SoFi Blog

With the rise of millennials and Generation Z grads, the workforce is rapidly changing. Young, educated professionals bring a lot to employers for sure—like energy, enthusiasm, and a thirst for innovation. But these days, they also come with some financial baggage: high levels of student loan debt. That debt can be crippling and distracting, and on top of that, it’s also an obstruction to both short- and long-term financial goals.

It’s no secret that organizations directly feel the impact of the hardship. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) 2016 Employee Financial Wellness Report, 28% of 1,600 full-time U.S. employees surveyed admit that personal finances cause them to be distracted at work—up from 20% in 2015. Among those workers, 46% spend three or more hours a week, while at work, dealing with or thinking about their financial situations, compared to 37% in the previous year. Yet few HR teams are taking steps to address the problem effectively and help their employees—and their company’s ROI.

In this first part of our new series on employee wellness, recruitment, and engagement, we at SoFi want to provide actionable insights on how to better understand the financial burden of student loan debt that these employees face, and what to do to help ease the pressure through financial assistance, education, training, and support.

There comes a turning point in every renter’s life, where that neighborhood you loved when you moved in just doesn’t feel right anymore. It happens—sometimes the community surrounding your home changes, and isn’t quite as sweet as when you first moved in. But more often than not, as life goes on, careers advance, families grow, and finances improve, it’s less about the neighborhood transforming, and more about your own priorities shifting for what you want out of an area.

While you may have once reveled in the fact that your neighborhood boasted plenty of hotspots just outside your front door, you may now yearn for a quieter, more family-focused locale so that you can start your own. Better yet, as your career has blossomed—along with your salary—it may be time to upgrade to a larger place with more of your “wish-list” items in an area, where you’ll be surrounded by up-and-comers just like you. After all, home buying isn’t just about falling in love with a house, securing a mortgage, and making that square footage your own; it’s also about finding the perfect neighborhood that works for you today and tomorrow.

If it’s time to assess whether you’ve outgrown your neighborhood, here are the questions to ask yourself:

Picture this: It’s the end of the month, you’ve paid all your bills, and even had a little fun. You’ve made ends meet, as you always do, but your savings account isn’t growing and there’s nothing left to fund an emergency should one arise. Sound familiar? If you’re just breaking even—or worse, excess spending (spending more money than you’re taking in)—you’ve got a personal cash flow problem.

Maybe you’ve been living this way for a while, and it now feels normal. But here’s the deal: Without a positive cash flow (meaning you earn more than you spend), it’s hard to get ahead financially. Until you’re in the black, you could be shut out of good financial opportunities—including getting low interest rates on personal loans, or a mortgage loan, or even student loan refinancing. You’re also missing out on the money you could be earning by investing what you save.

The good news is, it’s possible to turn that around. You’re the Chief Financial Officer of your life, so it’s up to you to learn exactly how to improve your monthly cash flow. It will take some work, but by increasing your income and lowering your expenses—both fixed (rent, utilities, and car payments), and discretionary (entertainment and clothing)—you can make dramatic shifts in your financial life. Follow this six-step plan, and you’ll see your monthly cash flow move from negative to positive even faster than you’d expect.

One of the scariest things about taking on a large student debt load is the fear of what might happen if you suddenly lose your job.  Not only would you have to deal with the stress of finding another one, but you’d have to figure out how to pay that big loan bill each month with no income.