168. Student Loans Are Back: How to Find Peace (and a Plan) When Payments Restart

 Student loans are back, and for many, it feels like a bad sequel nobody asked for. If you’ve been dreading the restart or avoiding your balance, you’re not alone. In this episode, Laura shares how to take the panic out of payments with clarity, calm, and a 3-step plan that actually works. Learn what’s new with student loans, how to find peace in the process, and how to turn “I owe” into “I own.” 

In this episode you’ll learn:

• What’s really happening with student loan repayments in 2025
• The truth about new repayment plans like SAVE and forgiveness programs
• Why clarity is kinder than fear when facing your loan balance
• How to choose a repayment plan that fits your financial goals
• A 3-step framework to turn student loan chaos into calm

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Transcript

Audio Only - All Participants-14: 0:00

Student loans are back, and for a lot of people it feels like a bad sequel. Nobody asked for. If you've been dreading the payment notice or wondering how to fit another bill into an already tight budget, you are not alone.

Laura: 0:17

hello and welcome to money and career mastery from overwhelmed to ownership. I'm Laura Sexton, your abundance and legacy coach here to help you navigate the world of money, debt payoff, and career growth with confidence and clarity. In this podcast, we'll tackle the financial and career challenges, holding you back, optimize your income and build the freedom that comes with true ownership. If you're ready to break free from overwhelm, create a budget that aligns with your values and design a legacy that empowers future generations. You're in the right place.

Audio Only - All Participants-14: 0:51

Hey accelerators, maybe you thought this chapter was behind you and now it's showing up again, right when everything else feels just way too expensive. Today we're gonna talk about taking panic out of the process. We're gonna talk about student loans, which change what you can actually do, and more importantly, how to find peace in the middle of it all. So take a deep breath with me. You don't have to be afraid of this topic anymore. I got you. I wanna start with a story. A few weeks ago, I was sitting on Zoom with one of my clients. She's a teacher, a mom, and she has been doing everything right. She's budgeting, she's cutting back, she's planning for the future, all the things. But when her student loan payment restarted, she just froze. I totally understand this impulse of it's too much. I can't do it alone. And that's why we got to do it together. So we logged in and we looked at her balance. It felt like it took 30 minutes for that full number to load. And when it did, she started to cry, not because of. The number itself, but because of what it represented, years of her doing her best, paying what she could and feeling like it just wasn't enough in that moment, that was money. Fear, like we talked about last week, not just the dollars, right? It's not just about the dollars, it's the weight that we carry. The shame, the guilt, the exhaustion, student loans are exhausting. And yet, once you saw the number clearly. The tears stopped because clarity, even when it's hard, is always kinder than fears. Imagination. Let's zoom out for a second. Here is what's happening. After three years of pauses, the student loan system has flipped. The switch back on interest has resumed. Payments are due, and the rules have changed yet again. We have new servicers, new plans, new acronyms, Ugh. If you're feeling confused, that's normal because I was feeling too, and even financial coaches that I know we have to read and reread and read again, the new payment rules, and I wanna say this clearly, you are not behind and you are not broken. You were just living through a system that was never designed to be simple. This system was set up to keep you in this loop. They set you up to take out more loans than you need. They set you up to pay over 20 years, and when you get to the end of that 20 years, you haven't made a dent in the principle. And if you've refinanced at any point in time, you have to start those 20 years over. It's insanity. Think of this like the first workout after a really long break, your muscles are sore because you haven't used them in a while, but the soreness is proof that you're re-engaging, not proof that you're failing. Before we talk strategy, let's get grounded in what's actually going on right now. Okay. Half of the panic I'm seeing is coming from confusion, not from the numbers themselves, and confusion is fair when things keep changing and moving around and like it's a lot. Okay, so here's what's new. What's new is the payment. Pause is officially over. 99% of my clients that are not currently in school have their payments restarted. Now there are going to be that one or two exceptions. You are probably not the exception. Let's get clear on what you're actually facing. Interest started accruing again in September and the new save plan. Why everything has to have acute acronym in Washington, I'm not really sure. But the SAVE plan, that's the income driven repayment option is replacing the old REPAYE plan for most borrowers. Some borrowers are still eligible for forgiveness under the public service or, one-time account adjustments. But those programs take time. And even though I've seen an uptick in the people who are getting approved on public service loan forgiveness program, the PSLF oh y'all, it's still less than 2% of people. The number of people that actually make it through it's dismal. It's so sad, and that's up. That number is up from before when it was 0.7, 5% of people were getting approved. So if you've heard the buzz online, forgiveness is gone. My balance doubled overnight, just take a breath. That is fear marketing. That is not truth. Here is what hasn't changed. The best financial progress still comes from the same things. Knowing your numbers, choosing a plan that fits your life, and committing to small, steady steps over time. You don't have to outsmart the entire system. You just have to make your next right move. Okay, so now let's talk about the elephant in the room, your avoidance. If you've been ignoring your loans, avoiding the login page, or just hoping the whole thing's gonna go away. Please hear me. You're not lazy. You are not alone. I hope you hear me saying that today. You're not alone. Avoidance is usually just fear wearing a different outfit. You're protecting yourself from paying the pain of seeing the number or the shame of feeling behind. I get that. But here's the problem. While you're protecting your heart, your wallet is quietly paying the price interest keeps growing late. Fees pile up in the emotional toll, the guilt, the background stress. It's heavy. I've had clients tell me they didn't realize how much mental energy they were spending avoiding their loans until we finally looked together and afterward, I always hear them say the same thing. That just feels lighter. The power of clarity, my friends, it's not about a perfect budget, it's about finally taking the weight off your chest. So if you're hiding from the numbers, this is your gentle, not so gentle nudge to look, not to judge yourself. Just to tell yourself the truth because the truth always sets you free much faster than avoidance. Well, and let's be honest, you can't avoid a federal student loan because they will come after you. Now, let's dream for a second. What does. What does it actually feel like to be student loan free? For some of you, you're like, I don't know, and I'm never gonna find out'cause I got these loans when I'm 20 and I'm 50 years old and I'm still paying on them. I know those people. You're not alone. Like, this is not about the math. It's about the mental space. So imagine getting your paycheck and not watching a huge chunk banish. Imagine making choices based on purpose, not on pressure. Imagine feeling proud of how far you've come and not haunted by what you owe because your alma mater's coming after you asking for donations, asking for scholarship money, and you're like, I'm still paying for mine. Looking towards the future, that's what we're building towards. Even if today just looks like logging in and checking your balances, know that freedom isn't a finish line. It's built a little by little through every decision, every decision to look, every decision to plan, every decision to keep moving forward. And here's what's beautiful. When you stop letting fear and shame lead, you start leading your own money. You move from IO to I own. That's the heartbeat of legacy. You are building financial freedom that doesn't just change your life, it changes what's possible for everyone who comes after you. We've named the system. We've faced our fear, we've pictured the freedom. So let's talk about how to get there. Here's my simple framework. Three steps to bring calm back into your student loan story. First of all, you gotta know your numbers. Open your browser, go to student aid.gov, yes. Even if this feels terrifying, go ahead and do it. If you do it right now, it's like I'm doing it with you. Log in and look at your full list of loans, balances and interest rates. If you've been avoiding this, this is your flashlight moment. Turn it on. Write down what you see each loan. It's balance, interest rate, and who services it. This is your loan snapshot, an accelerator. Clarity replaces. Chaos every single time. I just had one of my longest standing clients finally sit down and give me all of her numbers. She knew what the total was, but we hadn't broken them down. And what we found was that some of them are small enough that she could tackle them and one to two months, and she got really excited. That's what happens when we know our numbers. So pick your plan, not your panic. You've probably heard about repayment options like standard or graduated Income driven. The new SAVE plan is an income driven plan. The headlines here, they're gonna be loud, but your decision should not come from the headlines. It should come from your. Numbers. Now, if you were doing the debt snowball, I want you to make minimum payments on everything except for your smallest loan. And if that means getting on the income driven repayment plan makes these numbers smaller for now, that's okay as long as you're going to get after it. So let's just say for the sake of today's podcast that you have paid off everything except for your student loans. That's what we're gonna do right now. And if you're not sure where to start, there is a loan simulator tool on the government site. It's pretty fun. It's free, it's surprisingly helpful, and it'll show you the monthly payment under each plan, and that's how you're gonna find your piece point. And if we're sitting across from each other right now, I'd say let's test drive the math instead of guessing, because panics gonna make bad decision, and Clarity's gonna make a calm one. So sit down and look at which plan is going to be best for you. But I don't want these sticking around for another 20, 30 years. I want you to get after it and get them paid off in one to two. That may sound crazy, but I promise you it's completely possible. If I can pay off$372,347 in debt in three years, you can pay off your student loans in one to two, now we have gone back. We know our numbers. We've picked which plan we're going to be working under, and step three is just put it in your system. Once you've chosen the plan, you build it into your life like any other bill, you add it to your budget, you set it on autopay, you make it part of your regular money date. Ownership is not about perfection. It's about paying attention. And when you bring your student loans into the light of your regular money rhythm, they stop being monsters in the closet and they become just one piece of the plan. So with your debt snowball. You are going to keep all of your student loans separate. You are going to have them and most of'em are listed aa, ab, a C, ad, they're separated out, whichever one has the smallest balance. That's one we're going to be tackling if. Your servicer requires you to call in to make a principal payment towards one specific loan. Guess what you're doing? You're calling in every time you have extra money. Some of them only accept two payments a month. We're gonna have to be strategic. You need to know the ins and outs of your servicer. Does that sound like I'm giving you extra steps? Yes. I'm sorry. You're going to have to get to know this thing that is holding your student loans right now. I do not want you to renegotiate. I do not want you to put them into your mortgage. I do not want you to get rid of your federal protections under your federal student loans. Federally, there are many different ways that they can be forgiven. That would not happen if you. Refinance them. So before you ever think about doing that, get on a call with me and let's talk through what the options are there. Okay. Let's talk about our emotional reframe. I, I really wanna talk about shame. Maybe you have said to yourself, I should have known better, or I shouldn't have borrowed that much. Or maybe I didn't even finish that degree. What was it all for those first two? That was me and that last one that was my mom. Accelerator. You did what you thought was best with the information you had at that time. That's what it means to be human and your student loans. Guess what? They're part of your story, but they're not the headline. Okay? You get to decide how this chapter ends. You can't change how the story started, but you can absolutely change where it's going. Can you guys tell that nano Rmo is in full effect and I'm all about the storytelling right now? Okay, here's what I know from walking with hundreds of people through their financial journeys. You can't let shame do the math because shame is terrible at math. Fear tells you to hide, and shame tells you you're all alone. But hope, hope whispers you can do this. Student loans are a season. This season, like all seasons will pass and it passes faster when you walk through it intentionally instead of fearfully. So take one step at a time. Name your fear, find the fact, take the next right. Action. Small steps. Build confidence and confidence quiets your fear. If student loans have been weighing on you, I want you to know that you don't have to fight it out alone. This is what I do every day in coaching. We take the chaos and the fear and we build a plan. And implementing that plan brings peace. You don't need a perfect plan, you just need a starting point. So if you're ready for that, schedule a clarity call with me. Let's look at your numbers together and find your next right step. Next week. We're gonna talk about spending to buy affection, how your hearts and wallets get tangled during the holidays, and how to love well without letting money, guilt lead the way. Until then, take a deep breath. You're doing better than you think in your money story. It's not scary. It's just ready to be rewritten. That's it for this week. Accelerators go out and make a difference. I.

Laura: 15:53

thank you for spending time with us today on Money and Career Mastery from Overwhelm to Ownership. Remember, your legacy isn't just about financial freedom. It's about living with purpose, taking action, and building a foundation that lasts for generations. Don't just listen, implement what you've learned and share it with someone who could use a financial or career breakthrough. If you found value in today's episode, help us grow by rating, reviewing, and sharing the podcast. I'll be back next week with more strategies to help you master your money and career. Until then take ownership of your future and build your legacy with intention.