Your Student Loan Plan Just Changed—So Should Your Strategy

August 1 isn’t just another day on the calendar.

It’s the day interest starts accruing again for millions of borrowers. But for more than 8 million of us on the SAVE plan—including me and my son, Seth—the problem is much bigger.

Due to recent court rulings, the SAVE plan as we know it is ending. The low payments and interest pauses felt like a lifeline, but that safety net is gone.

Now, not only is interest back on, but every day we stay on the SAVE plan is a day that doesn't count toward forgiveness. The chickens are coming home to roost, and the pressure is on to make a new plan—fast.

👉 Watch the video: How Seth and I are rebuilding our student loan strategy.

If You’re Feeling Blindsided, You’re Not Alone

You probably have documents promising low payments on the SAVE plan. You may feel misled, and you have a right to. But recent legal challenges have changed everything.

Here's the new reality:

• Interest is growing: As of August 1, your loan balance will begin to grow again.
• You're losing time: As long as you remain on the SAVE plan, your months are NOT counting toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) or standard 20/25-year IDR forgiveness. You are losing valuable progress.

The trap is thinking you can wait this out. You can't.

Four Questions to Reset Your Game Plan

1. Does your cash flow account for new, higher payments? Switching to a qualifying plan like IBR or PAYE will likely increase your monthly bill.
2. Have you accepted that the old plan is gone? Sticking with SAVE is now the riskiest option for anyone seeking forgiveness.
3. Do you know the “endgame” for your loans? If you are aiming for forgiveness, your only path forward is to switch plans.
4. Is your strategy active or passive? You must take action now before your loan servicer makes a choice for you.

What Seth and I Are Doing

We sat down, ran the numbers in the new reality, and took immediate action. We chose to:

• Switch plans immediately. We used the Loan Simulator and applied to move from SAVE to the Income-Based Repayment (IBR) plan to ensure our payments continue to qualify for forgiveness.
• Automate the new payments. We are setting up automatic payments for the new, higher IBR amount so we don't miss a single qualifying payment.
• Revisit our budget. We are re-evaluating our monthly spending to account for this change.

Why? Because staying on the SAVE plan meant our loan balances would grow while our progress toward forgiveness was frozen. We had to take control.

Your Turn: Your 3-Step Action Plan This Week

1. Log into your loan dashboard on StudentAid.gov. Confirm your loan details and interest rate.
2. Use the official Loan Simulator. Compare your monthly payments on qualifying plans like Income-Based Repayment (IBR) and Pay As You Earn (PAYE). Do NOT stay on SAVE if you are pursuing forgiveness.
3. Apply to switch plans now. The application to change your IDR plan is on the StudentAid.gov site. Processing takes time, and you need to start making qualifying payments as soon as possible.

If you’re tracking toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF):

This is an urgent warning. The time your loans spend in the current SAVE administrative forbearance does NOT count toward your 120 qualifying payments. To resume making progress toward forgiveness, you must switch to a different qualifying Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plan, like PAYE or IBR. Waiting will only delay your forgiveness.

Talk with a financial advisor who can help tie your student loan plan to your larger financial goals. Freedom, peace, and security don’t come from waiting. They come from choosing to act on the best information you have right now.

👉 Watch our breakdown again, then build your new plan.

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