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:

You’ve been offered a fantastic new job with the company of your dreams—and, on top of that, it’s thousands of miles away. Along with the excitement and anticipation that comes from uprooting your life and starting over, you’ve got to think about how this will affect you financially.

Should you accept the position, you’ll need to make some major financial decisions and changes. So you can breathe easy while working on the other aspects of the move that will keep you busy—like packing away your whole kitchen into a few boxes—try these four money moves to help you avoid any financial bumps on your road to relocation.

Whether you’ve been filing taxes for 5 years or 15, it never seems to get any easier. Maybe it’s because a whole year goes by between each tax season—plenty of time to forget everything you learned about W-2s, deductions, and tax credits the year before (not to mention your e-file password).

Meanwhile, the older you get, the more complicated your tax situation tends to be. As you earn more income and achieve new financial milestones, you face questions like what expenses are itemized tax deductions, what’s considered income for tax purposes, and if you can write off interest payments on your student loans.
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Life is too short for a formal education in tax code—getting a handle on a few of the basics can help you maximize your tax refund (or at least minimize what you owe). Here’s a roundup of sage tax advice for young professionals from financial experts to make your tax return a breeze—or just less terrible than usual.

There’s no doubt that your squad makes your life better. Your friends pick you up when you’re down, celebrate your milestone moments, and hang out with you just because you rock in between. But beyond providing awesome support—and lots of laughs—several studies reveal that your friends can also influence your financial achievements, career performance and opportunities, and general life success.

Here are five ways, according to science, that your friends can help you get more out of work and life: