Student Loan Strategy & Planning
Don't let student loans quietly dismantle your future.
Student loan decisions are some of the most consequential financial choices a family can make, and most financial advisors aren’t equipped to help you make them.
At Etch Financial, student loan strategy isn’t a side service. It’s a core specialty.
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One of the nation's top student loan experts.
Ryan Galiotto, CFP® CSLP® has personally advised on over $150,000,000 in student loan debt across more than 1,000 clients. He’s one of fewer than 500 advisors in the country who holds both the CFP® and Certified Student Loan Planner® designations.
Ryan is Finology Software’s largest advisor and current serves as a strategic advisor to the firm. He has been quoted and numerous publications on student loan planning including MarketWatch and Journal of Financial Planning. He currently sits on the Forbes Advisor Loan Advisor Board.
Read Ryan’s January 2020 cover story on student loan planning in the Journal of Financial Planning.
The old way of handling student loans was simple:
Pick a repayment plan.
Make the payment.
Hope forgiveness works out.
That approach made sense 10 years ago. It doesn’t anymore.
Today, the landscape looks like this:
- Repayment plans are changing
- Forgiveness programs evolve with every administration
- Servicers make errors that go uncorrected for years
- Deadlines pass silently and can’t be undone
- One wrong decision — refinancing, consolidating at the wrong time, filing taxes separately when you shouldn’t — can cost $50,000 to $200,000 or more
You’re not just asking ‘What’s my payment?’
You’re asking questions that most financial advisors can’t actually answer:
- Should I pursue PSLF — and am I actually eligible?
- Should I consolidate now, or wait? Does timing matter?
- Is refinancing a smart move or a permanent mistake?
- How does this interact with my retirement savings?
- Should we file taxes jointly or separately — and what does that cost us?
- What happens if the rules change again?
- I have Parent PLUS loans — what are my real options?
You don’t want Reddit threads.
You don’t want guesswork.
You want a real strategy, from someone who actually knows this.
How We Help With Your Student Loans
Repayment Strategy
Evaluating IDR plans, forgiveness paths, and long-term cost projections.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness
Ensuring employment eligibility, payment tracking, and strategic tax coordination.
Parent PLUS Strategy
Understanding consolidation deadlines, IDR eligibility, and the retirement impact before it’s too late.
Refinancing Evalution
When it makes sense and when it permanently closes valuable federal options.
Tax Coordination
Married filing separately vs. jointly analysis to optimize IDR payments and long-term wealth.
Retirement Integration
Making sure loan strategy doesn’t quietly derail your financial independence.
The Cost of Getting This Wrong Is Real
We’ve seen what happens when families navigate this without the right guidance:
- A borrower misses PSLF by a single technicality — after 9 years of qualifying payments — because no one caught the filing error
- A parent consolidates their PLUS loans two weeks past the deadline and permanently loses IDR eligibility
- A professional refinances $180K in grad school debt, then changes jobs to a nonprofit — and can never get those 6 years of PSLF-eligible payments back
- A married couple files jointly out of habit and overpays $1,400/month on income-driven repayment for years
- A family pays on the wrong plan for a decade because their servicer gave them bad information and no one pushed back
The system is complicated. That’s not your fault.
But it does require expertise — and the stakes are too high to leave it to guesswork.
Who We're Best At Helping
Parent PLUS Borrower
You're 5-15 years from retirement but still carrying debt either as Parent PLUS loans or your own personal student loans and you need a plan that fits your retirement goals.
Public Service Professional
You're in healthcare, education, government or work for a nonprofit and believe PSLF may apply to you, but you're not sure if you're on the right track.
Recent Graduates
You have a bunch of loans in your name, and/or your spouse's name, and you need to make a plan for how you're going to tackle this debt.
FAQs
Can I still qualify for PSLF if I've been on the wrong repayment plan?
Possibly. It’s worth finding out before you assume you don’t. Recent waivers and adjustments have helped some borrowers retroactively recapture qualifying payments. The rules around this are complex and have changed multiple times. We analyze your full payment history and employment record to give you a clear answer.
Is refinancing always a bad idea?
Not always. For borrowers who work in the private sector, have stable income, no plans to pursue forgiveness, and high-interest rates, refinancing can make real financial sense. The key is running the numbers fully before deciding, because once you refinance into a private loan, the federal benefits are permanently gone.
How do Parent PLUS loans work differently from regular federal loans?
Parent PLUS loans have different eligibility rules for income-driven repayment than standard federal loans. They can only access IDR through a specific consolidation path, and that path has deadlines that matter enormously. In fact, new Parent PLUS loans taken out after July 1, 2026 may not have access to any income-driven repayment plan. We strongly recommend getting a strategy in place as early as possible.
Should my spouse and I file taxes separately because of my student loans?
It depends (like a lot of financial questions). The answer is often different from what people assume. For borrowers on income-driven repayment, filing separately can significantly lower monthly payments, which matters if you’re pursuing forgiveness. But it also comes with tax trade-offs. We model both scenarios in full, including the retirement and investment implications, before making a recommendation.
Do you work with clients outside of Pittsburgh?
Yes. We work with families across the country, fully virtually.