By Rosie Cima, Nerdwallet

The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet, Inc. does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments.

Thinking about changing jobs? You’re in good company. According to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans are staying in the same job for shorter periods of time than in the past.

The length of time you’ve worked for your current employer is called your job tenure. In 2014, the median job tenure – across all age groups, occupations and industries – was 4.6 years. In 2024, it dropped to 3.9 years. In fact, job tenure is now the shortest it has been in over 20 years.

Economists care about tenure as a measure of employment security and health of the labor market. And personal job tenure is important to workers because job changes often raise questions about personal finances and planning for the future.

Tenure Trends

The median job tenure generally got longer from the 1980s through the 2010s. From 2014, it started to recede. Women tend to have shorter tenures than men – a gap that was starting to close in the 2010s, but has since opened back up. And tenure increases with age, as people have generally spent more time in the workforce.

Tenure also varies by industry and current occupation.

On average, people in “management occupations” have stuck around the longest: 5.7 years. This makes sense, as one common path to management is when a company promotes a long-tenured employee into a supervisory role.

If your job tenure is dramatically above average for your occupation, that could be a sign that your job is a really good fit. But no matter how long you’ve been at your job, if you’re feeling unsatisfied, or think your future at the company is uncertain, you may be considering a change.

Consider the benefits of having more tenure

Changing employers could help you get paid what you’re worth. Wage growth is generally higher among job switchers, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

But many workplaces provide incentives to stay. Senior employees often get more PTO, access to development programs or more job security. Your time at a company can also translate into institutional knowledge and a level of respect among colleagues who haven’t been around as long.

Another benefit of seniority is the possibility of advancement. If you’re not fully satisfied in your current role, your employer might consider what they can do to keep you. Being prepared to walk away from a job is a very strong negotiating position, and may help you find a better role at the same company.

It’s unlikely that any single one of these things will make or break your decision to leave. But it’s a good idea to closely examine whether or not the potentially higher salary with a new employer is offset by fewer benefits or other tradeoffs.

Financial checklist when job switching

If you ultimately decide it’s time to move on, take steps to get your financial house in order before turning in your notice:

Do: Make a plan to support yourself financially

You might already have a new source of income lined up, or a job offer for a new position. If not, or if that new job doesn’t pay as much as the one you’re leaving, you’re probably going to want to budget for this transition.

This means taking a look at your spending, your savings and how much you expect to make in the coming months. Cutting back on your spending, even in modest ways, can buy you more time. When you’re job hunting, there’s a big difference between running out of money in six months versus running out in one.

Don’t: Forget about your retirement account

If you have a 401(k account, the most common kind of employer-sponsored retirement account, you can leave it where it is, roll it over to another account or cash it out early. Cashing it out is the least recommended option because it comes with hefty tax penalties.

If your employer contributes to your retirement account, you should nail down how much of your balance is yours for the taking. Your employer’s contributions might be yours to take with you (known as “vested”) only after a certain number of years with the company.

If you’re unsure of how much of your retirement account is your contributions versus your employers’ portion, or you’re unclear on your vesting schedule, talk with your human resources or finance department.

Do: Have a plan for health insurance

Figure out when your employer-paid insurance is going to end, and who will insure you after it does. Temporarily extending your coverage through COBRA is one of several options. Switching to a new insurer will reset your deductible, so if you’ve met or are close to your current deductible, now may be a good time to get any health care you’ve been putting off.

Do: Cash out your use-it-or-lose-it benefits

Some employers pay out unused PTO when you leave, but how much varies from job to job. If you have unused days that won’t pay out when you quit, now is the time to use them. If you have a flexible spending account (FSA), it won’t follow you to the next job. Find out when it’s going to expire, and then spend it before it does.

Don’t: Forget your HSA

Unlike an FSA, you can keep your employer-provided health savings account (HSA) after you quit. If you have a significant amount in the account – which you might, especially if you’ve opted to invest it – don’t lose track of that money. You can choose to leave your HSA where it is, or you can transfer the funds to a new HSA to consolidate.

Do: Get a good reference

When you give your notice, communicate clearly, cordially and professionally. Do your best to part ways on a positive note. Your last few weeks at a job are a good time to thank your coworkers and superiors for working with you, and to ask if they’d be willing to provide you with a reference in the future.

Rosie Cima writes for NerdWallet. Email: articles@nerdwallet.com.

The article Job Tenure is Down: What to Do Before You Quit originally appeared on NerdWallet.

By Kimberly Palmer, NerdWallet

Forget about workbooks and flash cards. Financial-themed videos, grocery store games and even escape rooms can be a better way to teach kids about money, according to the latest thinking from financial literacy experts.

“A lot of traditional curriculums were about the numbers,” says Noel Wilkinson, a program coordinator for the Take Charge America Institute within the Norton School of Human Ecology at the University of Arizona.

That can be a turn-off for some students.

“That led me to involve more play and gamification into workshops,” he adds, which led to greater engagement and, as a result, more learning.

Here are a few ways to make learning about money fun — and more effective:

1. Let kids practice and make mistakes

“I’m a big believer in experiential learning,” says Jessie Jimenez, an accredited financial counselor in Oregon and founder of the website Cashtoons.com, where she makes engaging videos about financial topics.

In other words, learning by doing — such as practicing buying items on a budget at the grocery store or keeping money safe while you shop. While it might be nerve-wracking to watch your kids handle real money, those kinds of experiences can actually help them learn.

Jimenez says she grew up feeling like she was not a “money” person or a “numbers” person, and it was only after she became a mother that she started focusing more on financial literacy.

“I thought, ‘How did I get this far without being taught personal finance management? Where is the resource for those of us who don’t want to listen to podcasts about investments?’”

The answer, she discovered, was that she had to create those types of experiences that allow kids to experiment with financial management on their own.

2. Invent money games

With preschoolers, many everyday experiences, such as saving money on groceries, can be turned into a game, Wilkinson says.

“It’s all about encouraging parents to learn through play with kids,” he says.

You could play “price detective” where you each try to find the best deal to save money on a specific item, for example, or you could play “restaurant” at home where your child takes your order and sets prices.

“Play creates a safe environment where you can make decisions and choices that don’t affect us in real life,” Wilkinson says.

You can experiment with choices and outcomes without fear, he adds.

Teenagers can graduate to more advanced games. Wilkinson and his team developed an escape room for teenagers in Arizona where they finish a budget for a character in order to solve a puzzle and get a key, for example. Even something simple like tracking savings visually on a chart posted in the kitchen can make the process seem more fun.

“The concept of gamifying learning in general has become widespread,” Wilkinson adds.

Video games like Animal Crossing, Railroad Tycoon and Atlas:Earth can also help teach teens and young adults about personal finance.

Buying digital real estate parcels in Atlas:Earth, a virtual real estate game, gives you hands-on insight into value and scarcity, says CEO and co-founder Sami Khan. Players can also earn cash back for various actions.

“The time between 20 and 30 is an important decade for compounding, so it’s important for people to learn about money early,” Khan says.

3. Make it fun

Whether you’re trying to teach price comparison at the mall or explain how kids can use their allowance, Jimenez says one key is to avoid calling the process “learning.” Instead, it should just feel fun, whether it’s a casual conversation in the car or a shopping trip.

“Don’t announce, ‘It’s time to learn!’” Jimenez cautions. “That turns it into a chore.”

She also suggests giving yourself some extra time for the shopping trip if you’re going to let your kid help you hunt for bargains.

“It takes a little longer and you have to be open to that,” she says.

Part of financial literacy is simply learning to explore your own feelings and habits when it comes to money, and learning to be intentional instead of impulsive about decisions, Jimenez says. Kids can learn those skills from talking to you and watching you in your own life.

Try talking out loud when making purchase decisions or opening bills and discussing what they mean. Explaining big purchase decisions like cars and vacations can also help with comprehension.

4. Recognize different learning styles

Wilkinson says some kids may be more drawn to learning through books and storytelling while others prefer video games, practical exercises at the store or a budget-themed escape room. One key to learning, he says, is to embrace the method that works best for you and to acknowledge that everyone is coming from a different place.

“Some folks just don’t have experience with financial literacy. Maybe they didn’t grow up in a household where parents talked about investing or building wealth,” he says.

In those cases, adults can learn alongside their children through books, games and other experiences.

“Even as adults we benefit from involving play in learning,” he adds.

With these fun approaches to learning about money, kids might become “numbers” people without even realizing it.

Kimberly Palmer writes for NerdWallet. Email: kpalmer@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @kimberlypalmer.

The article 4 Ways to Make Learning About Money a Blast originally appeared on NerdWallet.

With natural disasters and homeowners insurance costs making headlines, many homeowners may find themselves dwelling on “what-ifs.” In at least one area, turning that anxiety into action could help ease some concerns.

Too often, those facing an unimaginable loss aren’t aware of how insurance payouts work with mortgaged homes — or that they’ll need to work with their mortgage company as well as their insurer.

“When you have a family that’s just lost everything, they don’t have the mental capacity to take that on,” says Brittnie Panetta, a personal injury lawyer with Matthews & Associates who has worked with California wildfire victims. “You’re just trying to get back on your feet.”

Understanding this process before you ever need to can prevent adding stress to an already difficult situation. Here’s what happens to your mortgage if your home is destroyed, how you might have to work with your mortgage company, and the steps you can take now to ensure you’ll have the resources you need in the event of a disaster.

First steps

Even if your home is a total loss, “the mortgage still lives on, unfortunately,” Panetta says — and you’re still expected to pay it. That’s why, in the wake of a devastating event, one of the first calls you should make is to your mortgage servicer. The servicer is the company you make payments to, whether it’s your original lender or a different firm.

If you need the money you would have spent paying your mortgage to cover other immediate costs, you’ll want to ask about forbearance. A mortgage forbearance temporarily puts your loan on hold, allowing you to skip payments without facing late fees or damage to your credit score. Forbearance is temporary, and it’s not forgiveness — you’ll have to make up the missed payments. But the short-term relief it provides could be invaluable.

Even if you can continue making payments, you need to inform your servicer about what happened. In fact, most home loan documents require you to inform the lender or servicer. That’s because the company that holds your mortgage has a claim on your home. That relationship can influence what comes next.

Rebuild or pay off

Homeowners faced with a total loss have to make a difficult choice: Whether to use their insurance money to rebuild or pay off the mortgage.

“It’s really tough,” says Jennifer Beeston, a branch manager and senior vice president at Rate who worked with Tubbs and Camp wildfire victims in California. “This is a horrible, emotional time. But unfortunately, it’s also one of those times where really understanding the math, looking at your options, weighing pros and cons… is critical.”

Mortgage documents are often filled with complicated language about insurance and rebuilding, but it generally boils down to a few key points. As noted above, the lender must be notified of the loss. Later, the homeowner and lender have to agree on whether the insurance payout will go toward paying off the mortgage or rebuilding. If the homeowner chooses to rebuild, the rebuilt home needs to be comparable in value to the one that was destroyed — and the lender manages paying out the insurance money.

For many homeowners, signing over the insurance check to their mortgage servicer is an unpleasant surprise.

“That was one of the things that people were really angry about,” Beeston recalls of the Tubbs fire. “Because they don’t want someone controlling their money, which I understand, but that is standard across the industry.”

During the rebuilding process, the homeowner continues making mortgage payments. That can mean paying a mortgage for a home that’s unlivable while paying for other accommodations. Loss of use coverage, which is a standard part of most homeowners insurance policies, can help defray those costs; FEMA housing assistance may also help with this expense.

A homeowner who can’t afford to — or doesn’t want to — rebuild would need to use their claim funds to pay off the destroyed property’s mortgage in full. It’s important to know that insurance policies may pay out smaller settlements for mortgage payoff than for rebuilding.

“It’s becoming a less desirable option to just pay off the mortgage with these prices,” Panetta, the personal injury lawyer, says. “Your policy may say you’re insured for $500,000 if you want a payout, but up to a million if you want to rebuild. It’s a huge discrepancy in value.”

Planning ahead

While you can’t control when disaster strikes, you can put yourself in a better position to face it. There are a couple of key preparation steps you can take now.

Make sure you can easily access key information about your mortgage, like your loan details and the servicer’s contact information. In the past, that might have meant keeping these documents in a fireproof safe, but today, storing them in the cloud or a secure app is probably more handy.

Additionally, keep documentation of your budget or regular expenses. These figures may be needed if you have to file a loss of use claim, since that’s calculated relative to your normal expenses.

The second — and admittedly much more difficult — step is to reevaluate your homeowners insurance. If you have a mortgage, you’re generally required to have homeowners insurance. But you want to be sure your coverage would be enough to rebuild at market rates and that you have the disaster coverage you need.

Putting these pieces in place now can provide some reassurance that if the worst happens, you’ll have the resources to recover.

The article What Happens to Your Mortgage If Your House Is Destroyed? originally appeared on NerdWallet.

By Kimberly Palmer, NerdWallet

A financially-stressed Reddit user recently asked for advice: As the primary earner in their family, which includes two children, how could they keep up with a mortgage and other expenses once severance ran out?

Reddit users offered many helpful ideas. Filing for unemployment, looking for other forms of state assistance and finding a new job — even if it’s not perfect — were among the most popular suggestions.

When we asked financial experts how someone can best survive a period of unemployment, they echoed many of those same tips. They also emphasized the importance of budgeting, even before a job loss occurs.

Here are their strategies:

Cut back on all but the essential expenses

“Focus on your essentials, and cut that budget to as bare bones as possible,” says Danielle Byrd Thompson, a financial advisor with TPS Financial in Washington, D.C.

Thompson says using an online budgeting tool or budget app, which can help you stay on top of necessary expenses and uncover where you can freeze spending for the time being.

“What can be pared back without completely blowing up your lifestyle?” asks Lori Gross, a financial advisor at Outlook Financial Center in Troy, Ohio.

If you have multiple premium streaming subscriptions, for example, she suggests cutting them all except one basic subscription.

Lean on community resources

Local communities typically offer resources to people in need, Gross says, including food banks, crisis relief services and low-income assistance programs.

She encourages people struggling to pay for essentials to look up these kinds of local resources. The website 211.org can be a valuable resource to find nearby support.

Take advantage of hardship programs

In some cases, Thompson says, mortgage, phone and utility companies offer hardship programs that allow customers to temporarily pause payments when they are experiencing a short-term financial challenge, such as unemployment.

“Typically every provider has a plan,” Thompson says. She suggests calling, explaining your situation and asking about options.

While loan providers may also offer hardship programs, Thompson suggests first waiting a month to see if you really need to use it. After all, the debt continues to grow even if payments are temporarily paused.

“If you can afford to stick to the plan, then you should continue to pay, but if you can’t, pull back immediately,” she suggests.

Essentials like food and housing have to take priority if you are forced to make that difficult choice.

Earn income where you can

“No one is too good to bus tables, be a hostess or do food delivery,” Thompson says.

She suggests taking on these kinds of part-time roles to make money and fill the gaps before your next full-time position.

“It puts cash in your pocket so you’re not totally depleting your savings,” she adds.

If you do earn extra income, Gross says, be sure to keep careful records of both your earnings and expenses. When you file your taxes, it will be easier to make sure you’re paying the correct amount.

At the same time, indicate on LinkedIn and other job-search websites that you are available for work, Gross suggests. That way, recruiters can find you and reach out if they have an opening.

“Be open to your options, even if they’re outside your normal parameters,” she suggests.

For example, perhaps you’ll find a job opening in an industry you worked in many years ago, even if it doesn’t match up with your most recent job experience.

When possible, prioritize emergency savings

Once you find a new job, Thompson says it’s time to begin rebuilding emergency savings. In fact, the period of unemployment might inspire you to shore up savings for next time.

Ideally, she says, everyone should aim to set aside three to six months’ worth of living expenses in a high-yield savings account. If that figure is too daunting, then saving a smaller amount can also help.

“Savings are the first line of defense when it comes to unexpected unemployment,” Thompson says. “Even if you start saving only $20 a month, make it a habit, then build from there.”

Reddit is an online forum where users share their thoughts in “threads” on various topics. The popular site includes plenty of discussion on financial subjects like budgeting and financial hardship, so we sifted through Reddit forums to get a pulse check on how users feel about surviving periods of unemployment. People post anonymously, so we cannot confirm their individual experiences or circumstances.

Kimberly Palmer writes for NerdWallet. Email: kpalmer@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @kimberlypalmer.

By Rosie Cima, NerdWallet

Scraping together a down payment for a home is a challenge, especially in today’s housing market. But one persistent financial myth could be making it harder than it needs to be.

According to NerdWallet’s 2025 Home Buyer Report, 62% of Americans say that a 20% down payment is required to buy a home.

But that’s not the case. And since 33% of non-homeowners say that not having enough money for a down payment is holding them back from buying a home at this time, according to the survey, this misconception could be stopping them unnecessarily.

There are many reasons you might want to put down 20% or more of the purchase price when buying a home. But you don’t have to, and many options exist for lower-downpayment home loans. If you’re one of the 15% of Americans who the survey says plan on buying a home in the coming year, it could pay to know about them.

A surprisingly persistent myth

This myth prevails across the majority of age groups and educational levels. Even 60% of homeowners think a 20% down payment is required, according to the survey. This is surprising because the median down payment among all home buyers is under 20%, according to a survey conducted by the National Association of Realtors.

This myth has been with us for a long time — NerdWallet first asked about it in 2017 — and over the past couple decades homes have gotten much more expensive. In the 1990s, a 20% down payment on the average home sale was about 80% of the median annual household income. For the past few years, however, that same 20% down payment would require 100% or more of the median income. It’s not surprising, then, that the median down payment nowadays is 18% for all buyers and 9% for first-time buyers, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Loans with smaller down payments usually need special insurance

While a 20% down payment is not required to buy a home, smaller down payments often require a few extra steps. Lenders issuing conventional home loans typically require private mortgage insurance (PMI) if the down payment is under 20%.

PMI protects the lender by offsetting the additional risk a lender takes when it accepts a smaller down payment. If you stop making payments on the loan, this insurance can pay out a portion of what’s still owed to the lender. That said, if you default on your home loan, this insurance doesn’t protect you at all; defaulting will hurt your credit and put you at risk of foreclosure.

PMI is usually paid as part of your monthly mortgage payment; with a conventional mortgage, you can request the lender cancel it when you reach 20% equity on your home.

How low can you go?

The lowest down payment that lenders actually require depends on the kind of mortgage you’re getting. For example, Fannie Mae HomeReady and Freddie Mac Home Possible offer eligible buyers conventional mortgages with a 3% down payment.

FHA loans, backed by the Federal Housing Administration, can have down payments as low as 3.5%. USDA loans for people who live in rural areas, VA loans for veterans and some others require no money down (also known as a 0% down payment). However, in addition to mortgage insurance, these low-downpayment mortgages can have other upfront fees.

Down payment assistance programs — often grants or loans from government agencies — can also help cover some upfront costs of home ownership.

Larger down payments are still good, if you can afford them

That said, there are many benefits to larger down payments. The more money you put down, the less you’re borrowing — which means it’ll be easier to pay off, in smaller payments or over less time. A down payment calculator can help illustrate this.

A larger down payment might also be able to get you a lower interest rate. And putting more money down also means owning a larger share of the home’s equity right away. While a mortgage is debt, the equity you actually hold in the home is an asset.

While larger down payments are better for many reasons, they are not required to buy a home. And a lower down payment can leave you with more savings on hand. Having money set aside for unexpected expenses is especially important once you’re a homeowner.

By Eliza Haverstock, NerdWallet

President Donald Trump has vowed to dismantle the U.S. Education Department, which oversees federal student financial aid. There are reports that members of Elon Musk’s Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) team have accessed financial aid data containing the personal information of millions of students enrolled in the federal student aid program.

These developments may sound the alarm for student loan borrowers. But for now, there’s no need to make dramatic changes to your student loans.

“We have to engage in the process that currently exists…we don’t have any guidance that suggests we should be doing things in different ways,” says Wil Del Pilar, senior vice president at EdTrust, an advocacy and research organization that works to dismantle racial and economic barriers in the American education system.

Education Department spokesperson Madison Biedermann declined to comment on whether Musk and DOGE had accessed a financial aid dataset, as reported by the Washington Post. She directed NerdWallet to a Jan. 20 Executive Order that allows DOGE teams to install in federal agencies within 30 days.

Borrowers can’t control what President Trump tries to do to student loans or the Education Department. But you can take these steps, now, to protect yourself.

Download your loan information

Take a few minutes to screenshot or download every bit of information from your studentaid.gov account. Having a paper trail of your payments and loan status can protect you if issues arise with the Education Department’s website or if your servicer makes an error.

“We have seen some data disappear from different [government] sites, and entire web pages kind of no longer exist,” Del Pilar says. More than 8,000 government pages have been taken down in the past week, according to The New York Times.

For borrowers, this is “always a good practice anyway,” says Daniel Zibel, chief counsel and cofounder of Student Defense, a policy research, litigation and advocacy group that aims to protect students and promote higher education access. “Just to play it safe and make sure that they have the documentation they may need down the road….there’s really no downside to going in and just making sure that you have sort of archived all of your information from the department.”

Take screen grabs of anything that verifies your past payments, including the number of eligible payments made toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) or Income Driven Repayment (IDR) forgiveness, says Del Pilar. Print these records out, if possible. You can use them to file a student loan complaint if any issues arise that your servicer fails to resolve.

Borrowers should also download their complete repayment history. To do so, click “My Aid” on the bottom-right of your studentaid.gov dashboard. Next, click the blue “Download My Aid Data” button in the top-right corner.

Here’s what else you should download:

• If you are enrolled in an IDR plan. A new payment count tracker will appear on the right-side of your dashboard in a module called “IDR End of Payment Term.” From here, click “View IDR Progress” for more details.
• If you are not currently enrolled in an IDR plan. Click the “view details” button in the middle of your dashboard. This will take you to a page with your loan details. On the right-hand side, you’ll see a module labeled “Interested in IDR Plans?” Click “Learn More” and scroll down. You’ll see tracker modules explaining how many qualifying payments you’ve made so far and how many payments you’d have left under various IDR plans.
• If you are on track for PSLF. Screenshot any information about your payment history progress toward forgiveness through the government’s PSLF help tool.

“Just as a consumer of any sort of financial product, you should be as informed as possible. Keeping your own records and cross-referencing that with what you can find on the online portal through your servicer is probably your best bet,” says Beth Akers, senior fellow focused on the economics of higher education at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank.

“That’s not necessarily because I believe that there’s any reason to think that this intervention that’s happening now is going to corrupt any data, but rather, just because I think that that’s good practice at any time,” she says.

Change your passwords and monitor your credit

The nature of DOGE’s reported access to financial aid datasets remains unclear, but you can still be cautious.

“We don’t know what data has been accessed, and we don’t know with what intent,” says Del Pilar. “I would suggest taking the steps you would take if there was a data breach that occurred for any account that you have.” (Education Department spokesperson Biedermann says there was no “data breach” nor any concern of a data breach.)

On Feb. 7, the Student Defense joined the University of California Student Association and Public Citizen Litigation Group to sue the Education Department for sharing confidential student data with DOGE. The lawsuit alleges the department violated the Privacy Act of 1974, which makes the improper disclosure and misuse of sensitive personal and financial information unlawful.

Akers says previous presidential administrations have appointed temporary government workers like Musk and DOGE, and she says she is not concerned about any additional security concerns to student aid data from DOGE.

“The idea of government employees having access to this data seems appropriate to me,” Akers says.

But to be safe, Del Pilar suggests changing your passwords on studentaid.gov and your student loan servicer account, and monitoring your credit report and other financial accounts for any suspicious activities or credit inquiries. If anything looks amiss, “I would strongly recommend placing a security or security freeze or fraud alert on your credit reports,” he says.

Make payments as usual

If your loans are in good standing, continue making your monthly payments when they’re due and follow existing regulations.

Don’t try to undertake a new student loan repayment process, because we don’t have a new process defined, Del Pilar says.

Student loan forgiveness programs like PSLF and IDR forgiveness are written into law, and changing or eliminating them would require an act of Congress. Although Trump has spoken out against loan forgiveness, these programs have historically had bipartisan support. Former President George W. Bush, a Republican, signed PSLF into law in 2007.

However, new relief programs implemented by former President Joe Biden are likely off the table, Akers says. These include the SAVE repayment plan, the temporary PSLF waiver and the one-time IDR waiver.

“I would sort of rewind to when you took out the loan and what you anticipated repaying at that time. And that’s probably where we’re going back to,” she says.

Stay informed and get help if you need it

Your servicer must inform you of any concrete changes to your student loan situation. Make sure your contact information is up to date in your student loan servicer account.

If you need student loan help, start by calling your servicer. If that doesn’t resolve your issue, Del Pilar suggests contacting the student loan ombudsman’s office or attorney general in your state.

Borrower advocacy nonprofits such as The National Consumer Law Center’s Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project, the Student Borrower Protection Center and The Institute of Student Loan Advisors also provide reliable information and assistance to borrowers.

(Historically, if you had a serious student loan complaint or issue, The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Education Department’s student loan ombudsman office were two other key resources. But both of those government agencies are now under threat.)

What’s ahead for the Education Department?

President Trump could sign an Executive Order aimed against the Education Department in the coming days. However, he does not have the legal authority to completely dissolve the department.

“It’s certainly something that cannot be done without Congress, and any executive order to shut down the department would be unconstitutional, in our view,” says Zibel. Closing the department could negatively impact Pell Grants and other grants for low-income students, federal work-study programs, the student loan repayment process and the ability of students to take out loans in the first place, he says.

Even if the White House can’t shut down the department, it can still try to starve it of funding and cripple its ability to function properly, Del Pilar says.

If the Education Department does shut down completely, the government will likely prioritize moving its Federal Student Aid office to the Treasury Department or the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Akers says.

Until then, it’s still largely business as usual for your student loans. Make personal financial decisions with the information in front of you today, rather than speculate about what might happen with the government.

“We really don’t know what the administration is going to actually do,” Zibel says.