SoFi Blog

Jennifer Beall, Founder & CEO of Tot Squad, does not have the average startup story.  As she puts it, “Everyone else wanted to start the next Facebook, while I was working on cleaning baby poop off of car seats.”  But Jennifer, Kellogg MBA ’10 and Duke ’05, and her business are about more than just stroller and car seat cleaning/installation.   She and Tot Squad are on a mission to make moms happier, kids safer and the world a better place.

When the government lowered federal loan rates last year, we stopped lending to college students and refocused our business on refinancing graduates.  The combination of lower loan rates and guaranteed government protections made it hard for us to justify choosing a SoFi loan while in school.  Our advice was to graduate, get a job and then consider SoFi.  Over 8,500 of you have done that, refinancing over $700 million in loans with us, saving money and gaining benefits like our unemployment protection and entrepreneur program.

As a career counselor and career coach, one of the most common questions I hear from clients is how to improve a resume.  While there are plenty of tips and best practices out there, I find that a lot of job seekers get tripped up from hearing too much advice about what to include, how to format things, etc.  Clients often say to me, “Someone told me to do this, but someone else told me to do that – which one should I do?”

It’s a fair question, but it’s one that always raises a red flag for me.  Why?  Because I don’t think job candidates should spend excessive time and effort on their resumes.  And that’s exactly what all this well-meaning advice causes them to do.

Summer is officially upon us, and with it the promise of warm sunshine, longer days and happy memories.  But if you’re one of the 37 million Americans with student loans, that debt can feel like a constant storm cloud over your head – no matter what the weather outside may be.

Rather than let another lazy summer pass you by, why not use the next few months to make a dent in your education debt?  Research shows that you’re more likely to achieve your objectives when they’re specific, measurable and time-bound, making summer the perfect time to set goals and see some progress by the time fall rolls around.   And it doesn’t take much – when it comes to reducing your loan balance, a few small changes can have a big impact.

When President Obama delivered new rules on income based repayment (IBR) for a limited group of borrowers back in 2013, we wrote about the shortcomings of that program. This week, the President extended the new IBR program to cover all borrowers, effective in 2015. It’s the same program as before, and while it can provide payment relief to some borrowers, it has some serious drawbacks. Notably: