Nearly 45% of millennials have student loan debt, and the average amount of debt for graduates is about $32,731 per borrower. In 2018, 74% of millennials reported having an extreme amount, a great deal, or a fair amount of financial stress, which is far more than older generations. For women, 38% reported being unable to pay all of their bills on time, and 42% felt they had more debt than is manageable.
Not only is this impacting our mental health and ability to get by, but unfortunately this debt is causing delays in the millennials building wealth. Millennials:
- Make on average only $47k a year
- Have an average a net worth of less than $8k
- Have less than $5k in their savings
- Are more likely to receive financial assistance from a parent, guardian or family member
- Are delaying financial milestones like purchasing a home, getting married or having children
Student loan debt is no joke and the pandemic has only exacerbated the millennial wealth crisis.
When unemployment peaked in April 2020, millennials accounted for 14.5%, up from 10% at the peak of the Great Recession in 2009. In a 2021 study done by Fidelity, one in six participants listed “recover from financial losses due to the COVID-19” pandemic as one of their top financial resolutions.
Setbacks for millennials included 25% going into credit card debt or getting a personal loan to handle hardship, 36% had to use their emergency savings, and 21% had to move in with family members.
Given these challenges, what can we do about crippling millennial student debt?
First, we have to advocate for policy makers to:
- Reexamine our education system that requires young people to go into massive amounts of debt to attend school
- Increase the Pell Grant
- Improve the Public Service Loan (PSLF) program, Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program, Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) Plan
- Simplify repayment approaches
- Implement student loan forgiveness programs
- Address access to education for low-income families
And then we also have to look at how we as individuals can tackle our debt, like:
- Budgeting to maximize the money we are making
- Saving more money by being intentional with our spending
- Refinancing our student loans in order to pay off our debt as quickly and cheaply as possible
This is where Juno comes in.
Meet Juno: The Student Loan Refinancing BFF
Juno is your new student loan best friend. In short, they help you refinance your student loans by negotiating better interest rates with lenders.
The way they do this is they round up a group of borrowers and use that group buying power to negotiate better rates for your student loans.
And they do this all for free for students, graduates, and families seeking loans.
Since its launch in 2018:
- 40k members have signed up
- Borrowers have saved over $40 million
- Students from all over the country have secured over $250 million in financing
Here’s how it works:
1) You sign up on their website.
This is where you’ll join the Juno loan negotiation group, for free. You’ll send in some of your information, like your contact, education and financial information, as well as estimated credit score, annual income, co-signer status and estimated amount of loans needed.
2) Let the competition begin.
The Juno team gets to work to get you the lowest interest rate possible. You can sit back and relax as they go to lenders and negotiate lower rates, lenders submit bids, and Juno selects the single winning lender.
3) You receive a negotiated deal for a lower interest rate.
Juno will inform you about your negotiated deal via email and share a link where you can take advantage of it. They’ll provide you with a calculator to help you determine which loan is best for you, and they’ll be fully transparent about the negotiated deal and any federal loan options.
Best part?
You’re under no obligation to take the deal. You’re able to take or leave it, no pressure. If you do take it, you’ll complete the loan application process directly through the lender. Juno will then make sure that the lender is following through, and you’re receiving a great experience from the lender.
How’s that for a best friend in the student loan space? Juno is watching out for you, making sure you’re paying as LITTLE as possible for your student loans.
Juno Covers More: Resources and Other Refinancing
But there’s more.
Juno also helps with refinancing other debts like, auto loan financing, health insurance, and international student refinance. They also have great resources like student loan calculators, a scholarship database, law guides, and financial literacy.
Juno: Started by Students, For Students
Juno was founded by two Harvard graduates who decided to round up 700 students from ten schools together and negotiate lower rates for the entire group. They were able to save their classmates about $15k each by doing this.
Juno was born from this desire– to benefit all future generations of students with the lowest interest rates possible. Check out Juno’s story here. It’s pretty great seeing students band together to make a difference in the space– and I love how transparent, straight-forward and HELPFUL the company is.
Read to save money by refinancing?
I am an affiliate of Juno, but you all know I’d never promote something I didn’t believe in. All opinions are my own.
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