SoFi Blog

In our efforts to bring you the latest updates on things that might impact your financial life, we may occasionally enter the political fray, covering candidates, bills, laws and more.
Please note: SoFi does not endorse or take official positions on any candidates and the bills they may be sponsoring or proposing. We may occasionally support legislation that we believe would be beneficial to our members, and will make sure to call it out when we do. Our reporting otherwise is for informational purposes only, and shouldn’t be construed as an endorsement.

The Trump Administration has proposed a cap on the amount that parents and graduate students would be able to borrow from the federal government to pay for higher education. The administration says their effort is an attempt to curb tuition costs and student loan debt, which reached an outstanding $1.465 trillion in late 2018. Here’s a look at what these changes might mean for parents and grad students.

Family debt is never easy to tackle, but if a sibling is struggling with a significant amount of student loan debt, it can seem even more overwhelming. Should you help pay off your sibling’s student loans if you are financially secure enough to do it?

When offering money to a family member, it’s important to remember that doing so could change your relationship, even if you are offering to help reduce student loan debt for a sibling.

Due to rapidly advancing technology, today’s college students often face decisions that prior generations would never have needed to consider. This includes the use of social media and its effects, both positive and negative.

As you’ve probably figured out, there are numerous benefits to using social media to discover information, connect with friends and family , job hunt and so much more. But, there are also big buckets of negatives, ranging from wasting time, to false information being posted, cyberbullying and more.

Social media posts and profiles can have an impact, positive or negative, before you’ve even been accepted to your college of choice, and they can also both help and hurt your efforts to get a specific job, or advance in your career.

Tax season has a mixed effect on people. Some people dread it, while others look forward to it. On the one hand, doing taxes is a nuisance and it’s especially painful if you’re paying out of pocket.

On the other hand, it’s exciting to get a tax refund and think about how to put that extra money to use. Sometimes, a tax refund can be even bigger than a bonus or a paycheck, and without the income taxes.

In all, the IRS paid out $324 billion in tax refunds in 2018 . The average federal tax refund was $2,727. That’s a pretty good chunk of change.

If you are expecting a tax refund, it is worth your while to sit down and plan out what you want to do with the money. Otherwise, it might be too easy to spend the money just as fast as you received it.