SoFi Blog

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.

If you haven’t yet reached the point of sitting in your cubicle and counting sticky notes out of boredom or because your workplace has become so grueling, you can’t be bothered to pay attention anymore—congrats. You’re one of the lucky souls not suffering from job burnout.

But even go-getters can suffer from career stress—the feeling that work has become a series of mindless repetitions and frustrating situations. And once it hits the burnout stage, that feeling is no joke. Left to fester, burnout can wreak havoc on your health, happiness, productivity, and performance. According to the Staples Business Advantage 2016 Workplace Advantage Index, 91% of U.S. and Canadian workers surveyed for the report put in over 40 hours a week, at least some of the time, and 22% have changed jobs because of work-life balance issues, including decreased family time and battling work pressures that seep into their personal lives. In addition, 3 out of 4 respondents reported they aren’t provided with the latest technology and are expected to do more with less, and only 35% have a wellness program available at their current job.

Snapping back from job burnout and once again becoming excited about your career is doable, but you must first take a deep dive into how you’re feeling to identify the source.

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:

If you’re an aspiring pharmacist, you probably have a long list of wants and needs in a pharmacy school. You’d like a top pharmacy program with stellar faculty members and, because you want to put your four years of training to good use, you need a school that boasts a high rate of graduate employment and commands a great salary. After all, top pharmacy programs don’t come cheap.

In its study of first-year tuition and fees for Pharm.D. degree programs for 2016-2017, the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) reports that Pacific University, a private school in Oregon, is among the priciest pharmacy schools at $70,947 for both out-of-state and in-state students. On the other side of the tuition scale, the University of Toledo, a state school in Ohio, costs $17,390 for out-of-state students and $8,052 for in-state students.

Your tuition bills and mandatory student fees will certainly add up over four years. So, along with a degree, your future likely holds a fair amount of student debt. The AACP also reports that Pharm.D. graduates carry an average of $157,425 in student loan debt. For grads of private pharmacy schools, that figure shoots to $182,417; for students of Pharm.D. programs at public colleges and universities the loan debt average is slightly less, at $131,153. But the good news is that graduates also earn solid salaries. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the median salary of pharmacists was $121,500 in 2015.

To help you decide which program is best for your career and financial goals, we’ve crunched the numbers from more than 19,000 student loan refinance applications from January 2014 to February 2017 to bring you the SoFi Return on Education (ROED) Pharmacy School Rankings.