Author: administración
Taking money out of a 529 plan is the easy part. Taking out the right amount is where families get tripped up — and an overage turns into a “non-qualified” distribution that gets taxed and penalized. If you pulled $12,000 and only had $10,500 in qualified expenses, that extra $1,500 is a problem you have a limited window to fix.The good news for 2026: the definition of a qualified expense got a lot wider, so some over-withdrawals aren’t over-withdrawals anymore. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act expanded what 529 money can pay for, which means the first thing to do…
Please enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser or access the information through the links provided below. August 25, 2026 Minutes of the Board’s discount rate meetings on July 20 and July 29, 2026 For release at 2:00 p.m. EDT The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday released the minutes from its recent meetings to review and determine the discount rates provided to depository institutions through the discount window. Today’s minutes cover the Board meetings that occurred on July 20 and July 29, 2026. The Board’s process for setting the discount…
Student loan rates have are getting even more competitive as peak back to school season starts. As of August 25, 2026, private student loan lenders are offering fixed rates as low as 1.94% APR and variable rates starting as low as 3.03% APR, depending on credit profile, degree program, and repayment term. College Ave is currently offer the lowest fixed rate loan available. Student Choice is currently offering the lowest variable rate student loan available.While federal student loan rates are set annually by Congress, private lenders continue to adjust based on market conditions and Treasury yields. Staying current on these changes can…
The Common App logged 10,786,782 first-year applications in the 2025-26 season, a 6% jump and the largest volume in the platform’s 50-year history. The End-of-Season Report also contains a number that undercuts the headline: 41.3% of member colleges received fewer applications than they did a year earlier, and 26.2% saw declines of 5% or more. The record number of applications wasn’t driven by more students. The number of people who created a Common App account fell for the first time since the platform began tracking the metric in 2016-17, from 2,564,311 to 2,560,533. It’s just that each student is applying…
Paying for college and graduate school runs through private lenders more than it used to. Federal borrowing limits tightened sharply on July 1, 2026, when Grad PLUS loans went away and Parent PLUS borrowing was capped at $20,000 per year. More families are covering the gap with private student loans, and one forecast has private loan volume nearly doubling in 2026.Private loans work differently than federal loans. There is no national database like StudentAid.gov, so tracking down who actually owns your loan takes real work, and the company that lent you the money is often not the company that collects…
Key Points The $1,700 Education Freedom Tax Credit takes effect on January 1, 2027. About 51.7 million kids (92% of school-age children) meet the income test. Six states hold waivers freeing over $109 million from federal spending rules. Education Secretary Linda McMahon joined President Trump at the White House Rose Garden on August 24 for a back-to-school event framed around what she called “a return to common sense in American education.” Her prepared remarks centered on three items: the Education Freedom Tax Credit, six state waivers freeing more than $100 million from federal spending rules, and a record 25 states…
High-yield savings account rates held steady and even increased going into August. With the Fed holding rates steady, banks are using this opportunity to capture savers.As of August 24, 2026, some online banks are still offering interest rates up to 4.15% APY. This is still much better than the average of 0.38% APY, according to the FDIC.Banks and credit unions are constantly adjusting their annual percentage yields (APYs) as markets react to Federal Reserve policy and inflation data, so staying up to date can make a real difference. Here’s where the best savings rates stand today — and what you…
For the first time since the 2019-20 admissions cycle, more Common App applicants submitted a standardized test score than didn’t. Common App’s End-of-Season Report for 2025-26 shows 779,300 first-year applicants reported an SAT or ACT score (up 11% from last season) while 748,028 applied without one (down 5%). That’s a reversal of the pattern that has held since Covid upended college entrance exams six years ago. The reversal happened without colleges forcing it. Only 5% of Common App’s 1,146 member institutions actually required a test score to submit an application in 2025-26. That figure was 4% in 2023-24, an all-time…
Most physicians who use AI use it the same way they’d use Google. Ask a question, get an answer, move on. That’s not wrong. It’s just incomplete. There’s a small but growing group of physicians who are running actual pieces of their financial lives, their contracts, and their day-to-day logistics through AI, and the gap between those two groups has nothing to do with intelligence or access. Everyone has access to roughly the same tools right now. The difference is how they think about them. This post walks through a different way to think about AI for physicians, not as…
Key PointsBorrowers who reach 120 qualifying payments under PSLF may see a green banner on StudentAid.gov confirming they’ve met program requirements.Final forgiveness is not official until the loan servicer issues what borrowers call a “golden letter.”These terms are widely used online, but they are informal and not officially defined by the Department of Education. For federal student loan borrowers pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), reaching 120 qualifying payments is a major milestone. But that milestone can be confusing, especially as the signs of progress come with unofficial labels that borrowers have come to rely on: green banners and golden…