The College Investor Audio Show

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Aug 2026

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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.

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August 20, 202610 min

Trump May Forgive Upwards Of $170B In Student Loan Debt

When voters think of student loan forgiveness, they often picture executive actions and legal battles . Under President Biden, student loan debt relief efforts dominated headlines, particularly after the Supreme Court struck down his broad cancellation proposal . But what you may not realize: The Trump administration could be on track to oversee one of the largest dollar amounts of student loan forgiveness in U.S. history, largely because of repayment programs already written into law. This projection is not about a new sweeping forgiveness plan. Instead, it reflects the mechanics of existing federal student loan programs (some dating back decades) that are now reaching maturity.

August 15, 20265 min

Nearly 92% Of U.S. Kids Qualify For The New $1,700 Federal Scholarship Tax Credit

An estimated 51.7 million children (91.7% of everyone eligible to enroll in a K-12 school) meet the income test to receive scholarships under the Education Freedom Tax Credit , the federal program launching January 1, 2027, according to a new report released Tuesday by the American Federation for Children. The analysis is the first state-by-state estimate of who can actually receive money from the program, built on Census population estimates, American Community Survey microdata, and HUD income limits. The credit was created as Section 25F of the tax code by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act , the same 2025 law that overhauled federal student loan borrowing.

August 14, 20267 min

OIG Report: Education Department Cut 40% Of Staff, Gutting Student Loan Oversight

The Department of Education's Office of Inspector General has put hard numbers on the Trump administration's push to dismantle the agency , and the findings for Federal Student Aid are stark: entire sub-offices responsible for overseeing loan servicers and certifying schools for federal aid were left with no employees at all. The report lands as the Department reverses course. FSA is now hiring roughly 380 workers back and held a two-day hiring fair in Washington, D.C. on July 21 and 22 to fill more than 100 open roles. The flash report covers changes to ED's staffing, operations, contracts, and grants between January 20 and March 31, 2025 - the window that opened with two executive orders directing agencies to prepare for large-scale reductions in force .

August 13, 20267 min

Senate Committee Advances Bill To Block Education Department Transfers

A bipartisan group of senators is moving to block at least some of the Trump administration's effort to dismantle the Department of Education . The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved S. 5046 on Thursday by a 13-9 vote , sending it to the full Senate. The bill, introduced July 21 by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) with Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), would bar the Education Secretary from offloading four of the department's offices onto other agencies. This comes a little more than two weeks after House Republicans sought to make the dismantling permanent with a series of 10 bills completely removing nearly all functions of the Department of Education .

August 12, 202613 min

Senate Bill Would Exempt State Student Loans From 2007 Scandal Conflict Rules

A bill moving quietly through the Senate would let colleges steer students toward state-run and nonprofit student loans without triggering the federal conflict-of-interest rules Congress wrote after the 2007 financial aid kickback scandal. Nearly two decades ago, investigators found that the people students trusted most to give neutral advice (their college financial aid officers ) were quietly working for the other side of the table. Financial aid officers held stock in the lenders they recommended. Lenders paid schools a cut of the loan volume they steered. Some financial aid offices let lender employees answer their phones. Because roughly 90% of families take whatever loan their school recommends , a single line on a "preferred lender" list was worth millions to a lender. It also cost borrowers real money, since the school's recommended option is not always the cheapest one . The cleanup produced settlements, resignations, congressional hearings, and eventually a permanent set of federal rules. This proposed law would change the rules back for a small slice of the private student loan market.

August 11, 20266 min

Student Loan Interest Elimination Act Gets Second Push as Defaults Hit $233 Billion

Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) held a press conference on Capitol Hill last week urging Congress to take up the Student Loan Interest Elimination Act (PDF File), which would set the rate on every existing and future federal student loan to 0%. The press conference marks the lawmakers' second attempt in 2026 to move the bill. Welch introduced S. 4169 in the Senate and Courtney introduced H.R. 8045 in the House back on March 24, 2026 , and neither version has advanced out of committee in the four months since. We covered that introduction when it happened. The renewed push arrives as federal default numbers reach levels the system has never recorded before.

August 10, 202612 min

Howard University Readmits 200 Of 502 Unenrolled Freshmen After Backlash

Howard University unenrolled 502 incoming freshmen on July 22, weeks before move-in. It has since readmitted more than 200 of them — a roughly 40% reversal of its own decisions. That number alone tells you the university got this wrong. These are families who had already committed to a school where the cost of attendance runs past $66,000 a year. The handling of this entire saga was worse than the decision. Students learned by email that they had lost seats they had spent years earning. Families could not get through by phone. The deadline Howard enforced does not appear on its public-facing pages, and the university's explanation has changed five times in nine days. For most families, paying the college bill is already the most confusing part of the process without a school moving the target. There is also a second thing that is true at the same time, and it matters for every family reading this: some of these students did miss real requirements, and checking your student account is your job. Knowing how to read your financial aid award letter (and what it does and doesn't guarantee) is part of that. Both things belong in this story.

August 8, 20269 min

You Insure the Phone, the Car, and the Spring Break Trip. Why Not the $30,000 Tuition Bill?

Think about everything your family pays to protect. The phone gets a protection plan at checkout. The car carries full coverage at an average of $2,237 a year , according to Insurify. Even the spring break trip gets travel insurance, which Forbes puts at 4% to 6% of the trip cost . Then tuition comes due (for many families, the largest single payment they ever make) and it goes out the door with no protection at all. If the semester falls apart in week six because of mononucleosis, a concussion, or a mental health crisis, most families discover the refund policy the hard way: there isn't one.

August 7, 20268 min

Waiting On Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Cost Borrowers Up To 43%, NBER Finds

Borrowers who believed the student loan payment pause would keep getting extended (or that their debt would be forgiven outright) cut their payments, spent more, and are now more likely to be delinquent , according to a new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper. Economists surveyed borrowers about their expectations during the pause and the 2022 forgiveness announcement, then linked those responses to credit bureau, employment, and spending data. The key finding: policy uncertainty itself changed borrower behavior, and the costs are still showing up in student loan debt statistics today.

August 6, 20266 min

SoFi’s SEC Filing Says Its Private Student Loans Can Be Discharged in Bankruptcy

SoFi Technologies told federal securities regulators that its private student loans can be wiped out in bankruptcy under certain conditions, a quiet admission that cuts against one of the most repeated lines in personal finance. The disclosure sits in SoFi's annual report (a Form 10-K filed with the SEC ) for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2025. In the Risk Factors section, the company warns investors that its " private education loans may be discharged in bankruptcy in certain situations ," including when a court finds the debt is not a qualified education loan or that repayment would cause undue hardship. SoFi adds that a private loan can also be discharged if the borrower dies or becomes disabled .