SoFi Blog

It’s a very modern conundrum: How do you constantly achieve more, while often making do with less?

At work, do you find yourself needing to sell more widgets, create more content, get more users—but do it all with a smaller budget, less human power, less time?

In your personal life, you’re trying to see more friends, have more fun, buy the latest gadget, save more money—attempting to do it all with less free time, less savings once you’ve paid your bills, and less energy after worrying about how to juggle all the things.

So how the heck can you make it all work… and maybe even have some fun while doing it? How can you get more productive without completely burning out?

You could say that Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, began his career in business at age 11—selling parakeets with his best friend. Fast forward to today, and the boy who was once slinging pet birds now has a net worth of $3.9 billion. Here’s a look at the steps—and missteps—Branson took on his way from entrepreneurial schoolboy to billionaire mogul.

It happens to the best of us. You’ve got a totally watertight budget, covering every basic from housing to groceries to gas. You’ve even built in space for quality-of-life extras like a gym membership and a subscription to Spotify.

And for a few months the whole thing goes pretty well. You carefully watch where each and every hard-earned penny scurries off to, basking in your newfound feeling of fiscal control and responsibility.

So you decide to build in another, slightly loftier objective: a savings goal for a once-in-a-lifetime vacation or to finally replace that junker you’ve been driving since you were literally in college.

And then, life happens. Maybe that beater you’re still relying on to get to work suddenly requires a repair, or you discover that moths spent the long summer months snacking on last year’s winter coat while it was in storage. Maybe a bicycle stunt lands you in Urgent Care, delicately cradling a broken wrist.

Or maybe you just lose track of those far-fledged ambitions when you see something shiny and new in a storefront window—or by frittering away your cash on tiny daily indulgences, whether they’re iced Americanos or ice cream cones.

No matter what it is that gets in your way, it’s all too easy to lose sight of financial goals, especially when the payoff is fairly far in the future.

It’s natural to be tempted to satisfy your current self at your future self’s expense. But there are ways around this common financial trap and they might be simpler than you think.

In our efforts to bring you the latest updates on things that might impact your financial life, we may occasionally enter the political fray, covering candidates, bills, laws and more. Please note: SoFi does not endorse or take official positions on any candidates and the bills they may be sponsoring or proposing. We may occasionally support legislation that we believe would be beneficial to our members, and will make sure to call it out when we do. Our reporting otherwise is for informational purposes only, and shouldn’t be construed as an endorsement.

Tuesday night, 12 democratic hopefuls took the debate stage in Ohio. The number of participants was record-breaking, but it did not keep the candidates from making sure their positions on major financial issues were heard loud and clear.

Here’s a quick rundown of the major financial topics discussed during the debate and how the proposed plans may affect your wallet in the future.

In our efforts to bring you the latest updates on things that might impact your financial life, we may occasionally enter the political fray, covering candidates, bills, laws and more. Please note: SoFi does not endorse or take official positions on any candidates and the bills they may be sponsoring or proposing. We may occasionally support legislation that we believe would be beneficial to our members, and will make sure to call it out when we do. Our reporting otherwise is for informational purposes only, and shouldn’t be construed as an endorsement.

Editor’s note: This post was updated January 2020 to reflect current candidates.

You’d probably be hard-pressed to find a high-profile politician, these days, who’d disagree that a student debt crisis exists in the United States—or that the problem is still growing.

Some 43 million borrowers owe more than $1.5 trillion in federal government loans, according to numbers from the U.S. Department of Education’s office of Federal Student Aid. That’s more than $33,000 per borrower on average.

And in the first quarter of 2019, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reports 10.9% of aggregate student debt was 90-plus days delinquent or in default.

Finding solutions? That’s where the debate comes in.