078 | Travis Hornsby, founder of StudentLoanPlanner.com, talks early retirement, traveling Europe, and developing a passion for helping people crawl out of student loan debt.
What you'll hear on today's show:
- Why did Travis attempt retirement at 25?
- If you're unhappy before reaching FI, will you be happy afterward?
- Where did Travis' frugal tendencies come from?
- How did Travis get paid to go to college?
- Do many universities offer full scholarships, and where should students find that information?
- Does attending an Ivy League university make a difference?
- Travis retired with $230,000 saved, with a plan to spend just 20k a year.
- Did Travis have a long-term plan for his retirement?
- Living expenses in the United States are high relative to many other places in the world if you're an adventurous person.
- Why did Travis' job performance improve after he decided to quit his job?
- If you're on the path to FI but haven't made it yet: develop a product or service that you're passionate about and give yourself a year or two of buffer during which you don't depend on income from your venture.
- How did Travis commit himself to helping people with student loan debt, having never been in debt himself?
- How much research did Travis have to do in order to ensure his student loan spreadsheets were accurate?
- Why didn't Travis' father-in-law give his initial blessing to Travis marrying his daughter?
- How did the Student Loan business grow?
- If you have less than 100k of student debt, your best option is likely to refinance for the lowest possible interest rate and pay it back as quickly as possible?
- If you owe less than double your salary and you're not working at a not-for-profit or for the government, you should probably refinance.
- If owe more than twice your income with federal loans, there are loan forgiveness options, depending on your type of work.
- Is loan forgiveness guaranteed, and who can qualify?
- Adjustment to loan forgiveness policies will impact students taking loans beginning in July 2019.
- How do Travis' suggestions change if someone has private loans?
- Federal loans provide the most flexibility for repayment or forgiveness.
- Two recommended choices:
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- Pay back loans as aggressively as possible
- Pay minimums, maximize forgiveness
Resources mentioned:
Student Loan Planner
Travis@studentloanplanner.com
Physician on Fire
Mr. Money Mustache: From Zero to Hero
For more information, visit the show notes at http://ChooseFI.com/078
