The College Investor Audio Show

The College Investor
  • 4.3 (44)
  • Investing
  • Updated Semiweekly

The College Investor podcast is a daily audio show that's dedicated to bringing you the best of TheCollegeInvestor.com. We discuss a variety of topics, all relating to millennial money - including student loan debt, investing, earning more money, and more! Robert Farrington, the founder of The College Investor and a Millennial Money Expert, shares how to get out of student loan debt so that you can start investing and building wealth for the future. Instead of cutting expenses and living a frugal life, he advocates side hustling and entrepreneurship to earn extra money to achieve your financial goals.

  1. 11h ago

    Why Consolidating Your Student Loans in 2026 Can Set You Back

    For most borrowers after July 1, 2026, consolidating federal student loans no longer offers a real upside — and it can quietly erase progress you've already earned towards loan forgiveness. The one situation where it still helps is getting out of default. Consolidation used to be a helpful tool for many borrowers. It turned old FFEL loans into Direct Loans, unlocked income-driven repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), and let borrowers capture the one-time IDR account adjustment. Those windows have closed. The adjustment is over, FFEL cleanup deadlines have passed, and the menu of repayment plans is shrinking — so the cost-benefit math has flipped for most people. There is no real requirement for any borrower to consolidate their loans at this point in time, and except for defaulted student loan borrowers, doing so may be more harmful than helpful.

    6 min

  2. 1d ago

    Education Department Will Cut Federal Loans From Low-Earning College Programs

    The U.S. Department of Education announced a final rule that will, for the first time, strip federal student loan eligibility from college and career programs whose graduates fail to out-earn workers who never enrolled. The Student Tuition and Transparency System (STATS) and Earnings Accountability rule applies a single standard across every sector of higher education, from public universities to for-profit certificate schools, regardless of an institution's tax status or the credential it awards. The premise is simple: undergraduate programs must demonstrate that their graduates earn more than working adults who hold only a high school diploma. Graduate programs must show their completers earn more than typical bachelor's degree holders. A program that can't clear that bar for two of three years will lose the ability to enroll students who borrow federal loans. That doesn't mean it has to shut down - but the government is not going to continue to lend to students who end up having a bad financial outcome. "If a program cannot show that it leaves its graduates financially better off than if they had never enrolled, it should not be underwritten by federal taxpayers," said Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent. He pointed to "rising rates of default and delinquency in the $1.7 trillion federal student loan portfolio" as the backdrop for the new framework. The rule is the third and final rulemaking package authorized by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Trump signed on July 4, 2025. It also folds the new earnings standard into the Department's existing Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment regulations, replacing what officials described as nearly two decades of regulatory back-and-forth with one test that reaches almost every program and sector.

    11 min

  3. 2d ago

    What Changed for Student Loan Borrowers on July 1, 2026

    The biggest overhaul of federal student loans in a generation just took effect. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, borrowers who take out federal loans on or after July 1, 2026 face fewer repayment options, hard borrowing caps, and slightly higher interest rates. While many of these changes apply to new loans going forward, some borrowers do have choices to make. For example, borrowers in the SAVE forbearance will have to start making decisions to change repayment plans. It's important to remember that current borrowers keep their existing fixed interest rates and access to legacy plans like IBR — but anyone borrowing for the coming school year is entering a very different system.

    8 min

  4. 3d ago

    ED Expands Professional Degree List to 29 Programs After Court Order

    Home / News / ED Expands Professional Degree List to 29 Programs After Court Stay ED Expands Professional Degree List to 29 Programs After Court StayUpdated: June 30, 2026 By Robert Farrington | 1 Min Read Leave a Comment (Edit) Many or all of the products featured here may be from our partners who compensate us. This doesn't influence our evaluations or reviews. Our opinions are our own. Investing information is for educational purposes only. Learn more here. The Department of Education has temporarily widened the types of degree programs that qualify for the higher professional-student loan limits, adding fields like physician assistant, physical therapy, occupational therapy, audiology, and several advanced nursing degrees while the agency's narrower rule is paused in court. In Electronic Announcement GENERAL-26-42, posted June 29, ED published an updated list of Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) codes that schools must treat as professional degree programs for federal loan limit purposes. The list now covers 29 six-digit CIP codes, well beyond the 11 fields ED originally named in its Reimagining and Improving Student Education (RISE) final rule. The change is a direct response to a court order. On June 24, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia preliminarily stayed part of ED's professional degree definition just days before the rule's July 1 effective date.

    7 min

  5. 4d ago

    Federal Judge Strikes Down Education Dept.’s New PSLF Employer Rule

    A federal judge has thrown out the Department of Education's controversial new Public Service Loan Forgiveness rule, ruling it unlawful one day before it was scheduled to take effect. In a 68-page decision issued June 30, 2026, U.S. District Judge Myong J. Joun of the District of Massachusetts (PDF File) held that the rule was "contrary to law," exceeded the Department's statutory authority, was "arbitrary and capricious," and violated the First Amendment. His order vacated the rule entirely. There's another case in the District of Columbia that's also about this same rule, still waiting on a ruling as of writing.

    6 min

  6. Jul 3

    Faculty Unions Oppose 3-Year Degrees As Massachusetts, Virginia And Ohio Push Ahead

    The two largest faculty unions in the country are drawing a line against three-year bachelor's degrees, just as more states moves to make them real. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) issued a joint statement opposing accelerated degrees after Massachusetts approved its first pilot programs. The pushback lands the same week Virginia and Ohio announced a partnership to design their own shorter pathways. It follows a trend of over 60 colleges and university systems working on building three year degree programs.

    7 min

  7. Jul 2

    Syracuse University Admits First Budget Deficit in Years After Missing 2026 Enrollment

    Syracuse University Chancellor J. Michael Haynie told the community last week that it will not hit its undergraduate enrollment target for the fall and, as a result, will run a budget deficit "something the University has not experienced in quite some time." His letter framed the shortfall as the product of national forces: a shrinking pool of 18-year-olds, fierce competition for students, and a drop in international applications tied to visa problems and federal policy. While that backdrop is true, we believe it to be only partly responsible for Syracuse's downfall. Haynie's letter casts the deficit as the "new normal" for "even strong, well-resourced universities" — a framing that quietly recasts a Syracuse problem as everyone's problem. Syracuse spent the past several years making a series of financial and communication decisions that alienated the very families it now needs. Plenty of peer schools face the same demographic and policy headwinds, but have been seeing record applications and normal enrollment. The "new normal" is true and smaller private universities do face headwinds and risks, but much of what Syracuse is facing is self-inflicted.

    14 min

  8. Jul 1

    SAVE Student Loan Plan Timeline Estimates: When To Expect To Leave

    The future of student loan repayment for SAVE borrowers has been finalized by a court settlement, and the exodus will start on July 1, 2026 in tranches of individual borrowers. According to the most recent communication from the Department of Education, student loan servicers will begin sending official notices to borrowers in SAVE starting July 1, 2026. These notices will come in tranches, roughly two weeks apart. Once a borrower receives their notice, they will have 90 days to select a new repayment plan. The current available repayment plan options are: StandardTiered Standard (launches on July 1)IBRRAP (launches on July 1)PAYE (ends in 2028)ICR (ends in 2028) When pressed on the final end date for all borrowers, we couldn't get an exact answer. This timeline aligns with our earlier expectation we placed of 70% likelihood that a move would happen July 1

    10 min
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About

The College Investor podcast is a daily audio show that's dedicated to bringing you the best of TheCollegeInvestor.com. We discuss a variety of topics, all relating to millennial money - including student loan debt, investing, earning more money, and more! Robert Farrington, the founder of The College Investor and a Millennial Money Expert, shares how to get out of student loan debt so that you can start investing and building wealth for the future. Instead of cutting expenses and living a frugal life, he advocates side hustling and entrepreneurship to earn extra money to achieve your financial goals.

Information

  • Creator
    The College Investor
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    1K
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 The College Investor
  • Show Website
    The College Investor Audio Show

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