[Stephen Foley via Felix Salmon]
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Sponsored Content
SoFi Answers the Call to Refinance Student Loans and Provides Unique Community Benefits
This is a guest post written by SoFi’s CEO, Mike Cagney.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Recently, there’s been a lot of talk amongst leaders in Washington about how to improve the painful process of repaying student loans. At SoFi, we feel your pain and work hard to offer more flexible, more affordable options for our borrowers. One idea that’s getting a lot of attention is increasing the options for refinancing debt after graduation. The only lender currently focused on refinancing private and federal student loans is SoFi.
We recognized early on that borrowers who have made timely payments on their loans, graduated from school, and have a job should be able to refinance their student loans at a lower interest rate. This may be why, after resuming lending by invitation, the media became increasingly interested in what we are doing.
In a recent article posted on MainStreet.com SoFi General Counsel Rob Lavet had this to say about SoFi’s ReFi products:
“We can offer a better deal than the federal government in terms of rates […].We offer borrowers who meet our underwriting criteria a package that pays off their federal and existing private student loans at a rate as low as 5.49%. Some lenders will do a consolidation on private loans, but we’re the first lender to offer to refinance a federal loan at a lower rate.”
Journalists from the USA TODAY, The Chronicle for Higher Education, the American Banker among others, also found themselves reporting on how SoFi is “using social communities and offering refinancing of student loans.“ It is this social community aspect that makes refinancing with SoFi so valuable. By connecting borrowers with a community literally invested in their success, the benefits of a SoFi loan go beyond saving money.
How many student lenders do you know that will help unemployed borrowers find a new job? SoFi does just that – engaging with borrowers who are actively looking for new employment opportunities and leveraging the networks of all members eager to help these individuals achieve new heights in their career.
Our Entrepreneur Program is another example of SoFi’s community in action connecting like-minded borrowers and investors in support of new business creation. We combine mentoring sessions for participants with exclusive access to the venture capital community.
SoFi wants to help borrowers realize their goals beyond paying off student debt. Whether seeking employment opportunities, career advice, partners for entrepreneurial ventures, access to industry luminaries, or simply a like-minded network, our members benefit from a supportive community of people vested in one another’s success.
Learn more about SoFi’s refinancing programs and community benefits at www.SoFi.com
You know what they say: You can’t choose your family, but you can choose your financial planner. Or something like that. One of the great things of being in charge of your money is choosing who (if anyone) will help you manage it. The choice isn’t always an easy one. How will you know that your planner is reputable and trustworthy?
These five red flags may be good indications of whether the financial planner sitting across from you is someone you should trust with your money. LearnVest Planning also provides an innovative 7-step program for your money where you work one-on-one with a financial planner. To see if this program is right for you, start with a free financial consultation.
1. She Isn’t Certified
“There are a lot of good planners out there who aren’t Certified Financial Panners™,” says Samantha Vient, CFP®, of LearnVest Planning Services. “However, CFPs® are required to adhere to the CFP® Board’s standards of professional conduct.We believe it’s always a good idea to work with someone who has the CFP® designation, which is issued after completing a CFP® Board-approved personal financial planning curriculum, passing a rigorous exam issued by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, meeting experience requirements and passing an ethics and background check.
2. He Offers to Manage Your Money for “Free”
Financial planners are usually paid in one of two ways: Either through fee-only, which can be a set fee, hourly, retainer or a percentage of the assets they manage for you, or through commission, which means the planner is paid each time he buys or sells an investment.Fee-only payment structures can be more desirable to some clients, as there’s no financial incentive based on assets under management for a planner to buy or sell, whereas working on commission encourages planners to make trades, rather than solely look out for your best interest—called a “fiduciary” duty. (You want to be sure that the planner you choose is a fiduciary.)
LearnVest Planning Services provides the services of fee-only Certified Financial Planners™. Get started for free with a 15-minute financial consultation.
3. She Says She Outperforms the Market
“If a financial planner tells you that she can outperform the market, that’s a major red flag,” Vient explains. “In fact, due to government regulations, it’s illegal to advertise statements that promise a specific return.”Outperforming the market—that is, getting better investment returns than the market average—is extremely difficult to do consistently, and requires taking a lot of risks with your investments. It’s rare to find a financial planner who can consistently outperform the market—and results are never guaranteed. Either way, in the pursuit of these high returns, she’ll be exposing your investments to much higher risk than you may be comfortable with.
Instead, look for a CFP® who, when looking at your portfolio, can advise on proper asset allocation based on your risk tolerance and time horizon, as well as through economic ups and downs.
4. She Doesn’t Ask About Your Financial Goals
“Your planner isn’t just there to crunch the numbers,” Vient advises. “She’s helping you make a plan for your money and your life. You should be looking for someone who has similar values to you.”Ideally, you’ll likely want to work with someone who is in a similar life stage. Are you a parent? A planner with children may be better able to understand your need to save for college. Does your CFP® have a specialty? Some planners have an area of expertise, like insurance, estate planning, divorce or retirement—a fact you might want to consider if that’s a particular need of yours.
When meeting a potential planner, remember that you’re allowed to ask questions about their experience and priorities: “Do you think it’s more important to save for retirement or pay off debt? How do you feel about supporting kids through college? How do you mitigate investment risk as your clients get older?”
The choices you make with your money are intensely personal. The person who helps you make these choices should be able to understand and accept your financial priorities, and help you use your money to meet them.
5. His Management Style Makes You Uncomfortable
Financial planners can manage your money for you or manage your money with you. As different people have different needs when it comes to money management, there is no right way to work with a planner—it’s up to you to decide how hands-on you want him to be.
When you sign on with a financial planner, there will be a written agreement of how the two of you will manage your money. Read this carefully, and ask questions if you’re unsure about anything. Are you signing your accounts over to this planner? Will he check in with you before making a trade, or when rebalancing your accounts? If you’re uncomfortable with anything in the agreement, bring it up immediately.Learn more about LearnVest Planning and our financial planners by visiting learnvest.com. To book your free consultation today, email FA_Support@learnvest.com or complete your request online.
LearnVest Planning Services is a registered investment adviser. The opinions expressed in this article are that of LearnVest Planning Services, a registered investment adviser. The advice provided may not be suitable for your individual situation and you should discuss your situation with a financial professional.
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QuickCrete + sand + water. Turning a temporary problem into a permanent one.
Muppets! To the barricades!
- V. Hugo
How will our Seamless orders get through?
"Wall Street awash in liquidity"
Goldman Sacks?
Let my people go…
Interview round #53 – not a drop of water in the lobby.
Bracing for the re-election.
How will that stop the water coming from the sky?
Our Travelers acquisition will surely pay off now!
- Citi M&A analyst
those bags of sand are filled with cash
A new strategy for analyst retention.
Now how to tranche this up and sell it off to clients
If you think that's impressive, you should see that sandbagging that goes on inside
- GS Facilities Manager
A most convenient way to utilize OWS cremains…..
Stormin' through the party like my name was El Niño, when I'm hangin' out drinkin' in the back of an El Camino
It's for the storm storage, idiot.
Wish we'd done this for our Whitehall funds.
Where are the clients sandbags?
I was astounded when I saw those concrete bags. That could be a great place for a Dealbreaker live camera when it's time to take those away.
FEMA cement quant.
GS, we do more sandbagging in one day than AAPL does all quarter
Sandbagging MotherF***ers
Goldman Sachs “Sand-Bagging since 1869”
……
Feed for the muppets will be delivered daily, rain or shine or hurricane!
Interns shake-shack lunch delivery quandary.
those bags are just to keep vikram pandit out – he keeps running in, trying to apply for a job, while screaming "corbat i'll show you!!!"
Greg Smith hate-mail.
Fight Sandy with ….sand!
They didn’t built that.
-O
I knew those copies of Greg Smith's book would come in handy.
GS squid exclusion program, phase I.
Well, I guess this is another way to retain top talent.
Bullion you plebe
Who do you think we are, MS?
-Goldscrot in Chief
too soon
GS Manger: Hey, guy…yeah you in the gold jacket.
GS Facilities guy: Yes sir?
GS Manager: I'm going to need you to start over. You stacked them the wrong way.
GS Facilities guy: I did?
GS Manager: You did. I need you to stack them in a two by two log cabin style, not this unorganized, haphazard shit.
GS guy: Okay sir.
GS Manager: Thanks…Call me Lloyd.
Delivery timing was fortuitous on Goldman's first 100,000 copies of Why I Left Goldman Sachs: A Wall Street Story.
UBS sucks
Oooooh, so close to a hall of fame caption – yet so far
Goldman was accused of sandbagging in advance of their latest quarterly earnings report seemingly with some justification.
Goldman Sachs Now Allegedly Cornering Global Sand Futures Market
Air drying works just fine ?
*counterparties
You sandbaggin' son of a bitch!
Doing God's work, one bag at a time
#1: Bro, check out my new iSanBag
#2: Sigma-X: one giant dark pool of liquidity
Dick Fuld was spotted in Manhattan Monday.
Let's see you second years try and move to the buy-side now.
GS Reinsurance is pleased to announce its latest structured issue, StormFront 2012-A.
those aren't bags of concrete or sand…it's full of those useless bills people call "ones"
You meant "storm SURGE", idiot.
Its not just mortgages that are under water
Remind me again why we build our headquarters on something called Marginal Street?
prestige worldwide
If the situation warrants I'll turn back the waters with a grundle block.
-GC
So this is the second Wall Street bailout, cash being delivered in bags and left at the front door….
Using bags of money might cause our VAR to increase.
Those clients we left holding the bag came in handy again.
Sum 41 – Fat Lip
yes, reminds me of some of their source code.
- S. Aleynikov
You mean the whale attack ? I though we fixed that already.
–Jamie D.
are those bags of money ?
UBS IB headquarters similarly protected by the bodies of thousands of RIF'd bankers and traders.
"Fuck what I told you before; this is all you really need to know about the job. Now keep those stacks eight high, Harvey."
Volunteers flock to Goldman to place bags of principles on their doorstep in hopes of fighting evil.
What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little intern? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in business administration, and I’ve been involved in numerous secret raids on the Federal Reserve, and I have over 300 confirmed bail-outs. I am trained in class warfare and I’m the top hedge fund manager in the entire US workforce. You are nothing to me but just another small business owner. I will buy you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking stock quotes. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of Goldman Sachs managers across the USA and your shares are being traced right now so you better prepare for the buy-off, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your stock portfolio. You’re fucking bankrupt, intern. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can buy you out in over seven hundred ways, and that’s just with my bare hedge fund. Not only am I extensively trained in economic warfare, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Federal Reserve and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the stock market, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little “clever” stock option was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking share. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the buying price, you goddamn idiot. I will liquidate fury all over you and you will drown in it. You’re fucking bankrupt, small business owner.
Chillin' like a scarecrow, looking for some brain
Lloyd: IPO SDBG at $1000.
GS 1st Year: How did you calculate that valuation?
Lloyd: I didn't.
UPDATE: Lloyd: I didn't….now get your mother on the phone and sell her some stock, those sandbags don't pay for themselves!
The water's getting too deep…. even for vampire squids!
1. Storm
2. Sand Bags
3. ???
4. Profit
When Lloyd said, "Get Moneybags on it!" he meant: use the Bernanke put, not put the Gold in Sacks out front. (Moral of the story: Never confuse excess liquidity with monetary velocity.)
"TARP delivery!"
Using bags full of clients' cash instead of sand, a Goldman intern misinterprets the term "fortress balance sheet".
All the quickrete bags came from MS.
Clever, but not funny.
http://movieodyssey.com/files/2009/07/300-movie.j…
Come again?
HEY GUYS IT'S YOUR BOI JIMMY HERE AND ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS FUCK THIS HURRICANE SKEEEEEE DADYYYYYYYYYY
free concrete shoes for competitor during the flood ?
Wait so which is it, intern or small business owner?
Goldman's Sacks
The GS Compliance Division at work
you read that?!
"Dollar dollar bill, y'all!" -GS
Unconfirmed reports claim that Sandy Weill is behind this super storm in another attempt to break up big banks.
I bookmarked it to my bookmark web site list