SoFi Blog

A victory for the centrist Emmanuel Macron in the first round of the French Presidential Election sent equities, interest rates, and the dollar higher this week. Polls are forecasting an easy victory in the second round for Mr. Macron over nationalist politician and Eurosceptic Marine Le Pen. The result was a welcome development for the so-called “reflation trade” after political uncertainty on both sides of the Atlantic and some disappointing data spurred a bond rally while equities languished. We continue to like our allocation of globally diversified equities, a short duration bias in fixed income, and exposure to emerging markets.

I left college with about $35-$45K in student loan debt. But my biggest loan—which was originally around $18K—had accrued so much interest, that even after paying the minimum for five years, it was actually at a little more than $20K. By the time it hit that amount, my husband and I realized we had to do something drastic to pay it off once and for all.

If you’re looking to take out a student loan to pay for an undergrad or grad degree, you’re about to join the club of Americans also carrying large amounts of student loan debt—$1.4 trillion total across the U.S., in fact. While taking out the loan may be the right move to pay for school, that decision is also paired with another one that could have impacts down the line on your long-term financial goals: your student loan repayment terms.

Student loan repayment terms can factor heavily into how long it takes to back your student debt, so you’ll want to make the right call out the outset. To make sure you can pay off that debt faster later, steer clear of these four common mistakes when choosing your loan terms:

The IRS expects to process more than 153 million tax returns by April 18th, with more than 70% of those returns getting refunds. The average refund issued last year was $2,860. If you filed early, your refund may already be tempting you to spurge. Before you do that, consider these ideas that can improve your financial health.

Last week we changed our portfolio allocations, increasing exposure to emerging markets and foreign exchange as well as taking broader fixed income exposure. But first we’ll cover the economy. A huge miss on the jobs report and recent threats of military escalation in the Far and Middle East sent bond yields lower while the dollar continued to depreciate against many of the world’s currencies. The disconnect continues between so-called “soft” survey data and the more traditional economic statistics. However, optimism remains elevated even as more traditional measures of economic activity indicated subpar growth in the first quarter.