The new year is a great time to hit the reset button on personal goals and set new goals, both short and long term. That’s especially true of personal finances.
Your Money Line is a benefit provided by Clergy and Church Financial Ministry (C2FM) and your Missouri United Methodist Foundation to give Missouri United Methodist pastors and their families expert help on any money challenge, greater financial literacy, and less stress about money.
Millions of Americans report that student loan debt is a major source of personal and family money stress. The good news is there are pathways out of debt created by the federal government. One of those pathways is Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), a federal student loan forgiveness program that incentivizes public service once college or graduate school is complete.
Eligibility for PSLF begins with employment with a qualifying employer, which includes U.S.-based government organizations at any level; nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations; and other nonprofit organizations engaged in certain qualifying public services. PSLF is designed to be an incentive for those entering the “helping professions,” such as teachers, firefighters, police and other full-time public servants. In 2021, the list of eligible employers was expanded to include faith-based organizations, including churches.
The PSLF program has undergone significant improvements in the past two year. This is great news for Missouri pastors and full-time staff at Missouri UM churches who are stressed out about student loan debt!
In 2022, Rev. Stacie Williams and her spouse, Mark, decided they were going to stop stressing about their student loan debt and contact Your Money Line.
NUTS!
Stacie didn’t mince her words describing her experience with moving her application through the PSLF process:
“It was NUTS! I think my loan servicers switched three different times, and I may have submitted a PSLF application three or four times.”
Because there were so many changes happening with the PSLF program from 2021 to 2024, Stacie was getting letters from FedLoan that she didn’t understand and couldn’t figure out how the letters related to her PSLF application.
“Believe me, you don’t want to have to get on the phone with a loan servicer,” Stacie exclaimed. “My longest wait to get through to a human being was four hours!”
Peace
But Stacie’s Your Money Line Financial Guide, would follow up with her by email or over the phone with answers, letting her know the delays had an explanation, and to not give up.
“Every time the government changed something, or things got stalled, or I got notifications that I didn’t understand, Stacy would not only tell me what was happening and why everyone was stalled out, she let me know what I needed to do next to get over whatever hurdle we encountered. Stacy was so well informed about what was happening inside the PSLF program. She shared information with me that helped me be O.K. – it gave me peace that she knew what was happening.”
Forgiven
On a Tuesday afternoon in early March 2024, almost two years after she began her quest for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, Stacie logged into her student loan repayment account to try and understand why she had, once again, received notification that she had been denied “administrative forbearance.”
As Stacie puts it,
“… of course, I freaked out because it said I was denied because more information was needed. Well, I logged on … and it turns out that my forbearance was denied because I don’t have any more loans to forbear. I absolutely lost it … at the very top it said loans have been discharged!”
Stacie would later receive a letter from her loan servicer, confirming that her student loans totaling $80,849.68, were indeed forgiven.
“I’m convinced approval of my PSLF application would never have happened without the Foundation making Your Money Line available to Clergy,” said Stacie.
Epilogue
Stacie’s Your Money Line story doesn’t end there. Stacie’s spouse, Mark, also contacted Your Money Line about his post-graduate student loan debt balance, about $12,000, that he had been making payments on for more than 20 years. Despite his long history making payments, the balance was barely shrinking. Stacy, the financial guide at Your Money Line who helped Stacie, also helped Mark to navigate a different student loan forgiveness program, and Mark’s student loan debt was also discharged.
“Your Money Line is amazing!”
Thanks to donations to C2FM and the Missouri United Methodist Foundation, all appointed Missouri Conference pastors and their immediate families have free, confidential access to Your Money Line.