SoFi Blog

With the world’s longest election campaign season finally behind us, people across the country are trying to understand what a Donald Trump presidency means for them. If you’re one of the 40 million Americans with student loans, that means taking a closer look at President Trump’s statements about the runaway growth of college tuition and student loan debt, and his proposed plans to remedy the problems.

And if you missed our CEO Mike Cagney’s recent article in Business Insider discussing how the student loan industry will change this year, we recommend checking it out.

New Year’s resolutions come and go, but student loans? Not so much. When next year rolls around, wouldn’t it be nice to see you’ve made a significant dent in your student debt—or have even decimated it completely?

In our latest member spotlight, we speak to Ashleigh Shepard and learn why she chose The University of Florida to pursue her graduate degree in Physician Assistant Studies, and how she tackled a monthly student loan payment that was more than her rent – all the while she and her fiancé save for their first home.

For many Americans, the beginning of a new year is a time for self-reflection and personal goal-setting — losing those holiday pounds, learning a new language, or maybe getting to a better place with their finances.

As a personal finance company devoted to helping a new generation achieve prosperity, we decided we’d dive into the financial aspect of these resolutions, especially among younger Americans. We also wanted to see how recent events might have shaped those resolutions. So we surveyed more than 500 college-educated Americans ages 25-34 — the older cohort of U.S. Millennials — to find out their attitudes on a variety of forward-looking finance topics.

Life, interrupted. That’s what millennials with student loans are discovering as they try to meet their financial goals, such as buying a home.

But there’s a way to eliminate that debt faster. Refinancing your student loans to reduce interest rates is a strategic move savvy borrowers are making to save money over the life of their loans. Then they can turn their attention to saving for retirement and improving their quality of life.

We talked to three of our members, each with a different set of life circumstances, who were tired of putting their dreams on hold. For James Hilton Harrell, Melonia Bennett and Josh Grant, refinancing their student loans with SoFi has help put them on the path to a brighter financial future.