This edition we spoke with Alex, our resident Student Loan expert, about her approach to helping clients reach their repayment goals. As a tech savvy professional, Alex also shares her favorite personal finance apps to better track your money.

## Alex, first please tell our readers a little about yourself and what attracted you to the personal finance space? I’m a Financial Coach, Student Loan Expert, and Data Nerd here at SmartPath. My approach to personal finance is fairly analytical, and I think that’s what drew me towards Student Loans. I was first attracted to personal finance in college while studying Finance at Georgia State University. I realized in my senior year that I want to use my talents where I can see the impact in people's lives - not the bottom line for a corporation. I found [Michael Kitces](https://www.kitces.com/start-here/) blog and was hooked. From there I started down the path to becoming a CFP®.
## What experiences led you to develop your student loan expertise? I've always been comfortable with numbers. I was in gifted math and science starting in Kindergarten, on the Mathletes team in Middle School, and started college at 16. I was taking Calculus III by the time most of my peers were starting college. The math behind student loans isn’t overly complicated, but the critical thinking skills that math teaches you have helped me understand their intricacies. When I interviewed at Smartpath, Alok gave me a case on student loans. I honestly thought I failed so miserably that I was sure I didn’t get the job. To my surprise, I got the job and was tasked with creating the Student Loan Crusher care plan. I became an expert in Student Loans after hundreds of hours of research, working with clients through cases - including some pretty unique ones - as well as training other coaches.
## What is the number one mistake you’ve seen clients make with student loan repayments? And what can people do to avoid it? Going into forbearance when there are other options. When budgets are tight, many people turn to their student loan servicer to help lower their payment. Unfortunately, loan servicer representatives are not trained to give you the best answer - they are trained to provide you with the quickest. Going into forbearance is a much faster way to answer your question than explaining an income-driven repayment plan, which is the stronger solution. Also, once in forbearance, I’ve seen many clients become accustomed to turning their student loan payments on and off at will. Not only can this hurt their credit, but it also buries them deeper into student loan debt as interest keeps accruing in forbearance. One way to avoid forbearance is to explore an income-driven repayment plan, such as PAYE, REPAYE, or IBR. Payments on an income-driven repayment plan are calculated based on your income, not student loan balance. Another option is a standard repayment plan. If your student loan balance is around $10,000 and you started a 10-year standard repayment plan, you could lower your payment to about $100 to $120 a month.
## When working with clients, what’s the most effective strategy for ensuring they effectively and efficiently pay down student loans? If you are not working towards a forgiveness program, staying ahead of interest is very important. Unfortunately, if you have a low income and high student loan balance, this is difficult to do. Income-driven repayment plans can help you stay ahead of interest. Some offer interest subsidies to pay off part or all of the interest that accrued.
## I believe you are also savvy with the latest financial tools. What are the top personal finance apps you recommend people utilize to help them better track their money? I prefer to use Excel or Google Sheets to create a budget or calendar budget for cash flow tracking to manage my own personal finances. These tools are not flashy or trendy, but they get the job done. I’m a big fan of cash flow tracking, alongside a budget. There are a few other tools I like that help you create and track a budget well, including [Dollarbird](https://dollarbird.co/), [YNAB](https://www.youneedabudget.com/), and [Mint](https://www.mint.com/).

Interview with SmartPath Student Loan expert, Alex Wilson

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