tracking began, cutting the pending backlog to 553,966. That is down from 576,609 in February and from nearly 2 million in April 2025. </p><p>The March status report (PDF File), filed today in federal court, also shows IDR loan forgiveness resumed after two consecutive months of zero discharges.</p>
89,720 PSLF Buyback Applications Are Pending — But Many Borrowers Won’t Need Them
<p>The PSLF Buyback backlog grew to 89,720 pending applications in March, according to the latest court-ordered status report (PDF File) filed today. The Department of Education decided just 3,280 applications during the month. </p><p>At that pace, borrowers at the back of the queue face a wait of over two years. But here’s the part that isn’t getting enough attention: a significant portion of these applications will likely be denied or closed — not because borrowers don’t qualify, but because they’ll finish PSLF the normal way before their buyback application is ever processed.</p>
College Board’s Education Pays 2026 Report Confirms: A Degree Still Pays Off
<p>College remains a strong financial investment, and the latest data from College Board makes that case with the most recent numbers available. The Education Pays 2026 report (PDF File), shows that workers with a bachelor’s degree continue to significantly out-earn their peers with only a high school diploma and that the gap shows no signs of closing.</p><p>In 2024, the median earnings of bachelor’s degree recipients age 25 and older working full time were $81,800, compared to $50,600 for high school graduates. That’s a $31,200 difference (62% more) every single year. After accounting for taxes, bachelor’s degree holders took home $22,200 more ann...
