Student Loans: free beginner lessons
Student Loans is a FinCon topic with 2 short lessons. Borrow smart and pay it off without the panic. Each lesson takes about five minutes and ends with a quiz.
What will I learn in Student Loans?
You will work through: Student Loan Basics, Paying It Off Faster.
What is in each Student Loans lesson?
Student Loan Basics
Federal loans offer flexible repayment and forgiveness options. Private loans follow bank terms with fewer protections.
Why do federal student loans usually beat private ones? Federal loans come with income-driven plans, pauses, and forgiveness paths that private loans rarely match.
Jordan owed $34,000 in student loans and felt buried. The number alone made him want to ignore the statements. Then he listed each loan: balance, interest rate, and type. Seeing it on paper made it feel manageable. He set his federal loans on an income-driven plan and threw extra at the highest-rate private loan. A scary blob became a clear plan.
You can't manage a number you're avoiding. Listing every loan is the first real step.
Paying It Off Faster
Pay off loans faster: target high rates, enable autopay, send extra to principal, and check forgiveness programs.
If you send extra money toward a loan, what should you tell the servicer? Unless you specify principal, servicers often just advance your due date — and you keep paying the same interest.