We hear about side hustles all the time, but have you ever wondered what people are actually doing to make money on the side?

I’m a big fan of research because it’s data-driven and objective. When it comes to side hustles the two biggest questions are: how many are doing them and what are they doing? Perhaps the biggest question is: how much are they making?

CareerBuilder recently released research on side hustles that I thought was insightful. Today I want to talk about the most popular side hustles according to research.

Let’s take a look at the list.

The Most Popular Side Hustles According to Research

 
Below are notable side hustles per CareerBuilder Research:

• Survey taker

• Babysitter

• Chef/baker

• Dog walker

• Blogger

• House sitter

• DJ

• Bartender

 
What stands out to me when I read this list is the general lack of “technology-based” side hustles. Survey taker and blogger are really the only pure “technology-based” side hustles on the list.

I wasn’t surprised to see survey taker mentioned, as it’s long been a way to make a (little) extra money on the side.

I was happy to see blogging on the list, especially with blogging being one of the most mentioned and talked about side hustles. Depending on the niche of the blog, bloggers can work anytime, anywhere.

While dog walking and house sitting may seem like “old school” side hustles, I think it makes sense. Technology, specifically sites like Rover.com, have made it easier than ever before to become a dog walker and/or a dog sitter. You don’t necessarily have to go out and attract clients, as the website does some of the work for you.

We have a rental apartment and our renter’s side hustle is dog sitting and house sitting. It’s something that is easy to do on top of a 9-5, and once you have regular clients it’s easy to continue the side hustle without having to constantly land clients.

I think the demand for dog walking and house sitting will only increase over time. More and more people are opting to have dogs instead of kids, or at least are delaying children and are, in turn, adopting dogs. I also am convinced that social media is a boon for the security industry, as people like to post real-time, including while on vacations. A house sitter adds an additional layer of security.

The other side hustles listed are also “old school” in the sense they have been around for a long time. Bartending will always be in demand, and the demand is typically nights and weekends. Same goes for DJS. And while we may think of babysitting as something 20-somethings and 30-somethings don’t do, there is probably more people doing this as a side hustle than we realize.

How Side Hustles are Changing

 
Side hustles are, for the most part, about supply and demand. The list that CareerBuilder put out makes sense: there is constant, if not growing, demand for these services.

But how will side hustles change over the next few years? Or even the next ten years?

I think we’ll always see the location-based side hustles that are popular today, but as we saw from both blogging and taking surveys making the list, the world of side hustles will continue to evolve. Virtually everyone is, at minimum, intrigued by the idea of a location independent option for making extra money in their spare time.

12 Income Streams You Can Create By Starting a Blog

As someone who has blogged for nearly a decade and run Young Adult Money for more than six years, I have seen more and more content out there, and the quality does seem to be increasing. With that being said there seems to be a nearly unlimited demand from businesses and consumers for content, so those who “cut their teeth” blogging are going to be well positioned to work on content full-time, consult on content marketing, or some other upside from the huge demand for content.

Here’s a few other examples of side hustles I think will become more prominent over the next few years:

• Freelance Writer

• Graphic Designer

• Photographer/Videographer

• Social Media Manager

• Virtual Assistant

• Uber/Lyft Driver

• Programmer

The first few that I listed above go along with the content theme. They also are side hustles that give the individual performing the service a large degree of freedom. You could argue a videographer/photographer have less freedom, but they ultimately have say over what type of work they do, how often they work, and where they work. I don’t foresee demand slowing down for freelance writers, graphic designers, photographers, videographers, and social media managers anytime soon.

Virtual assistants are going to be in higher and higher demand as the economy becomes more digital-based. We already have millions and millions of people going into jobs where they sit on computers all day. If business owners took advantage of the huge savings they can realize from a mobile workforce, virtual assistants will be swept up in the wave. I also think the rise of freelancers and contractors will inevitably lead to demand for virtual assistants.

While all the talk is on automated driving, the reality is that automated driving is still years down the road. There is actually a huge shortage of Uber and Lyft drivers, and Uber is actively recruiting drivers as we speak. This demand goes beyond traditional Uber drivers and includes things like UberEats, which is really looking to staff up drivers. As there is more and more demand for Uber and Lyft, prices and convenience of being a driver will cause people to consider taking it on as a side hustle.

Finally, I think programming will continue to rise in popularity as a side hustle. While many programmers only work their 9-5, there is a whole subset of full-time programmers who are working on an app idea, or partnering with others on business ideas. The demand for programmers won’t slow down anytime soon, and I think programming will be an extremely popular side hustle the next 5-10 years, and beyond.

We basically have unlimited access to a ton of information right at our fingertips, thanks to the internet.

What’s even better is that the majority of this information is free.

So if you want to get resourceful, finding free alternatives to products and services that would otherwise cost money is pretty easy.

It’s even easier with this list of free things on the internet you should be using!

Everything is broken down into categories so you can easily find what you need.

1) Free Education Sites

 
These are first on the list because they’re truly valuable resources. If you love to learn, you don’t necessarily need to go back to college and take classes. Instead, there are MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses. The list below contains both learning platforms and sites that have curated free courses offered on a certain subject.

The list doesn’t end here at all, either. If you’re interested in learning about a specific industry or skill, I recommend searching for a learning platform dedicated to it!

• Coursera
• Khan Academy
• Open Culture
• edX
• Open Education Database
• Academic Earth
• MIT Open Courseware

2) Free Trials for Memberships

 
Almost every subscription based service or product has a free trial. The best part is you can usually get something for free in exchange for referrals.

The one caveat with this is to remember to set a reminder for yourself to cancel if the free trial requires a credit or debit card upon sign up.

Hulu+: There’s a standard one week free trial to Hulu+, but if you search for specials, you might find ones that last a month or longer. Get the most out of your free trial by binge-watching a few shows.

Netflix: Can’t decide between Hulu+ and Netflix? You might want to start with Netflix first as it offers a more generous one month free trial period.

Hello Fresh: Want to give a food delivery service a try? Hello Fresh gives you recipes and all the ingredients you need to make great meals for dinner, and they offer 3 meals for free.

You Need a Budget: This is a super popular budgeting software that normally has a monthly fee, but you can try it free for 34 days.

Lynda.com: You get a 10 day free trial with Lynda.com, and it has just over 4,600 courses available if you’re interested in learning about photography, programming, video editing, etc. There’s not much it doesn’t offer!

3) Free Music Services

 
I can’t even remember the last time I bought a CD. Can you? These days, it’s just so much easier to stream a wide variety of songs right from your phone or computer.

Besides curating your own playlists, you can also listen to a huge amount of radios for free as well.

Pandora: One of the first services to offer music streaming for free, Pandora allows you to discover tons of music you otherwise might not have heard. You search for music you like, and it plays music it thinks you’d like based on that. You can tell Pandora if you like a song or not by giving it a thumbs up or thumbs down.

Spotify: I prefer Spotify to Pandora only because I can be a little picky about music recommendations. I prefer to create my own playlists and search for specific songs that I can save. That’s not to say you can’t discover new music, though. Spotify also offers recommendations and it has plenty of playlists to look through depending on the day, time, and your mood.

Slacker: At first glance, Slacker looks very similar to Pandora. The difference is that you can create and share your playlists with Slacker, and it promotes playlists curated by experts. Pandora uses algorithms to determine if songs are similar. Slacker further enforces its “human-powered” concept by allowing celebrities of all sorts to take over the station.

Radio station streaming: Lastly, your favorite radio most likely has an online streaming service so you can listen to it on your computer at work.

4) Free Entertainment

 
YouTube: Where would we be without it? From cat videos to tutorials to troubleshooting and learning, you can find pretty much anything you want to keep yourself entertained. YouTube could even go under the music section as it’s incredibly easy to create playlists, and it often has singles and remixes that might not be available elsewhere. There are even content creators who have formatted shows.

Crunchyroll: If you like anime and manga, then you’ll find most everything you need by tuning into Crunchyroll. The free version is a bit limited, but at least it’s offered!

Twitch.tv: Twitch originally started as a platform to watch game play, but it has evolved over its short lifespan to include board games and artistic hobbies as well. If you’re into crafts, cosplaying, or watching people have fun while playing games, you can tune into any stream for free.

5) Podcasts

 
What’s not to love about podcasts? Most of the time they’re commercial free, and plugs for sponsors don’t last nearly as long as radio commercials do.

You can download a variety of podcasts, so if you’re looking for comedy, education, or actual scripted shows, you’ll find it here. I personally enjoy listening to music podcasts because I get an hour or two of non-stop mixes of the latest tracks.

6) Free Open Software

 
There are free alternatives to popular software out there if you know where to look. If you’ve built your own PC before, you know how annoying it can be to buy all the programs you need.

A great example of open software is one you’ve probably heard of: Open Office.

We can’t mention free tools without mentioning Google’s suite of products. Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and more all have great functionality for basic users, and the fact that everything is saved in the cloud means you can access it from anywhere.

Want to take it a step further? If, for some reason, you find yourself without an operating system on a PC of yours, or you want to dual boot, Linux can be a great option. It’s a completely free OS, and it’s pretty and very functional. You can use it as you would regularly use Windows, and for the nerds out there, it has a separate distribution that offers an interface for command-line prompts. It also comes with its own suite of programs, so you’ll have a word processor and graphic design software.

Speaking of, while I love Photoshop, I realize some people would rather not pay the monthly fee to have access to it. In that case, GIMP, Canva, PicMonkey, and InkScape (alternative for Illustrator) are worth looking at.

7) Free ebooks

 
I don’t know about you, but I love to read. I practically grew up in a library. While you can get books for free by borrowing them, sometimes finishing them by the due date can be a challenge (especially if you’re busy). However, if you’re not the type of person who reads books multiple times, buying can sometimes be a waste.

Instead, look for free eBooks! There are plenty of sites that offer selections, and even though some exclusively offer classics, you could decide your life needs a little Pride & Prejudice.

Project Gutenberg: There’s over 50,000 ebooks on this site, and you can search by most popular and most recent. Be aware that many are older because the copyright has expired on most of them.

SpringerOpen Books: Springer provides access to scientific documents and journals, so if you’re looking for something a bit more academic, you’ll find it here. All research is peer-reviewed.

OpenLibrary: The purpose of this project is literally in the name. OpenLibrary’s model is similar to Wikipedia – they want to catalogue every book ever published. That means you can create pages for your favorite books and share them with the world. You can also download free, out-of-copyright books, and borrow books that are in copyright.

Smashwords: This site has a selection of books you can buy along with its free books. Most of what you’ll find in the free section are books published by indie authors. There’s every genre you can think of along with essays, poetry, and screenplays.

8) Actual Freebies

 
What would a list about free things to use on the internet be without mentioning the fact you can score a bunch of freebies online?

There are many websites that will send you free samples of things to try, and these products may even be full-size samples:

• Reddit’s Freebies Subreddit
• Freebies.org
• I Crave Freebies
• A great list of birthday freebies to sign up for
• Don’t forget to check the “free” section of Craigslist!

9) Free Money Management Tools

 
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention money management tools in this article being that this is a personal finance website! Thankfully there are quite a few free ones to choose from.

Personal Capital: Personal Capital is a one-stop-shop for all your finance needs. You can review your spending, the performance of your portfolio, and see if your retirement savings are on track.

Mint: I’m sure you’ve heard of Mint by now, but it automatically tracks and categorizes your spending, you can set up spending goals/limits for a budget, and receive alerts when you’re nearing your limits.

Digit: This is a great, free tool to use if you’re not a natural saver. Digit analyzes your spending patterns, takes a look at your bank account, and figures out how much you can afford to save. It then transfers that amount to a separate savings account. Digit promises to never overdraw your account and offers a guarantee on it.

Penny: This app is a relative newcomer to the personal finance scene, but it’s great for people who are on the go or need a little encouragement. Penny might be an app, but it functions as a coach, as it will have actual text conversations with you about the state of your money.

10) Free Cash Back Sites

 
Last, but not least, we’ll round out this list of free things you should use with a few places where you can earn free money. Well, it’s not totally free – you do technically pay with your time – but it beats getting nothing!

Swagbucks: This is a great site to use in your spare time or while you’re watching TV. You can earn Swagbucks by performing a variety of tasks on the website, such as taking surveys, watching videos, and using its search engine. You can redeem your Swagbucks for gift cards. A lot of people use this strategy around the holidays to reduce the cost of gifts.

Ebates: If you’re going to be shopping for something, you might as well try to earn as much for your purchase as possible, right? You can do that by shopping through Ebates. There’s a huge selection of popular retailers to choose from, and when you shop using Ebates, you earn cash back for your purchases. You can redeem the cash back once you reach a certain threshold.

Credit Card Portals: Do you have a rewards credit card? Then chances are, you can earn even more cash back with your card by shopping through a rewards portal. It functions essentially the same way as Ebates.

Bonus Free Stuff

 
Because who doesn’t want more free stuff? Here are just a few things to look into if you’re a little bored:

• Cards Against Humanity Online
• Free-to-play games on Steam (PC games)
• A list of productivity tools, many of which are free
• Duolingo
• Coloring pages for kids (or adults, who’s judging?)
• Hemingway Editor
• Justin Guitar – Free Lessons
• Font Squirrel

Who ever said there wasn’t anything free in life? Blogs are a great example of free information, too. ;) As anyone who goes online knows, there’s a ton of free stuff to be found if you’re willing to look for it. Hopefully some of these resources are useful for you.

 
 
What are some of your favorite free things you use on the internet? Are any from this list? 
 
 

Ten or so years ago it wasn’t common to have home or apartment security cameras.

They were either cost prohibitive, overly complex, or both.

Ring is one of the companies that changed that.

Most people are familiar with Ring because of the Ring Video Doorbell, but they also offer a wide range of other products including home security cameras.

If you are considering adding Ring Cameras, this post will help you decide whether to get POE Ring cameras or WiFi Ring cameras.

What are the Different Ring Camera Options?

 
As you can tell from the title, one regret I have is setting up a bunch of WiFi Ring cameras instead of POE Ring cameras.

The problem is that most people don’t know what “POE” means. It wasn’t until after I set up many cameras that I learned more about POE, or power over ethernet, and why POE Ring camears are better than WiFi Ring cameras.

To be clear, I think that WiFi Ring cameras are better than no cameras at all. It was a game-changer the first time I traveled to be able to log in and check my cameras, and even get alerts of motion. Since then I can’t imagine not having some sort of camera system and broader home security system in place.

When it comes to power source, there are three major types of Ring Cameras:

• Wired

• Battery

• POE

The Ring Stick up cam is an example of a wired Ring camera. This camera can also be powered by solar, which is actually quite affordable for Ring cameras.

Regardless of the power source, these Ring cameras are going to need to connect to your home network, and that’s accomplished by connecting to WiFi.

The same can be said about battery-powered Ring camera options. It still needs to connect via WiFi.

This brings us to POE Ring cameras, or power over ethernet. The unique thing about POE is that it provides both power and network via one cord. An example of a Ring POE camera is the Ring Stick Up Cam Elite.

Why POE Ring Cameras are Better than WiFi Ring Cameras

 
As I already mentioned, there is nothing inherently wrong with a WiFi security camera. In fact, the nice thing about them is how easy it is to connect to your network.

But WiFi Ring cameras come with their disadvantages.

In general, WiFi is less reliable than wired devices. This is true not just for Ring cameras but any device you are connecting to your network. WiFi signals can get jammed up or face interference, which is an issue for something meant to provide security.

Another thing to think about is placement of cameras. A lot of times you’ll want to place cameras around the exterior of your house, with soffit being the most likely thing you mount your cameras to. With wired Ring cameras you are going to need to have an outlet nearby, or you’ll have to run extension wires such as these to the closest outlet.

This may not seem like a problem at first, but when you really think about how many outlets you have in places like your garage and how accessible they are, you can run into issues once you start adding multiple cameras to your house.

Since you are already running wires, why not run POE wires (which are essentially cat6 ethernet cable and connect to a POE camera? From a wiring perspective it’s the same or less work, and you end up with a more secure and stable network connection.

How Does POE – Power Over Ethernet – Work?

 
Most people aren’t familiar with POE. And even when you first hear about it, it can be difficult to wrap your head around it.

If you can get past the initial “new-ness” of the concept, you can get comfortable with using it as your power and network source for your cameras. Perhaps more importantly, you can avoid the mistake I made of going with WiFi cameras. Because like me, you can avoid first buying WiFi cameras and then later swapping everything out to POE.

A graph can be helpful. Below is how POE works for Ring cameras.

Most home networks consist of a cable modem, a router, and that’s it. Using POE just takes one extra step: a POE switch.

The way a POE switch works is you run ethernet cable from the router to the switch, and then you run ethernet cord from the switch to the cameras.

And that’s it – you’ll have a wired network connection and power to your cameras.

Below is an example of a POE switch:

Once you start comparing the process of running wire for wired Ring cameras to running cat6 ethernet wire for POE ring cameras, running ethernet is more flexible. You only need an outlet for the switch, not for each camera.

There is one advantage wired Ring cameras have over POE Ring cameras: price.

If you compare the Ring Stick Up Cam, which is the wired option, to the Ring Stick Up Cam Elite, which is the POE option, the Stick Up Cam is about $100 while the Stick Up Cam Elite is about $200. So essentially with each camera you purchase you are paying double for POE.

With all that being said…POE is the future for security cameras. You are better off setting up POE cameras now instead of WiFi cameras which you likely will eventually upgrade to POE.

If you are ready to set up your Ring home security network, here’s a list of supplies:

• POE+ Switch (we didn’t get into POE vs. POE+ vs. POE++ in this post, but I recommend getting at minimum a POE+ Switch)

• Cat6 Ethernet cable

• POE Ring cameras

I did not include a modem or router since most people have it, but you can of course shop for these on Amazon as well.

The Biden administration recently announced a new proposed student loan repayment plan that, according to the Department of Education, will provide millions of borrowers with lower required monthly payments and increase the speed of student loan forgiveness.

Technically this proposal revises an existing plan, not an entirely new plan.

Let’s dive into what the details of the proposed new Biden student loan repayment plan.

Key Details of the New Biden Student Loan Repayment Plan

 
As I mentioned, the proposal does not create a new income-driven repayment plan, but changes an existing one, Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE). Including REPAYE, there are four income-driven repayment plans. You can see the details of each of the four plans here.

The revised edits to the REPAYE plan, which I am going to call “New REPAYE” from here on out, can be complicated at times.

Let’s start with the key points and then we’ll unpack each of them in more detail.

• The calculation for discretionary income will increase the federal poverty guideline factor from 150% to 225%

• Required payment will be 5% of discretionary income if debt is 100% undergrad (currently 10% or more for the four existing plans)

• Required payment will be between 5% and 10% of discretionary income if there is any grad school debt (we’ll walk through the calculation in a moment)

• Spousal income excluded when taxes are filed as married filing separately

• Interest will not accrue if a borrower’s monthly payment is so low that they it doesn’t cover the interest portion of the monthly payment

• Loan forgiveness will be between 10 and 20 years for undergrad only debt; if a borrower has any grad school debt, forgiveness will be after 25 years

• Parent PLUS loans will continue to be excluded as they were under existing REPAYE regulations; Parent PLUS borrowers will need to use the Income Contingent Repayment (ICR) plan instead

Now that we’ve covered the key points, let’s unpack them each a bit further.

Required payment calculation

 
There are a number of changes to how the required monthly payment is calculated.

The first one is the change from 150% to 225% of the federal poverty guideline factor when calculating discretionary income. Discretionary income is a key variable, since income-driven repayment plans use a percentage of discretionary income (currently 10% to 20% depending on the plan) to calculate the required monthly payment.

The discretionary income calculation is:
Adjusted Gross Income – federal poverty guideline factor = discretionary income

Let’s walk through an example.

A single individual living in Delaware who has no dependents would have a monthly federal poverty of $14,580. This is at 100% of the guideline. Currently REPAYE uses 150%, or $21,870. New REPAYE would use a factor of 225%, or in this case $32,805.

This individual has an Adjusted Gross Income, or AGI, of $50,000. (Note: AGI can be found on your tax return and excludes things like 401k or 403b contributions).

Under the current REPAYE plan their discretionary income is $28,130 ($50,000 less $21,870).
Under the New REPAYE plan their discretionary income is $17,195 ($50,000 less $32,805).

Now let’s assume that this individual only has undergrad student loans. Under REPAYE they would be required to pay 10% of their discretionary income, but under New REPAYE they would be required to pay 5%.

Under the New REPAYE plan their required monthly payment would be $72 ($17,195 * 0.05 / 12)
Under the New REPAYE plan their required monthly payment would be $234 ($28,130 * 0.10 / 12)

Needless to say, that’s a big difference. The combination of the higher federal poverty guideline factor plus the percentage of discretionary income being cut in half leads to this individual’s student loan payment going down to less than $100 a month.

Want to plug in your own numbers? Download our income-driven repayment calculator by entering your email below. We just updated it with New REPAYE in addition to the existing income-driven repayment plans.

What about grad school loans?

The above example was an individual with only undergrad loans. But what happens if someone has grad school loans?

A good starting point is this: in New REPAYE, a borrower with grad school loans will not need to pay more than 10% of their discretionary income towards their loans.

Well, this is no different than REPAYE, so is there any benefit for grad school borrowers?

The answer is yes, because of the increase in the federal poverty guideline factor, which doesn’t change depending on whether the borrower has undergrad loans, grad loans, or a mix of both.

They also will benefit in the sense that they will pay between 5% and 10% depending on the mix of undergrad and grad school loans.

Let’s say that a borrower has $50,000 in undergrad and $100,000 in grad school loans.

That means that 2/3, or 66.67% of their loans are grad loans.

You would take (33.33% x 5%) + (66.67% x 10%) to get to 8.3% as the percent of discretionary income that they will be required to pay towards their loans each month.

Spousal income excluded when taxes are filed as married filing separately

 
Currently on REPAYE, a spouse’s income is included in the calculation for monthly student loan payments even if you file your taxes as married filing separately.

This has caused some borrowers to switch to the IBR plan (Income Based Repayment) despite it requiring 15% of discretionary income instead of 10%.

New REPAYE changes this. With New REPAYE you are able to exclude your spouse’s income from the calculation as long as you file your taxes as married filing separately.

Interest will not accrue if a borrower’s monthly payment is so low that they it doesn’t cover the interest portion of the monthly payment

 
One of the biggest complaints about the current student loan repayment system is that borrowers can see their balance increase even after years and years of making payments.

Why this happens is because on income-driven repayment plans the required monthly payment may not cover all the interest, let along make a dent in the principal of the loan or loans. For example a borrower may be required to pay $1,050 a month on a standard ten-year repayment plan but on an income-driven repayment plan be required to pay $200. That $200 likely won’t cover the full interest portion of the $1,050 payment. If the interest portion was, say, $400, then $200 of interest ($400 – $200 = $200) would accrue and eventually be added back to the principal.

The New REPAYE fixes this problem. In the above example, the additional $200 of interest not covered by the $200 payment would not accrue.

Loan Forgiveness Implications

 
Changes to loan forgiveness timelines under New REPAYE will be impactful for some but minimal, if not entirely unchanged, for others.

• Loan forgiveness will be between 10 and 20 years for undergrad only debt; if a borrower has any grad school debt, forgiveness will be after 25 years

The easy aspect of this to get out of the way is anyone who has taken out any grad school loans. Their path to loan forgiveness will remain at 25 years, as it is under REPAYE.

For those with undergrad loans only, it’s a bit different. Here’s how it works:

• If a borrower took out $12,000 or less in loans, they will receieve loan forgiveness after making the equivalent of 10 years of payments.

• For each additional $1,000 borrowed above $12,000, the borrower would require one additional year of payments to receive forgiveness.

• No one who borrows only undergrad loans will need to make more than 20 years of payments to receive forgiveness.

With these rules in mind, an individual who took out $13,000 would need to make 11 years of payments, $14,000 would need to make 12 years of payments, and so on until you hit 20 years in which case that is the maximum number of years.

To be clear, this is for income-driven loan forgiveness. Public Service Loan Forgiveness, or PSLF, would still be on a 10-year timeline for all borrowers. Read more about PSLF here.

What else is in the proposal?

 
I focused on the key points here, but there are some other aspects of the proposal I haven’t touched on.

There are some changes to access to income-driven repayment plans for those who are in a delinquient or default status. The proposals here are all positive and move in the right direction. Because of the complexity of student loans many borrowers aren’t aware of all their options and could benefit greatly from moving into an income-driven repaymetn plan. That’s challenging for a borrower when they don’t even know income-driven plans exist.

There are a few proposed changes around what counts as an eligible payment, specifically focused on forbearance and deferment.

And perhaps the most notable thing I haven’t shared yet is that the administration would plan on phasing out new borrowers entering PAYE and ICR income-driven repayment plans, and make it difficult for a borrower to move from New REPAYE to IBR. IBR is written into law and therefore the administration is unable to fully limit access to it.

If you want to plug in your loans or a friend or family member’s loans to see what the paymennt would be under the New REPAYE plan, you can grab a copy of our calculator.

What’s next with the new Biden student loan forgiveness plan in 2023?

 
At this point the New REPAYE proposal is just that, a proposal. The Department of Education “expects to finalize the rules later this year and aims to start implementing some provisions later this year, subject to any changes made based on public comments.”

We will be closely watching this, the upcoming Supreme Court case on loan forgiveness, the ending of the COVID emergency order, and everything else impacting the student loan space. Subscribe to our email newsletter to stay up to date.

Student loans can be complex. Annoyingly complex. Even painful. All the emotions.

There is no magical way to get rid of them quickly, especially if you have a lot of them.

The one thing you can do, though, is feel in control. To do that you need to get organized.

The best way to get organized is by putting all your data in a spreadsheet.

So naturally you may be wondering how to track your student loans in a spreadsheet?

You’re in luck – I have a free student loan spreadsheet that you can download.

This spreadsheet will help you get a good overall picture of your student loans, but it goes further than that. It will also run an analysis on your loans for income-driven repayment plans, provides a few repayment calculators, and more.

Grab the student loan spreadsheet by entering your email in the box below, or scroll on to read more about the spreadsheet.

• Instructions on Where to Find your Student Loans – Whether you have federal, private, or state student loans, there are instructions on how to find the details of your student loans.

• Tracking Tab to House all your Student Loan Details – The most important part of the spreadsheet. This will be where all your student loan detail is laid out in a nice snapshot.

• Student Loan Repayment Calculators – Three different student loan calculators that help you visualize what sort of impact putting additional dollars towards your loans will have.

• Weighted Average Interest Rate Calculation – Simplifies various calculations by giving you one interest rate that can be used in all your student loan repayment calculations.

• Income-Driven Repayment Calculator – Shows your estimated monthly payment under the various income-driven repayment plans.

• Federal Poverty Guidelines – Helps with calculating income-driven repayment.

• Principal vs. Interest – Curious how much of each individual payment is going towards interest versus principal? This tool will help you visualize it.

 
Here’s more detail around the tabs you’ll find in the spreadsheet:

This student loan spreadsheet has so many features that a table of contents felt necessary. This helps you easily jump to different sections of the spreadsheet.

There are instructions within the spreadsheet on how to find all your student loans, regardless of whether they are federal, private, or through a State.

This main tracking tab within the file is the most important and is the one that you will update over time with your student loan information. When you initially populate it you will identify whether your student loans are federal, private, or state, what the interest rate is on each loan, what the principal balance is, and more.

There are three student loan repayment calculators:

• Standard Ten-Year Repayment – Enter your loan balance and your interest rate and this calculator will tell you what your monthly payment is under the standard ten-year repayment plan.

• Goal Payoff Date – Do you have a goal date that you want to pay off your loans by? Curious how much you’d have to put towards your loans each month to make it happen? This calculator will tell you.

• Goal Monthly Payment – Curious how much faster your loans will be paid off if you put an extra hundred, two hundred, or more, towards your loans each month? This calculator is for you.

Weighted Average Interest Rate Calculation

Most people have a number of student loans, but for various estimates and calculations you want just one dollar amount (your total student loan debt) and one interest rate. This calculator will help you find what your weighted average interest rate is, which then can be used in calculators like the repayment ones I described above..

Income-Driven Repayment Calculator

Curious what your estimated payment would be if you switched from the standard ten-year repayment plan to an income-driven repayment plan? This calculator gives you an estimate of what your new monthly minimum payment will be under the various plans.

Income-driven repayment plans can sometimes feel a bit complicated, as they factor in the federal poverty level, family size, and adjusted gross income. This tab will simplify that for you, allowing you to select from drop-downs to automatically run calculations that are used in the income-driven repayment estimates described above.

Have you been making payments towards your student loans for a while now but the balance doesn’t seem to drop much? If you’re on the standard ten-year repayment plan it’s because a greater percentage of your payment goes towards interest early on in repayment. This tab shows the detail behind the 120 payments and you can clearly see how the split between principal and interest changes over time.

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Get the Free Student Loan Spreadsheet

 
Ready to download the free student loan spreadsheet and access all the features? Simply enter your email below and we will send you a copy.

 
Remember, the first step to conquering your student loans is understanding them. The sooner you understand your loans and repayment options, the sooner you can put together a repayment strategy that fits with your life. No two situations are the same, and I encourage you to do what makes the most sense for your specific situation.

Feeling out of control with how much you are required to pay every month towards your federal student loans? Then you may want to consider other options.

For anyone with federal student loans, you have a few different choices when it comes to your repayment.

Income-driven repayment plans were created to help borrowers potentially lower their required minimum monthly student loan payment, making their required payment more affordable. Student loans are complicated, so think of this post as a an intro to income-driven repayment options.

Note – we don’t go into detail in this post, but there is brand new student loan repayment plan that was proposed by the Biden administration in January 2023. You can read all the details of this plan, which we are calling New REPAYE, in this post.

Types of Income-Driven Repayment Plans

 
When you start paying back your federal student loans, you are automatically enrolled into the standard ten-year repayment plan. This repayment plan assumes that it will take ten years to pay off your student loans, and will require you to pay a set minimum monthly payment. This payment doesn’t change from month-to-month – it remains constant throughout the ten years of your loan.

While the standard ten-year repayment works well for some people, it may not be an ideal fit for everyone. If your monthly student loan payments eat up too much of your take-home pay, you may want to consider an income-driven repayment plan.

The term income-driven repayment is a broad term that encompasses four different types of repayment plans. Each plan is a little different, and will be outlined in this post. Generally, with income-driven repayment plans, instead of paying standard monthly payments to your loan balance, the amount you will be required to pay is directly tied to your income (more specifically, your adjusted gross income as reported on your taxes). The idea behind this is to ensure payments are actually affordable for student loan borrowers.

Below are the four income-driven repayment plans, starting with the most favorable to least favorable:

• Pay As You Earn (PAYE)

• Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE)

• Income-Based Repayment (IBR)

• Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR)

Eligible Loans for Income-Driven Repayment Plans

Not all federal loans are eligible for income-driven repayment. Here is a summary of eligible loans for each plan:

PAYE: All Direct loans except Parent PLUS loans and consolidation loans that repaid Parent PLUS loans

REPAYE: All Direct loans except Parent PLUS loans and consolidation loans that repaid Parent PLUS loans

IBR: All Direct loans and FFEL loans except Parent PLUS loans and consolidation loans that repaid Parent PLUS loans

ICR: All Direct loans except Parent PLUS loans; Consolidation loans made after July 1, 20016 that repaid Parent PLUS loans are eligible

Note that private student loans and federal student loans that were refinanced through a private lender do not qualify for an income-driven repayment plan. If you have private student loans read this post for tips on how to best go about repaying them.

Here’s an overview of each repayment plan.

1) Pay As You Earn (PAYE)

 
Pay As You Earn, or PAYE, is the most favorable IDR plan. Monthly payments are capped at 10 percent of your monthly discretionary income, and there is an opportunity for loan forgiveness after 20 years of qualified payments.

You must have been a new borrower as of October 1, 2007 or had no prior outstanding loan balances and took out a new direct loan on or after October 1, 2011. If you are ineligible for this repayment plan, you REPAYE is a good alternative.

2) Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE)

 
The Revised Pay As You Earn, or REPAYE, repayment plan is the newest option for anyone seeking an income-driven repayment plan. It works similarly to the PAYE plan, except it doesn’t have the “new borrower” requirements that PAYE has. It does come with a “marriage penalty,” though; your spouse’s income is taken into consideration in the calculation of discretionary income. On the PAYE plan a spouse’s income is only considered if you file taxes jointly; you can file married filing separately to exclude their income from the calculation.

Loan forgiveness is possible after 20 years of qualified payments for undergrad debt, or 25 years if you are repaying any graduate debt.

3) Income-Based Repayment (IBR)

 
The Income-Based Repayment, or IBR, plan sets your monthly payments at 10% if you are a new borrower or 15% if you are not a new borrower. To be an eligible “new” direct loan borrower for IBR you must satisfy a couple of requirements: you have not taken out a federal direct loan prior to July 1, 2014 and have no outstanding balance on a FFEL Program loan when you receive a direct loan on or after July 1, 2014. If you are a new borrower you are eligible for loan forgiveness after 20 years of qualified payments, or 25 years if you are not a new borrower.

The biggest benefit of IBR is that FFEL loans are eligible, which isn’t the case on any of the other income-driven repayment plans. Granted you can create a direct loan by consolidating FFEL Program loans.

4) Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR)

 
The Income-Contingent Repayment, or ICR, plan, is the least favorable income-driven repayment plan. It caps your payments at 20% of your discretionary income and offers loan forgiveness after 25 years of qualified payments.

The biggest benefit of ICR is that it’s the only IDR plan that Parent PLUS Loans and consolidation loans that repaid Parent PLUS Loans are eligible for.

Is an Income-Driven Repayment Plan for You?

 
There are several benefits to income-driven plans. One of the most obvious benefits is that they allows for more affordable monthly student loan payments.

If you have a smaller income, a large amount of student loan debt, or both, you may be finding it difficult to pay your monthly student loan bill. While Income-Driven Repayment plans often cost more money over the long-run, it’s a better option than simply ignoring your student loans because you can’t afford the payments. Not making your student loan payments will eventually lead to default, which ultimately increases the amount of money that you owe. An income-driven repayment plan can help avoid default.

Depending on which plan you enroll in, you may be eligible for student loan forgiveness after 20 to 25 years if you make consistent, on-time payments. Just keep in mind, any remaining student loan balance that is forgiven will be considered to be taxable income and could result in a large bill come tax-time (something we commonly refer to as the “tax bomb”). With that being said, getting loans forgiven can be a big win. Student loan interest also doesn’t compound as long as you don’t have a capitalization event (i.e. switching income-driven repayment plans), so the actual debt you get forgiven will build up slower than, say, credit card debt, which has interest that compounds over time.

Finally, if you are working towards Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), an income-driven repayment plan is what you want to be in.

Understand your Student Loans using a Student Loan Spreadsheet

 
We have a free student loan spreadsheet that helps you organize all the details of your student loans in one place. This snapshot of your loans can help you determine what repayment plans you are eligible and what plans make sense.

You can download the spreadsheet in the box below, or read about all the features here.

If you have a Health Savings Account, or HSA, and aren’t using it to pay for medical epenxes, you are missing out on tax benefits.

As we explain in our Health Savings Account Guide, HSAs have a triple-tax advantage:

• Put Money in Pre-Tax – Contributions put into an HSA are not taxed. Meaning, your adjusted gross income on your taxes will decrease by the amount you deposit.

• Interest and Investment Gains are Not Taxed – Once your cash balance hits a certain threshold (i.e. $1,000, $2,000, etc.) you can shift any money above the threshold into an investment account. The investment gains are not taxed.

• Withdraw Money Tax-Free – When you withdraw money to cover a qualified medical expense you are not taxed on the withdrawal. In general a qualified medical expense is defined as an expense that pays for healthcare services, medications, or equipment. Clear-cut examples include a prescription you get at a pharmacy or a bill from a doctor visit.

At a minimum, it makes sense to deposit money into your HSA and reimburse yourself for qualified expenses so that you are paying with before-tax dollars.

So how much can you contribute to an HSA? For 2023 the IRS has set contribution limits for HSAs to $3,850 for an individual or $7,750 for a family. For those over the age of 55 there is an opportunity to contribute an additional $1,000.

Besides contributing to your HSA and reimbursing yourself for qualified medical expenses, there are a couple of other ways to optimize your HSA. You can read a more detailed explanation in our post 2 Hacks to Maximize your HSA Health Savings Account, but at a high level they are:

• Pay with a credit card, not with your HSA debit card – When you pay with your HSA debit card, you don’t receive any rewards like cash back or points. Use a rewards credit card that either provides you with travel rewards or cash back. You can view all the latest credit card sign-up offers here.

• Track your qualified medical expenses, then reimburse them years down the road from investment gains – What most people don’t realize is there is no time limit for reimbursing your expenses from your HSA. Meaning, if you incur a qualified expense in 2023, for example, you can reimburse it at any point in the future, even years down the road (you must have had an HSA when the expense was incurred for it to be eligible for reimbursement).

The benefit of tracking your medical expenses and reimbursing later on is that you can keep more cash in your HSA, which allows you to invest more money. Remember, the investment gains are not taxed, so you can keep building your investments tax-free.

Think of the alternative. If you reimburse yourself for a medical expense immediately from your HSA, that cash exits your tax-sheltered HSA account, and you miss out on all the tax-free investment gains.

HSA Medical Expense Tracking Spreadsheet

 
The best way to track your medical expenses is in a spreadsheet. That way you have a record of what expenses you’ve paid for but haven’t reimbursed from your HSA. Then at any point in the future you can reimburse yourself for some or all of the expenses in your spreadsheet.

Here’s my approach:

• Create a folder to store your receipts.
   
  Include the date and some sort of unique descriptor (e.g. 2022_12_15 Chiropractic Block of Care Robert).

• Add the expense to a tracking spreadsheet.
   
  In the first column, include the name of the receipt (e.g. 2022_12_15 Chiropractic Block of Care Robert). That way you can easily locate the receipt that aligns to the row. Remember, if you use the strategy of reimbursing yourself later on, you may need to go back years later – make it easy on yourself. Include other details in the spreadsheet such as what payment was used, the servicer/company you paid, cost, etc.

Instead of starting from scratch you can grab a copy of our free HSA medical expense tracking spreadsheet.

I included a couple examples in it to give you an idea of the type of details you may want to record. You can grab this spreadsheet for free by entering your email in the below form: