John interviews Robert Farrington, who runs the very popular website, CollegeInvestor.com, and is one of America's leading experts in understanding the full scope of student loan debt. On the show they talk about how we as a culture ended up at this point, with over $1.5 Trillion in student loan debt outstanding. Also, Robert shares some times for parents with kids who are thinking about college in the future and the strategies for understanding what money is available. As well as what post grads should do if they find themselves in a lot of student debt after college.

Episode Highlights:

• Robert Farrington talks about his background and why understanding student loans has been such a meaningful topic to him.
• How does Robert believe that we have arrived at this massive college loan debt problem?  
• What are some dos and don’ts for parents that have kids preparing to pay for college? 
• Set college financing expectations between parents and students early. 
• What are some ways to pay for college before loans? 
• College is an investment and we need to think of school as needing a return-on-investment.   There are alternative education options for students for whom college may not be an appropriate option. 
• Community colleges for the first two years can keep costs down. 
• Robert Farrington talks about FAFSA application process for scholarships and grants. 
• How should the average 25-30-year-old do to prioritize repaying their student loans?  
• Repaying your student loans is the best thing you can do. Your income will get better. 
• How should students approach the income-driven repayment plans?
• Take ownership over your college loan repayment strategy.  

3 Key Points:

1. There is almost $1.6 trillion dollars in college loan debt. 
2. Before taking out loans for college, first consider: parents saving, kids saving, college savings plans, scholarships, grants, work study programs and fellowships, 
3. Community college transfers are actually the highest graduation rate from a four-year college by like 10% more, with an almost 78% graduation rate. 

Tweetable Quotes:

• “I started the College Investor when I was done with college. I really wanted to talk about investing and other money topics. But then I was one of these student loan borrowers that started having issues.” – Robert Farrington
• “As long as there is the ability to borrow limitless dollars to pay for college, colleges can raise the price to pay for things and pass that cost onto students.” – Robert Farrington
• “By the time they are in 9th or 10th grade, they should have a clear picture on what mom and dad are going to pay for college and what is expected of them.” – Robert Farrington

Resources Mentioned:

• Linkedin: John Chapman
• Robert Farrington: Linkedin
• The College Investor: thecollegeinvestor.com
• StudentLoans.gov: studentloans.gov
• LoanBuddy: loanbuddy.us