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Dr. Tony Bartels and Dr. Rebecca Mears on the latest student loan news

UPDATE: The proposed debt relief is blocked while legal challenges make their way through the courts.

Listen in as Executive Director Jordan benShea chats with student debt expert and Board Member Dr. Tony Bartels and the newest student debt team member Dr. Rebecca Mears in this next installment of our Student Debt Series.

In this episode we’re discussing the latest news of student loans and covering these four topics:

  1. Student Debt Relief Application/Status
  2. Consolidation – Should you? Why? When?
  3. PSLF Limited Waiver
  4. Bonus – upcoming changes

As always, we want to hear from YOU. Please share your thoughts by sending an email or joining the conversation.

 

GUEST BIO:

Dr. Tony Bartels
Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA graduated in 2012 from the Colorado State University combined MBA/DVM program and is a VIN Foundation Board Member and Student Debt Expert, and an employee of the Veterinary Information Network (VIN). He and his wife, a small-animal internal medicine specialist practicing in Denver, have more than $400,000 in veterinary-school debt that they manage using federal income-driven repayment plans. By necessity (and now obsession), his professional activities include researching and speaking on veterinary-student debt, providing guidance to colleagues on loan-repayment strategies and contributing to VIN Foundation resources. Beyond debt, his professional interests include small- and exotic-animal practice. When he’s not staring holes into his colleagues’ student-loan data, Tony enjoys fly fishing, ice hockey, camping and exploring Colorado with his wife, Audra, and their two rescued canines, Addi and Maggie.

Dr. Rebecca Mears
Rebecca Mears, DVM is from Lexington, KY, where she completed her BS at University of Kentucky. She is a graduate of University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine. While in vet school, she served as the National Business Certificate Director for the Veterinary Business Management Association (VBMA) and as a board member for Vets for Pets and People. During this time she took an active role in wellbeing awareness and access within the veterinary community. Rebecca then worked as an equine general practitioner and has been an active AAEP member. In her time away from veterinary medicine, she can be found hiking, baking, and hosting impromptu dance parties. She is passionate about giving back to the profession and improving the lives of veterinarians, pre-vet and vet students.

 

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TRANSCRIPT

Intro

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: So we’re talking about the Student Debt Relief Application and status. We’re talking about the one time cancellation benefit that was announced this past August by the administration where you could have up to $20,000 of eligible federal student loans cancelled, if you meet certain income thresholds. If you received a Pell Grant at any point in your college history, then you would be eligible for that $20,000 cancellation limit. The application is live. On studentaid.gov, you can find the relief application and everybody who meets those income thresholds should submit an application.

Meet The Host and Guests

Jordan Benshea: That is student debt expert and VIN Foundation Board Member, Dr. Tony Bartels with Dr. Rebecca Mears. And this is the VIN Foundation’s Veterinary Pulse Podcast, Special Student Debt Series. I’m Jordan Benshea, Executive Director of the VIN Foundation. Join me as I talk with veterinary colleagues about critical topics, and share stories. Stories that connect us as humans as animals as a veterinary community. This podcast is made possible by individuals like you who donate to the VIN Foundation. Thank you. Please check the episode notes for bios, links, and information mentioned. We’re back again for another episode of the VIN Foundation’s Veterinary Pulse Student Debt Series. And we are here with VIN Foundation Board Member and student debt expert Dr. Tony Bartels and student debt education team member as well, Dr. Rebecca Mears to talk about the latest in student loans. Welcome Tony and Becca.

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Thanks again for having us Jordan. 

Jordan Benshea: We love doing these.

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: I love doing them too, but there’s so much to cover. I just hope that it helps. 

Jordan Benshea: Yeah

Rebecca Mears, DVM: It’s always an exciting, fun-filled time.

Jordan Benshea: Well, hopefully, if nothing else, we’ll make it a little less confusing. So there’s a lot to cover. 

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: That’s the goal.

Jordan Benshea: Yeah, that’s the goal, right?! Let’s dive right in. 

Episode Overview and Main Topics

Jordan Benshea: Today, we’re going to be focused on four main topics that we’re going to touch on in this episode. So the first is Student Debt Relief Application and status. The second is Consolidation:Should you? Why? When? The third is the PSLF Limited Waiver that was due on October 31, and to explain the dates when it was due, what more information if somebody’s waiting for information, what to do next. And then number four is the bonus round for upcoming potential changes. 

Student Debt Relief Application and Status

Jordan Benshea: Let’s start off with number one, and let’s start talking about the Student Debt Relief Application and status. This has been in the headlines a lot lately because it appears that it’s been held up in court, what’s going on? What’s the latest?

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Yeah, so we’re talking about the Student Debt Relief Application and status. We’re talking about the one time cancellation benefit that was announced this past August by the administration where you could have up to $20,000 of eligible federal student loans cancelled if you meet certain income thresholds. And if you received a Pell Grant at any point in your college history, then you would be eligible for that $20,000 cancellation limit. The application is live. On studentaid.gov, you can find the Relief Application and everybody who meets those income thresholds should submit an application. The applications are being collected, but the processing of them is held up by a court case that the outcome could be settled any day now. Right. So there’s kind of a pause on the administration’s ability to cancel any amount of student debt while the court hears these arguments. And they’re going to decide next whether or not the plaintiffs have standing. If they decide yes, and they put an injunction on that, that will prevent them from canceling these student loans while they hear the rest of those arguments. Or they’re going to throw that out and say look, you don’t have standing and the administration can go forward and cancel these pending any other cases that might work their way through the court. So we’re kind of waiting, and again, it could be today, it could be next week, it’s kind of any day now we’re going to get some clarity on that. As soon as the administration has any window of opportunity, it sounds like they’re going to go ahead and start processing the roughly, I think 16 million applications that they’re sitting on as of the last count that I saw.

Jordan Benshea: Okay, I mean we will just hope for the best with that, because obviously a lot of people are depending on that. It almost felt like a false hope for a quick moment there. Right? Because everybody’s thinking, “Oh, great”, you know, but it’s not, it’s obviously now in the courts, so the hope is that it’ll turn out positively right?! But I can imagine there’s a lot of frustration, because it just is like, oh my gosh, potential, you know, excitement and relief there, and then just kidding, we’re gonna pause for a minute and just hold there. And let’s just hold and make sure it works out well, right?

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Well, the best you could do is put yourself in a position to be eligible for it if and when it happens, right?! The best way to do that is to know your loan types, know if you have a tax return that shows them adjusted gross income that are underneath the income limits, which is 125,000 for individuals, and 250,000 for those who are married and filing jointly. So again, a 2020 or 2021 tax return that shows an income number that’s under those limits, then go and apply, right. Go and apply so you have your name in the queue, so if and when it happens, you can have that cancellation process effect, if that goes through. Now, we did have also, there was a brief window there where folks with privately held federal student loans, so these are the old Federal Family Education Loans, you may have those in your portfolio if you were in college at any point before July 1 of 2010. If you have the privately held version of those, those are not eligible for this cancellation unless you consolidated them by September 29 of 2022, right. So that was another, you know, I guess, chaotic moment there, where it sounded like, hey, even these folks that had these privately held FFEL Program Loans could be eligible for this cancellation, and then they closed that window relatively quickly, because again, that was a sticking point for some of the lawsuits that had been making their way through the courts once this was announced.

Jordan Benshea: And what if people have submitted an application for consolidation, but it hasn’t yet been processed?

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: As long as they submitted it prior to that September 29 deadline that was kind of secretly announced when it was announced, even if it hasn’t processed yet, you would still be eligible for that cancellation, if that cancellation happens, and once your consolidation goes through, right. So, there have been some people that have reported, they’ve, you know, they’re waiting on that consolidation to happen, and they’ve submitted their application for the relief, I would go ahead and submit another application for the relief once that consolidation processes, but because there’s been so much interest and so many consolidation applications that have happened since this benefit was announced in the summer, there’s quite a backlog and consolidation has been taking 30, 60, even 90 days to process. So you may just have to wait a little bit, and then once that consolidation does process, I would submit that application for relief again, even if you’ve already submitted it.

Jordan Benshea: And we get this question all the time. So I’m just going to cover it, which is, how do I know what type of loans I have? You can download your student aid file and upload that into the My Student Loans or the Student Loan Repayment Simulator and get your loan information that way as well.

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Right, that’s on the VIN Foundation Student Debt Center. So the VIN Foundation Student Debt Center, if you go to the My Student Loans page, we have video tutorials on how to find your student aid data file, and then you can upload it in there. We have algorithms that will tell you and there’s pop ups that will show you whether or not you have these privately held student loan types versus the federally held student loan types. It will also show you if you have a Pell Grant, right, so a lot of people forgot because it’s been eons since you may have received that. Whether or not you have a Pell Grant in your history, then you know whether or not to expect the $10,000 or cancellation versus a $20,000 of cancellation,

Jordan Benshea: And all those links that we mentioned in this episode, of course, every link that we mentioned will be in the episode notes, along with that link to the VIN Foundation Student Debt Center My Student Loans. 

Consolidation: Should You?

Jordan Benshea: Okay, number two, consolidation:should you if you haven’t already?

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: So we’ve talked a lot about consolidation already in terms of the Student Debt Relief Application, and now people are wondering, well, if I didn’t meet that September 29 guideline and I have these privately held student loan types that aren’t eligible for that cancellation benefit, then why should I consolidate now? And it’s because there are other benefits that are available besides that one time cancellation benefit, right, and one that I think is actually a bigger deal than that 10 or $20,000 cancellation is this one time forgiveness count adjustment. So the way the student loan repayment system has traditionally worked when these income driven plans have come online, is that you choose an income driven plan, that income driven plan has a maximum repayment period based on the plan that you chose, and you make payments for that number of years, and if you still have a balance remaining at the end of that maximum repayment period, that remaining balance is forgiven and treated as taxable income, potentially, depending on when forgiveness happens. 

One-Time Forgiveness Count Adjustment

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: The one time forgiveness count adjustment kind of throws all that out the window, right. So for a brief period, they’re going to go back and count any repayment time and even some deferment and forbearance time as eligible forgiveness time, even time that predates most of the income driven repayment plans. So this is hugely beneficial for anyone who has those older FFEL Program Loans or even older direct loans that have been in repayment for 15, 20, 25, 30 years. So if you eclipse the 25 year threshold for graduate student loans, like veterinary school loans, then you’re in line to have your remaining balance forgiven, right. But that’s only going to be granted on these federally held loans, and the farther we go back in time, the more people have, or more people are likely to have those privately held FFEL Program Loans. So if you have those privately held FFEL Program Loans, you want to consolidate them before May 1 of next year, in order to be considered for this one time forgiveness count, and you could see your remaining balance either automatically forgiven if you’ve met that 25 year repayment threshold, or forgiven shortly after that, if you’re kind of knocking on the door of that 25 year repayment threshold.

Rebecca Mears, DVM: And for those people that are knocking on the door of that 25 year repayment threshold, there’s another benefit that’s been made in the last couple of months as well due to the pandemic forbearance, is that correct Tony, about taxable forgiveness?

Tax Implications of Loan Forgiveness

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Right, so, and this is where if you’re really close or already set to receive forgiveness, a couple of years ago, Congress passed a tax exemption on student loan forgiveness. So if you experience any kind of student loan forgiveness, whether you work for a nonprofit or not, any kind of student loan forgiveness, whether it’s this special cancellation or you already have met the 25 year repayment threshold, either this year or all the way up through the 2025 tax year, any student loans that are forgiven between 2021 and 2025 tax years is exempt from federal income taxes. Now, if you live in a state that treats cancelled debt as income, you may still have to pay state tax, but those are few and far between, right. So there’s a handful of those states that are contemplating whether or not they should tax that, even though it’s exempt from federal taxes, but it’s a huge benefit to have any remaining student loan balance canceled and not have to pay federal income taxes because federal income taxes are much higher than any state income tax anyway.

Jordan Benshea: So should we answer the question, should you consolidate?

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Yeah, so if you have it, yeah, absolutely. 

Consolidation Process and Benefits

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: So if you have those older, privately held FFEL Program Loans then yes, absolutely consolidate. Now, some of you are going to, and many of you have already, are like, “well, I’ve got a really favorable interest rate on some of my older loans, I really don’t want to consolidate them because I’m afraid that the interest rates are going to go up”. And your interest rate may go up a little bit, but not a lot, right. So depending on the discounts you have baked in there for making payments for good, you know, good behavior essentially, right. So if you’ve made a series of years of on time payments, you may have some interest rate discounts. If you’re using auto pay, you might have some more interest rate discounts, but those interest rate discounts don’t hold a candle to potentially having your loans forgiven and not having to pay a tax if that forgiveness happens between now and 2025, right, and even if it happens in 2026 or 2027, you know, that having your student loans gone outweighs paying a little bit more in interest potentially, right. So the way that the consolidation treats your interest rate is a weighted average interest rate calculation, so it’s not a market base rate. I mean, there’s a lot of talk out there in the news about how interest rates are going up and mortgage rates have never been higher than they have in the last, you know, 10 or 15 years, that has nothing to do with your student loans. Your student loans will calculate a weighted average or so, based on your statutory interest rates for your current loans, they will calculate a weighted average and round it up to the nearest 1/8 of 1%, and you’re still eligible for a .25% interest rate discount if you enroll in autopay once repayment restarts. So your interest rate is not going to change all that much, and, you know, I would hope that you would not use that as a reason not to consolidate and give up these potential forgiveness benefits that are on the table right now.

Rebecca Mears, DVM: If I’m a borrower that has some of those older FFEL Program Loans, is there a way for me to kind of check out and see what my interest rate would be for that if I were to go through with that consolidation?

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Sure. So, probably the easiest way to do that is to obtain your student aid data file, and upload it into the VIN Foundation Student Debt Center My Student Loans tool because we calculate a weighted average interest rate for you, so you can get a glimpse of what that might be, because the data that’s in your file is what’s called your statutory interest rate, so it’s the interest rate without any discounts. So you can see that information there, you can also start stepping through the consolidation application. So on studentaid.gov, under the consolidation page, you can start the consolidation, and when you log in, it will pull in any eligible federal student loans you have that can be consolidated. And it’ll show you your weighted average interest rate, and you could step through that process pretty far before actually submitting the application. So if you see anything in there that is scary or unexpected, you could feel free to come back to the VIN Foundation’s Student Debt Message Board area and post your questions there, and we can talk more about what to expect during that consolidation in terms of your weighted average or any other questions that pop up.

Jordan Benshea: And when do colleagues need to apply for consolidation to get the full benefits?

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: By May 1st 2023 in order to have your loans considered under this one time forgiveness count adjustment, but I wouldn’t wait until the last minute, right, I would do that sooner rather than later. And if you do it actually, you know sooner as in now sooner, you may actually still benefit from some of the pandemic forbearance benefits, which have no payment, no interest through the end of this year, at least right? Provided they don’t extend that again. But you might still benefit from that pandemic forbearance benefit as well.

Choosing a Repayment Plan

Jordan Benshea: All right, and next step is choosing a repayment plan, which is still part of this consolidation discussion. So how does the current news and updates change what we’ve told colleagues in the past?

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Yeah, so consolidation loans have a little bit different rules on the repayment plans. You can choose when you consolidate, and this has become a little bit more complicated, because we’re telling colleagues that have been out from school for some time now to consolidate their loans, and they may still have loan balances that are, you know, 30, 60, 80, more than $100,000. That’s what is called the standard plan, and is actually an extended repayment time frame. So most of these people that have loans from way back when, that had been paying for 15, 20, 25, 30 years, have already been using a standard or extended repayment plan anyway, right. That’s how they have those loan balances still. So when you choose a standard plan, it will actually extend it out by another potentially 30 years. It depends on the balance, but you know, most of the balances veterinarians are carrying put them into that higher timeframe balance and that can sound scary, right? 

Navigating Loan Repayment Options

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: I mean, I’ve already been in repayment for 20 years, and now you’re telling me to consolidate and I’m looking at another 30 years. Chances are, that’s you know, you’re not going to ride out that 30 year timeframe. Right now, ideally, if you don’t get forgiveness granted to you because you’ve already met the 25 year threshold, then you’re probably going to have some time left to make some qualifying forgiveness payments. Now this, as the name implies, right, it’s a one time forgiveness count adjustment. So once they adjust your forgiveness count, the amount of time that you’ve been in repayment that counts towards forgiveness, then those other plans you’ve been using, theoretically are no longer going to count towards forgiveness. Right. So in that case, once that count is complete, your loans are going to need to use some kind of forgiveness eligible repayment plan going forward, and those are the income driven plans and a standard 10 year monthly repayment plan. Right. 

Choosing the Right Repayment Plan

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: So when you’re going through the consolidation, you’re going to see some options for you to choose from, right, so Income Contingent Repayment, that’s an income driven plan that you’ll have access to. Income Based Repayment, another income driven plan you’ll have access to. Revised Pay As You Earn, another income driven plan you’ll have access to. Now the standard plan, unless your total remaining balance is less than $7,500 will be something more than a standard 10 year plan. Right now, that by itself will not count towards forgiveness. But you can still choose that standard plan and then plan to switch or either make payments equal to that standard 10 year plan once that forgiveness count adjustment period is complete, presumably, after May 1 2023. 

VIN Foundation Resources and Support

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: So I know there’s a lot in there, and if you have questions again, that’s why we have the VIN Foundation Student Debt Message Board areas, to kind of step through this in more detail because once you start looking at your actual loan portfolio and start wondering, “well, how much forgiveness eligible time might I have?”, we can help you guesstimate that. “Well, what plan should I use going forward?” Well, that’s going to depend on what your loan balance is, what your taxable income is, what’s your marital statuses, family size, what state you live in, there’s a whole bunch of variables that will impact what is going to be that best repayment plan after this forgiveness count adjustment is complete, presuming you have any forgiveness qualifying payment time to still make after that.

Jordan Benshea: And we also have helpful blog posts, and there’s additional podcast episodes and webinars also that we will, all of those things will be linked in the episode notes as well to help you along with links to those message boards that Tony mentioned, and how to get student debt help as well. The third thing up…

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Absolutely. And make sure make sure you’re asking questions. 

Jordan Benshea: Yeah.

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Because this stuff has gotten, it is so hard to keep this stuff straight. Because there’s I mean, before it was confusing and now we keep layering on changes to what was already a confusing system. So it’s very, very difficult to, you know, find the pathway that makes the most sense for you. So ask lots of questions because everybody’s circumstances are so different.

Jordan Benshea: Yeah, and everybody’s circumstances are so different. I know that some people can be really concerned like, oh my gosh, I’m this much in debt, or I don’t know, or maybe this is a silly question. But there’s no silly questions, we’ve probably heard it before. Just know that you can also, even if you want to, you can post anonymously in the Student Debt Folder, and there is an option to just get help, like, we’re here to help. So if something is confusing, we try to make it as as simple as we possibly can of a very confusing topic with a lot of confusing information. But there’s definitely going to be things that we miss. So please reach out and, you know, ask the questions, as Tony said.

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: And I know that, you know, sometimes this stuff can seem so confusing that you just completely tune it out, but everything that we’ve described here is immense flexibility, right. And I say this all the time, but your federal student loans are the most flexible debt that you will ever have. So and I see it now, particularly with all these changes that have happened, there’s been a lot of veterinarians that have kind of come out of the woodwork that have graduated, you know, 10, 15, 20, 30 years ago, that still have student loans, and are just not very happy with where they are financially, and they point to their student loans, but your student loans are really not preventing you from doing anything. And there are usually, I mean, almost, you know, 99% of the time, there was always an option for you to make your federal student loan payment more manageable. So you can focus on all of those other financial wellness items that maybe you felt like you’ve been postponing because you’re trying to see your student loan balance go away first.

Jordan Benshea: Right, and that’s something that we really encourage through all the foundation student debt resources is our goal is to help you live a life while managing your student debts and not to have to eat Ramen every day. I mean, this is part of an overall financial wellness plan, right? And our goal is to make it to you know, make it so that your wellness is more balanced and not as stressed and that’s definitely our goal. So please ask those questions. 

Understanding PSLF Limited Waiver

Jordan Benshea: Third on our list is the PSLF Limited Waiver. This was due on October 31, and so if colleagues have submitted, what do they do now?

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Yeah, so the Limited Public Service Loan Forgiveness Waiver, really, again, kind of expanded what was originally meant to be an Eligible Public Service Loan Forgiveness Payment. So because of these older FFEL Program Loans that generally were not covered under Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and because people don’t have a great walking around knowledge of what kind of student loans they actually have, there’s been a lot of frustration with applying for Public Service Loan Forgiveness Credit, and not receiving it, because you had the wrong loan types, or maybe you were using the wrong repayment plan. This limited waiver, kind of threw all that stuff out the window again, kind of like the one time forgiveness count adjustment. So as long as you were working for an eligible employer that would have had you otherwise having a Public Service Loan Forgiveness Qualifying Payment after Public Service Loan Forgiveness went into effect, which was October of 2007, then regardless of your loan types, and regardless of the repayment plan you were using, and even counting some deferment or forbearance time, you could get credit, Public Service Loan Forgiveness Credit for any loan that was in repayment, after October 1 2007, while working for a qualifying employer. The trick again, is that you had to submit a Direct Consolidation Loan if you had those privately held FFEL Program Loans before October 31 of 2022, which just passed. Right. Now, even if you submitted the consolidation application on the 31st, and it hadn’t processed it yet, as long as you submitted that application and also submitted a Public Service Loan Forgiveness Employment Certification Form, you will still be considered under that limited waiver, even if it takes 90 days for your consolidation to process. Right. But if you didn’t submit that required paperwork, that consolidation loan if you needed to, and that Public Service Loan Forgiveness Employment Certification, whether that was electronically or via the handwritten form by October 31 of 2022, then the normal Public Service Loan Forgiveness rules will apply.

Jordan Benshea: All right. 

Upcoming Changes in Loan Repayment

Jordan Benshea: And then last but not least, we did tease a bonus upcoming changes discussion.

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Yeah, so two exciting things, one that we got a little bit more clarity on, and the second that we’re waiting for more clarity on. But the first one is the end of most unpaid interest capitalisation, and again, most of you who do not swim in this pool on a regular basis may not even know what that is, but it’s a really good thing. So when you’re using an income driven plan, or if you’ve been in deferment or forbearance for any length of time, you generally will accrue interest, when we’re outside of this bizarre special pandemic forbearance period that we’ve all been living through for the last nearly three years, interest accrues on student loans. And sometimes that interest or a lot of times that interest can get added to your principal. That’s a process called capitalization. The higher your principal balance is, the more interest that you accrue over time. What these new regulations are going to do starting on July 1 of 2023, is end any capitalization event that is not required by law. So it kind of gets into the weeds in terms of what does the law say? And when does it say must or shall versus can or you know may, right, but there’s a lot of opportunity there and a lot of flexibility that the administration is using to forego those capitalization events, which tend to increase people’s principal balance and give you that feeling of never gaining any ground. So entering repayment the first time, that interest will not get added to your principal. If you switch from one repayment plan to another in most cases, your interest will not be capitalized, unfortunately IBR if you switch from the Income Based Repayment Plan, by law, you have to have any unpaid interest capitalized. So that’s one we’re going to be talking about in the future that you probably want to avoid just because of that aspect of it, in certain cases, where it is avoidable, but that’s a whole can of worms for another discussion. But this is a really exciting change, right? Because capitalization has been a scourge on the Student Loan Repayment System for a long time, right. There’s, you know, capitalization is essentially a penalty every time it happens. So to eliminate a lot of cases where capitalization happens many times unknowingly by the person who has student loans, it will hopefully reduce that feeling of never gaining any ground and watching that principal balance continue to grow. The second one that’s exciting is the potential for a new Income Driven Repayment Plan, right. So that was announced with the cancellation benefits, and we don’t have any details on that yet, but generally, every newer Income Driven Repayment Plan has been a little bit more beneficial than the ones that have already been in place. So once we see some more details on what that income driven plan will look like, there may be some potential for many of us to move from our existing income driven plans into that new one, and theoretically, as long as we’re not moving from Income Based Repayment, specifically, we would not see our unpaid interest capitalized as part of that move, which traditionally has been the case

Jordan Benshea: If nothing else, it just helps keep us on our toes.

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Well, yeah, there’s gonna be a lot of chance, we’re going to have to make the decision later

Jordan Benshea: You guys know that we are always working on updating our resources. And we are definitely ready that this is definitely, maybe this is job security, I don’t know. 

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Oh man, geez, going to take a little bit less job security for a little more certainty and clarity on how all this plays out. But again, a lot of these changes are really designed to be beneficial, and so a lot of them are but it is difficult to know exactly how to make them the most beneficial.

Jordan Benshea: And that’s really why we’re here to help you guys. Anytime you want to reach out, have questions, post on the boards, just know that we’re here to answer all these questions. 

Outro

Jordan Benshea: And what else do colleagues need to know about these changes? Is there anything else you feel like we haven’t covered that you just want to touch on?

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Yeah, just make people aware that there’s a lot of blog posts on VINFoundation.org, that covers this. One of the most recent ones we have up there is Consolidation Confusion, which was what this is meant to really supplement that and kind of lay out a lot of the most frequently asked questions that we’ve been receiving as we help veterinarians navigate their options over on the Student Debt Message Board areas. So trying to break those down and just provide more clarity on how to best proceed going forward with your student loan repayment strategy, using the VIN Foundation Student Debt Center, the My Student Loans tool, the Student Loan Repayment Simulator, for Students, the In-School Loan Estimator, right, so interest is coming back, and it’s going to be higher than it has been in the past. So you’re going to really want to be careful about how much you’re borrowing. And we’ll probably be doing another podcast specifically for students when that interest gets turned back on, most likely on January 1 of this coming year. But that one’s on my radar as something to really watch out for, particularly for students that are in school now, and those that will be starting veterinary medicine, you know.

Jordan Benshea: That’s been a big shift for everybody not having to think about interest. I mean, we’ve got two classes now that have graduated. Right, three, three, yeah.

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Three, yeah, three.

Jordan Benshea: So a lot of changes. But we’re here to help. Becca anything else you want to add?

Rebecca Mears, DVM: I think I’d really like to just highlight what Tony was alluding to earlier about, you know, there’s help out there for your student debt, because I think that’s something that we hear so much from colleagues is it’s overwhelming. And, you know, none of the benefits apply to me, especially for some of our borrowers that have been paying for a number of years now. And I think now more than ever, we really see that there are some options there. And if you’re just completely lost and not sure how to approach this at all, that’s, you know, that’s what we’re here for right as you can reach out to the VIN Foundation Student Debt Team., and we’ll help guide you through that. And, you know, walk you through the tools and do a physical exam of your student loans on the message boards and everything. And we’ll help get you the answers that you’re looking for.

Jordan Benshea: Right? Yeah, we’re really here to help you guys. It’s literally it. Trying to just do a better job every day. Well, thank you so much, Tony and Becca, I really appreciate you guys being here again, helping colleagues and all of your tireless effort. I know that this has been quite the summer, let alone quite the many years, now a few years with all of these changes. And it takes a lot of hard work and effort. And you guys are putting in all the time. And we’re really grateful, and hopefully we’re making a difference in helping colleagues. And all of the things that we’ve talked about, as I mentioned will be listed in the episode notes, and we look forward to hearing from you and reaching out and helping you with your student loans. Thanks, everyone.

Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Sounds great. Well, thanks again for having us, Jordan.

Rebecca Mears, DVM: Thank you so much, Jordan.

Jordan Benshea: Thank you for joining us for this episode of The Veterinary Pulse. Please check the episode notes for additional information referenced in the podcast. If you enjoyed this podcast, please follow, subscribe, and share a review. We welcome feedback and hope you will tune in again. You can find out more about the VIN Foundation through our website, VINFoundation.org, and our social media channels. Thank you for being here. Be well.

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