Eric Council recently pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The charges were related to his participation in a sophisticated hacking of the X, formerly known as Twitter, account, of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in which false posts were done in the name of then-SEC Chairman Gary Gensler indicating that the SEC had approved Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). This announcement sent the price of Bitcoin to quickly increase by more than $1,000 and allowed Council’s co-conspirators to make a quick profit off the…

Linda McMahon Pledges to Keep Public Service Loan Foregiveness (PSLF) Program For Student Loan Borrowers The confirmation hearing of Linda McMahon as Secretary of Education signals the start of a new phase for student loan policy under the Trump administration. While many student loan programs are in the new administration’s crosshairs, one loan forgiveness program for student loan borrowers may receive at least a reprieve: Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). In a surprising move, McMahon affirmed during her Senate hearing earlier this week that she would uphold the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, even if pressured by the White…

What Happens to Student Loans If Trump Abolishes the Department of Education? Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire to dismantle the Department of Education (DOE) and overhaul student loans. He has repeatedly called for eliminating the agency throughout his political career, arguing that education policy should be left to states and local governments. But what would that mean for federal student loans? Could borrowers see their debts wiped out if the DOE ceases to exist, or would they simply find themselves under new management? Let’s break down what’s possible—and what isn’t. Can President Trump Even Abolish the…

It appears that FINCEN’s Beneficial Ownership Information (“BOI”) reporting deadline will be moved to January 1, 2026, at least for companies that were required to file for 2024. This is related in the article by Kelly Phillips Erb, House Passes Bill To Delay Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) Reporting Deadline (Feb. 11, 2025). It is not necessary to rehash the subject matter of that article, but suffice it to say that the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously (25 members did not vote) passed H.R. 736 which set the deadline back. So, it is almost certain that the deadline will be set…

Monthly Student Loan Payments Could Rise By $200 In a move that could upend the delicate financial balance of millions of Americans, an overhaul of the federal student loan system proposed by House Republicans could push monthly payments up by nearly $200 on average, according to an analysis by The Institute For College Access & Success (TICAS). This isn’t just a minor adjustment—it would be a seismic shift propagating through higher education, exacerbating the already worsening college debt crisis. A Growing Crisis For The Average Student Loan Borrower Today, over 42 million Americans owe more than $1.7 trillion in student…

When you change jobs, you’ll need to decide what to do with your old 401(k). A common choice is to roll the old 401(k) into an IRA, which can be a great option. But according to a recent Vanguard study, 28% of investors who did a 401(k) rollover into an IRA were in cash one year later. Worse even: the majority didn’t realize their retirement savings weren’t invested and most workers who started in cash, stayed in cash for at least seven years. Retirement accounts are often ignored, especially when spread across multiple institutions. Here’s how to fix it. Avoid…

Republican lawmakers in Congress are considering a move that could cut off student loan forgiveness for millions of Americans who work in the healthcare industry. The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, commonly referred to as PSLF, offers borrowers a pathway to student loan forgiveness if they commit to working in nonprofit or government settings for at least 10 years while repaying their loans. More than a million borrowers have received loan forgiveness under PSLF following a series of reforms and improvements implemented by the Biden administration. Republican lawmakers in Congress and the Trump administration are considering a number of changes…

It had been rumored for quite a while, so it wasn’t a big surprise when the Justice Department sent a memo to Danielle R. Sassoon, the interim US. Attorney for Manhattan instructing her to dismiss the bribery and other charges brought against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Most notably the memorandum states “The Justice Department has reached this conclusion without assessing the strength of the evidence of the legal theories on which the case is based…” The memorandum indicated that it was being done to allow Adams to focus on crime prevention and immigration while figures for crime in…

I recently asked someone if they were invested in private prisons (private prison investing), and they replied, “I don’t think so.” When I followed up by asking if they invested in mutual funds in their 401(k) or Roth IRA, their expression changed. This reaction is not uncommon; many investors aren’t fully aware of what companies their mutual funds hold. In February 25, 2021, I wrote Are you unknowingly invested in private prisons? This is an update to that article. However, some people (maybe you) worry about missing out on potential returns if they exclude certain sectors or companies. Investment funds…

The fight-or-flight response to stress “. . . evolved as a survival mechanism, enabling people and other mammals to react quickly to life-threatening situations,” according to Harvard Medical School. Unfortunately, the very thing that helped keep human ancestry alive often hinders the investing decisions of today. Once an investor’s hackles are up, it can be difficult to make calm, objective retirement planning decisions. Behavior is perhaps the most prominent variable and determinant of investor success. Benjamin Graham, author of The Intelligent Investor and the man many see as the father of value investing, wrote, “The investor’s chief problem—and even his…