Understanding College Loans | What We Can Control & What We Cannot

Understanding College Loans

By Evan Hewitt, CFP® | Financial Advisor

At 18, I signed a contract that shaped my financial future. I didn’t fully understand it.

I was the first in my family to go to college. Everyone was proud. Everyone was cheering me on. But no one sat me down to explain the reality of student loans.

No one told me:

How repayment worked.
That interest would start adding up before I even got my first job.
That there was a “grace period” before payments kicked in—one I should’ve used wisely.

The bills showed up after graduation. At first, I started asking around—friends, family, anyone who might help. The response? Not sure. I think you just pay it? That’s a good question.

That was my wake-up call: Most people are figuring it out as they go.

If loans are a part of the conversation for your family, we are here to help you understand the mechanics, and critically, how to avoid the snowballing interest that keeps students in growing debt while making payments.

Quick Look at Stock Market: Over the past two weeks, we’ve seen six days with more than 70% advancers on the NYSE.

What we’ve seen the past two weeks is historically the start of significant outperformance and a new bullish trend. While it is sometimes mislabeled as a ‘bear market rally’ or ‘short covering rally,’ we do agree that the trend is a welcome one.

How Much Do We Know? With the recent market volatility, it is a good reminder that we actually know very little when it comes to the future of certain stocks. The markets have a way of convincing us that we know more than we think in the good times, causing us to question everything in the downturn.

Remember: The reason you stand to earn an extra return in securities like stocks is because they pose a risk. We’re not just talking about a stock selling off because the company’s results fall shy of Wall Street’s expectations. We’re talking systematic risk: the market selling off en masse and your current market value suffering as a result. This sort of market downside happens more often than you might guess.

Control is hard to come by when it comes to the markets, but that is exactly what we seek when things get uncertain in the market. Instead of thinking we need to reassert control in situations like those—perhaps by selling things off and going to cash—do just the opposite. Use it as a moment for growth, the lesson being that we were never really in control to begin with. Our portfolios are largely at the market’s whim, and that’s why you get paid over long periods of time—not because you knew better than someone else but because you intentionally allocated yourself to a reasonable amount of risk.

Our team is convinced the only way to really solve for that, beyond traditional risk assessment questionaries, is to build and regularly maintain your financial plan. The plan is where the healthiest measure of control comes into focus.

Just When You Think You’ve Seen it All: As we enter the season of graduations and commencements, we have our favorites to pull from the past (here, for example). The University of Maryland, however, is taking it up a notch this year—kind of. Check out this announcement for their 2025 Commencement speaker. And in his words, “It’s nice to be important, but it’s important to be nice.” Congratulations to all of our graduates!

*The views expressed represent the opinions of Compass Ion Advisors, LLC, as of the date noted and are subject to change. These views are not intended as a forecast, a guarantee of future results, an investment recommendation, or an offer to buy or sell any securities. The information provided is of a general nature and should not be construed as investment advice or to provide any investment, tax, financial, or legal advice or service to any person. The information contained has been compiled from sources deemed reliable, yet accuracy is not guaranteed.

Additional information, including management fees and expenses, is provided on our Form ADV Part 2 available upon request or at the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website at https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/166418. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.