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Has anyone used a financial planner to help them handle their student loan debt? I'm looking for someone in the DC area to help me with budgeting and debt management. Would like someone who's familiar with IBR/PSLF, but I'm not sure how necessary that is.

What was your experience? How helpful was it?

These guys seem like a good fit, but their price is high and there are some bad reviews online-
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(Sorry, meant to post this in Financial Aid forum but oh well!)

Almost all financial planners are sales people in disguise without your interest at heart. Talk to a CPA. At this point your problem isn't investing, it's budgeting and tax planning both of which are the province of a good accountant. At the very least, the CPA would know who is reputable and can handle student loan questions if they can't.

Most financial planners will orchestrate a budget permitting you to invest and then sell you whatever fund they are getting the largest commission on.

Unless you have a ton of other things going on (trust income, substantial investments, etc.) your situation shouldn't be complex enough to be looking at a professional. You should be able to do basic budgeting and debt management yourself.

linquest wrote:Has anyone used a financial planner to help them handle their student loan debt? I'm looking for someone in the DC area to help me with budgeting and debt management. Would like someone who's familiar with IBR/PSLF, but I'm not sure how necessary that is.

What was your experience? How helpful was it?

Last year, my mom shelled out for both me and my sister to talk with financial planners because she thought it was a good idea. It was a waste of my time and my mom's money. My sister felt the same way. Also, I felt like he was trying to sell me investments that I couldn't afford to make. (Joe Quincy's right about them being sales people in disguise, IMHO.) At the time, I was working for a non-profit and enrolled in PSLF, making tiny IBR payments on my undergrad debt, paying as much as I could afford to pay on my credit card debt (which is now gone), and saving very little because I wasn't making a lot, had decent insurance, and knew that I'd be selling my car (which I owned outright) before moving for LS and would be able to use that $ the way I would have used savings to deal with moving, books, borrowing as little as possible for LS, etc.

If you really want to talk to a professional, find a CPA. That being said, unless your situation's way more complex than I'm imagining, you probably don't need to. Excel (or iWork or Open Office) is generally all you need for simple budgetting, expense tracking and simple financial projections. There are plenty of online calculators to help you figure out basic tax and IBR stuff. You may have specific questions that you really do need a CPA to help you with, but I'd try looking for free resources first. (Then again, I'm cheap and really like playing with numbers.)