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☕ DrinkCoffeeAndProfit
Smart money moves before breakfast
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Inspiration Quote for the Day
“Not to decide is to decide.”
Harvey Cox
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The Morning Ritual
The Letter That Picks Your Payment If You Do Not
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My brother-in-law Ray left the envelope on the kitchen counter for a week and a half. He went back for a nursing degree at 49, and he has been paying on those loans ever since. The letter was from his servicer. He already knew roughly what it said, which is exactly why it sat there.
He opened it Saturday morning. FINAL NOTICE, in capital letters, and thirty days to act. Pick a repayment plan, or the servicer picks one for you.
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In One Sip
► A federal court ended the SAVE plan in March, and servicers began sending 90 day notices on July 1
► Borrowers who let that first deadline pass are now getting one final 30 day notice
► Miss both and the servicer moves you onto the Standard or the Tiered Standard plan
► Those plans set your payment from your balance, never from your paycheck
► The Education Department says every SAVE borrower will be notified before the end of the year
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One from a partner before we get to the math.
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· · · Partner Message · · ·
The government rents energy land at $2 an acre. At recent auctions, companies bid $412, 206 times the asking price, and every parcel sold. Washington doubled the auction schedule because it cannot sell the land fast enough. The next sale is October 20th: 84 parcels of prime Nevada geothermal country, more than a quarter-million acres. One company, with sixty years of infrastructure, sits at the center of what they are all bidding on.
This is an advertisement.
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Why It Matters for Your Money
The standard plan does one thing. It takes what you owe, spreads it over 120 months, and sends the bill. Your income never enters the formula.
On a $40,000 balance at 6.5%, that comes to about $454 a month.
The tiered standard plan stretches the same balance over 10 to 25 years, depending on what you owe. Stretch that $40,000 across 25 years and the payment drops to about $270. That sounds like relief.
Now look at the totals. The ten year plan costs about $54,500. Running it to twenty five years costs about $81,000. That lower payment buys roughly $26,500 in extra interest.
I would not let either one get chosen for me by an unopened envelope.
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The Wealth Angle
Here is the part that catches people. Months spent in SAVE forbearance earned no credit toward forgiveness. Those months are gone, and the clock restarts only when you enroll in an active plan.
There is a quieter detail underneath. Payments on the tiered standard plan do not count toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
My read: if you work for a hospital, a school or a city, that is the expensive part of this letter. Being parked on the wrong plan by default could cost you years of credit you already earned the hard way.
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A second partner message, then today’s move.
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· · · Partner Message · · ·
You have watched the polls. You have done the math.
And with $40 trillion in national debt, many retirees are concerned that the next shift in Washington could change the rules around taxes, spending, and retirement savings.
The question is simple: Is what you spent decades building actually protected?
Learn how investors consider moving a portion of retirement assets outside election-driven uncertainty, how eligible transfers may work, and how to assess whether your current retirement is truly diversified.
No cost. No obligation. Just information before November changes the conversation.
This is an advertisement.
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· · · Partner Message · · ·
Sitting quietly in America’s 401(k)s is a pool of money twice that size, $10 trillion.
This is an advertisement.
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☕ Key Insight:
A default is still a choice. It is just one somebody else makes for you. Thirty days is enough time to compare your plans, and it is also enough time to lose them.
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Coffee Break Move
Log in to studentaid.gov today and run the loan simulator. It compares every plan you qualify for against your real income, and it takes about ten minutes.
If no notice has reached you yet, you do not have to wait for one. Switching now restarts your forgiveness clock.
Set up autopay while you are in there. The Education Department pushed that enrollment window to the end of December, and it carries an interest rate reduction.
Then call whoever in your family went back to school late. The envelope on their counter has a clock inside it.
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