Student Loan Update: Where I Stand Now and Lessons You Can Use

I recently shared an update of my student loan situation which essentially amounts to being stuck in some sort of weird purgatory. Basically, I stand 1 payment away from loan forgiveness. However, since I enrolled in the federally shot down SAVE, my account went into forbearance. I thus remained unable to make a payment.

My strategy in this situation is summed up nicely here. I was:

Reluctantly accepting of the fact that PSLF may disappear before I ultimately benefit from it
Prepared to make a final loan payment of any amount of FSA’s choosing when and if they ever are ready
Investing the money that I would be to pay off my loans in my taxable investing account and in real estate

And here was my advice for others in a similar situation at this time:

If you don’t have any federal student loans, refinance your private loans to a lower rate if possible and pay them off aggressively starting now
If you have federal student loans on an income based repayment plan that is not blocked, continue making those income based payments regardless of how far away you are from forgiveness
If you have student loans on an income based repayment plan that is blocked like SAVE and you…
- Have a small amount of loans left (<$100,000), pay off the loans aggressively
- Are far away from loan forgiveness (>60 payments), pay off the loans aggressively
- Have a huge amount of loans left (>$100,000), take the amount you would pay monthly for income based repayment and put it into a HYSA each month or just keep making that monthly payment
- Are very close to loan forgiveness (<60 payments), take the amount you would pay monthly for income based repayment and put it into a HYSA each month

In any event, you can read all about this situation (how I found myself in it, how I prepared while in it, and what I did with my money since being in it) here.

However, some new information has come to pass. First, SAVE plan enrollees had their interest start accruing again beginning August 1, 2025. Second, I learned some new information about how long buyback requests are taking.

So, let's get into my most recent student loan update and what others can take from it!

Student loan update: Where I stand now and lessons you can use

Since that post, I've waited a few more months without any update and grew increasingly impatient. So, I called Student Aid to try and pry an update from them.

In the end, I spent greater than 1 hour on the phone with http://StudentAid.gov. Most of that was on hold. It started with the first operator essentially telling me that my application to buyback one payment (which I previously qualified for) was still in progress. And that there was no update that they or any other supervisor could give them.

Next, I asked for advice on trying to figure out the best path forward for my situation (giving them the short version of my situation: that I am in the SAVE plan with 1 payment left for PSLF).

Unfortunately but not unexpectedly, they did not have any advice to give. I asked how long the backlog for buyback application were. Again, no answer they could give. I asked how long the applications for changing my Income Driven Repayment (IDR) plan would be. For this, they needed to transfer me to another department.

More hold time.

And then…more non-answers. Basically, this representative confirmed that I was one payment away and could change to another qualifying plan to make the final payment. But they had no idea how long that application would take. The average was 30-60 days.

The problem here is that even as a very financially savvy doctor, this was a challenging and confusing process. No wonder most doctors just avoid it and miss out on opportunities to minimize their outsized debt. Change to the system is necessary. But what should I do now?

A curbside consult

Being in this physician finance community has been such a blessing for me. Just being able to learn from so many others in the space. One of those people is Andrew Paulson CSLP from StudentLoanAdvice.com.

Here is my email to him:

And here is a quick summary of his very helpful response (Please note that I have no financial relationship with Andrew at this point, I just think he is very good at what he does!):

The decision depends whether or not I want to continue to wait for buyback to process or not
The buyback applications are currently in a 30 month backlog
Most IDR applications are going through quickly, even within a month
My options for IDR would be Income Based Repayment (IBR) or Income Contingent Repayment (ICR)
IBR would be cheaper but hasn't yet dropped its income requirement to allow enrollment at any income and this could still be months away
ICR, which is the more expensive option, is open for enrollment now

So that is what I did…

I went back to StudentAid.gov and applied to change my IDR plan from SAVE to ICR. The application itself is very easy and takes about 5 minutes.

Two days later, Mohela, my federal student loan servicer, received the application and started processing it. And that is where it still remains.

If everything goes to plan, I should have to make one more $5,026.66 payment and then will receive loan forgiveness!

What does this student loan update mean for you?

The biggest pieces of information that came out of this student loan update are the relative length of processing buyback requests and IDR plan change applications as well as the interest accrual starting up again as of August 2025.

Interest accrual places a bit more urgency on federal loan borrowers in the here and now. And understanding the length of processing helps us put that urgency into more of a timeline that we can personalize to our situation.

So, here are my broad thoughts:

If you don’t have any federal student loans, refinance your private loans to a lower rate if possible and pay them off aggressively starting now
If you have federal student loans on an income based repayment plan that is not blocked, continue making those income based payments regardless of how far away you are from forgiveness. If you will never qualify for PSLF, make extra payments ad hoc.
If you have student loans on an income based repayment plan that is blocked like SAVE and you…
- Have a small amount of loans left (<$100,000), pay off the loans aggressively even while interest accrues. You may pay off the entirety of the loan before forbearance really ends.
- Are far away from loan forgiveness (>60 payments), switch to the best IDR plan that fits in your budget and pay off the loans aggressively.
- Have a huge amount of loans left (>$100,000), bite the bullet and switch to a qualifying IDR plan and start making payments.
- Are very close to loan forgiveness (<60 payments), switch to a qualifying IDR plan and start making payments ASAP.

And, as always, I will transparently keep you all posted on my progress through this maze of changing policies, new plans, and seemingly endless waiting for resolution! And if you think I don't deserve loan forgiveness, you can tell me why here as well.

In the end, all we can do as we find ourselves here is plan as best we can for our financial future. Debt repayment is the foundation of our financial health. So, as long as we know what we will do to get rid of our debt in however the scenario plans out, then we are set and can’t be shaken off our path to financial freedom!

Here are some other posts to help you progress on the path to financial freedom while we wait for this issue to resolve:

What do you think? How are you managing your student loans? Are you pursuing forgiveness? Will your plans change with interest beginning to accrue again? What is your strategy? Let us know in the comments below!