Podcast

Weekly Roundup

• Lockdown on London Lane, Beth Reekles 
• Student loan forgiveness details. ​​

Discussion Topic

• How to Back Up Your Computer

Quick Tips

• You can go back to a habit you dropped (meal planning, pomodoro, budgeting). It’s okay if certain techniques only work in spurts.
• According to the Federal Student Aid website, you can request a refund for "any payment" made during the pandemic pause — beginning March 13, 2020. If you paid off the remainder of your student loans just before the announcement, you could get what you paid back.

Sponsors

• ABMP 
• The Original Jojoba Company 
• How to Get New Clients

Transcript: 

Sponsor message:

This episode is sponsored by ABMP. One of the many, many benefits of ABMP membership is the ABMP Five-Minute Muscles and ABMP Pocket Pathology apps. Two separate apps, both equally wonderful.

They are quick reference apps, designed to help you quickly find information you might need, to make a decision for session planning or to use outside of a session to refresh muscle and pathology knowledge.

ABMP's Five-Minute Muscles includes muscle-specific technique videos and palpation videos for the 83 muscles most often addressed by professional MTs. I can tell you from my own experience, they are a really nice little refresher. When you know someone's coming in with a little issue that you don't deal with all that much, you can watch the videos. You can be prepared. They use progressive web app technology in order to take up less space on your phone or device. These apps are included with ABMP membership.You can check it out at abmp.com/apps, where there are samples of each app for non-members to try. I can tell you as soon as you do, you're going to want to be a member. Learn more at abmp.com/apps.

Allissa Haines: 

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Massage Business Blueprint Podcast, where we help you attract more clients, make more money and improve your quality of life. I, over here, am Allissa Haines.

Michael Reynolds:

I, over here, am Michael Reynolds.

Allissa Haines:

We are delighted to be with you today. For us, it's the morning. Michael, rolling on into recording like four minutes ago, fast and hot. I love it. We're a little sluggish.

Michael Reynolds:

I notice we're actually switched. Usually you're on the right-hand side of the screen. I'm the left. Since I joined second, I'm on the right-hand side. So, it's funny how that works. I just noticed that.

Allissa Haines:

I also flipped my camera view, so it wouldn't be mirror because the letters on my T-shirt were backwards. I really am super proud of this T-shirt, one, because it's a long sleeve T-shirt, which is just a beautiful thing. Also because this is from the Pell Bridge Run, years and years ago, where I did a 5K that went over this massively steep and huge bridge, from Newport, Rhode Island to Jamestown, Rhode Island.

Which I'm realizing now, I don't know if it's an island or peninsula, but Jamestown is really cool.

They close the bridge down for the race, so that you have to be in Newport, Rhode Island at like 4:30 in the morning, which is an hour away from me.

I know. You have to be there. They bus you from Newport over to Jamestown, and you start the race at six.

I had not been running for very long. This was probably a decade ago when I did this. It was just the funnest race ever. Every year, every time I see this T-shirt really, I'm like, "Oh, I got to do it again."

But I wanted everyone to be read that I did the Pell Bridge Run, years back. And if you Google pictures of it, you're going to be like, whoa Nelly. My time was not very good, but I did it.

Michael Reynolds:

Congratulations. By the way, we're talking as if more than three people can see us. As a reminder, we broadcast this live on Wednesday mornings at 9:00 AM Eastern, on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. So, that's why we're talking in a visual form, because we are looking at each other on video here.

So, if you do want to check us out on video, you can watch the recording after the fact or join us live, 9:00 AM Eastern on the face place, the YouTube or the Twitter.

Allissa Haines:

I'm a hundred percent taking a selfie of myself right now, to show everybody this T-shirt.

Michael Reynolds:

Ooh, I like your red phone case. Yeah.

Allissa Haines:

Look at that. We're mixing our media right now. I'll put that up on the Instagram in a little while.

Michael Reynolds:

Cool.

Allissa Haines:

Michael, what are you reading?

Michael Reynolds:

I'm reading about student loan forgiveness. We've probably all heard about this by now. It affects many of us. So, I'm just reading about the details of it.

This is going to become more clear probably in October-ish, a little bit later down the road here, in a few weeks. But it's welcome news, I think to many.

If you haven't heard, the Biden administration has introduced student loan forgiveness for $10,000 for any federal loans and $20,000, if you ever received a Pell Grant.

A few of the details that I have gleaned from this so far... obviously it's a very new announcement, so things will develop, it will not be a taxable forgiveness. So, basically will be a tax-free forgiveness event, which is nice, although states may individually decide to do something different at the state level. But at the federal level, it is a non-taxable forgiveness event. So that's nice.

There also is a chance that it will not go through because there could be legislation that fights it, the Supreme Court could overrule it. There's all sorts of things that could happen.

It's important we don't plan on this being a sure thing. So, don't make decisions yet, based on this thing that hasn't happened yet.

It looks to me, like there's more chance it will happen than not, but it's not a sure thing yet. We will know in the coming weeks, how sure of a thing this is.

Again, there will be an application process as well. So, probably around the October timeframe, we'll know more from your student loan service. You'll probably get an application or instructions for an application. You will have to submit the application for forgiveness. That is what we know so far.

Again, I'm sure most of us have heard of this, but if not, those are some of the details we know. So, if you have federal student loans, stay tuned. It's welcome news to many.

Allissa Haines:

Our friend, Meg sent me a potential podcast topic that is related to this. I think I'm going to ask it to you on the fly.

Michael Reynolds:

Okay.

Allissa Haines:

Are massage school student loans eligible for the PSLF, so the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program?

Michael Reynolds:

Not to my knowledge. I could be wrong.

Allissa Haines:

I don't think so either.

Michael Reynolds:

But not to my knowledge. No, you have to look it up. Yes, go ahead.

Allissa Haines:

You would have to be working a government job or be directly a government contractor job, a government directly and/or a contractor job or be working for a nonprofit.

I can't think of any particular positions for massage therapists in nonprofits, although I guess some medical centers are nonprofits organizations, so yeah.

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah, nonprofit hospitals could be eligible. Yeah.

Allissa Haines:

Yeah, that's really interesting. My gut was like, I can't imagine. I read through the PSLF info. I know they're making it easier now, to get the PSLF, because a lot of people got real shystered on that program, by doing the things and then getting denied forgiveness. That has dramatically changed in the last six months, but it's interesting stuff and good stuff.

Michael Reynolds:

Well, if you go to StudentAid.gov, there's a tool that lets you look up your employer. You can look it up specifically there and find out if your employer is PSLF eligible.

Allissa Haines:

I'll make sure we put it in the show notes. There's also the feds, for this student loan freeness program, with all the news coming out, they did put up a link where you can sign up for emails for updates, because there's a lot of... I'm hearing that there's different information.

Like you said, people would have to apply. Everywhere I've read, it says that it's going to be automatic for most borrowers. However, if you're concerned that the feds don't have your current contact info, if they need more info, you're going to need to supply it. There's actually a place, the email list, just to sign up so you get notified whenever there's an update so that when applications open for people who it doesn't happen automatically for and stuff... It's just a lot. It's a lot.

Michael Reynolds:

Oh, interesting. Oh, a quick side note, too.

Allissa Haines:

It's exciting.

Michael Reynolds:

Before we move on, be aware of scams as well. This is one of those triggering events that will lead to lots of scams out there. So, if someone calls you saying, "Hey, this is Sallie Mae or Navient or whatever, and we're calling to verify your information. Please tell us your social security number," do not do that.

Your student loan servicer has all the information they need about you. They have all your private information. They will not call you to ask for things like your social security number, payment information, even date of birth, stuff like that.

They will not call you, asking for information. So if you get a suspicious call like this, do not engage. Hang up and call the main number on the website of your student loan servicer and verify that that's something they need. So, be aware of scams. They will come out of the woodwork in droves.

Allissa Haines:

Yeah. The feds won't email you for transactional... You can get on an email list to get updates, but they're not going to email you directly for transactional information like that. So, be aware of clicking on links and such.

Good morning to you as well, Andrew. Thanks for listening live, which I think is your weekly habit now. We appreciate that.

Michael Reynolds:

Hey, Andrew.

Allissa Haines:

I'm going to talk about what I've been reading. How's that?

Michael Reynolds:

Go for it.

Allissa Haines:

I just finished a delicious little piece of fiction called Lockdown on London Lane, by Beths Reekles. No, I guess it was just more novel length, but not crazy long.

It is literally about the first week of... well, very early in March 2020, in an apartment building in London, where someone showed up with a positive case of Covid. So, the entire apartment building got locked down for a week.

It's kind of based on true stories, but it tells the stories of what's going on in four or five different apartments. It's good.

No, there's a couple that's been together for four years. They get locked down together. Nobody in or out.

Then there's a woman who is hosting a weekend bachelorette party and ends up with four friends in her apartment for a week.

Then there's a woman who gets stuck in there after a one-night stand on a Saturday night. She tries to leave Sunday morning and gets turned around at the door and has to spend a week with what was going to be a one-night stand.

A couple that gets separated because she went to visit her parents for the weekend, and he's not good at being alone. They're sweet little stories and they're funny and they're smart.

It turns out, you find how all these people are connected in a bunch of different ways. It has a really great happy ending.

Reading these kinds of stories, you'd be like... When I started reading it, I was like, oh, I don't know if I want to read this. I don't want to relive March 2020.

It was actually a pandemic lockdown project for this writer. She got locked down and she was like, Oh, crap. She was alone. She's like, all right, well I'm just going to start this little writing project.

She had put it up online, to some writer's forum. Ultimately, it became a book and it was published, which I think is just a nice story, because we all need something nice coming out of this crap hole. Yeah.

Michael Reynolds:

How lovely.

Allissa Haines:

That's it. That's what I got, Locked Down on London Lane. Michael, tell me who our next sponsor is.

Michael Reynolds:

Well, it is the original Jojoba company.

Allissa Haines:

It is indeed the original Jojoba company. They're the only company in the entire world that carries 100% pure, first press quality Jojoba, which means they don't get as much liquid out of the seed, but they get the best quality liquid from the seed.

It is non-allergenic, so you can use it on any client and every client, without being concerned about an allergic reaction.

Noncomedogenic, so it will not clog pores, which is really nice if you have clients prone to acne or just sensitive skin in general.

Then it's going to save you some money in the long run, one, because you use a lot less of it than you do other products, especially other liquid products.

It does not stain 100% cotton sheets. So, your sheets are going to last forever, without getting all smelly and gross and gunky or starting fires in your dryer. So, that's always nice.

You can get 20% off the price of Jojoba when you shop through our link MassageBusinessBlueprint.com/Jojoba.

Michael Reynolds:

Thanks, Jojoba. Jose just joined us on- Sorry, go ahead. You were going to say?

Allissa Haines:

I was just going to say good morning to Jose, who just joined ABMP yesterday. Woo hoo. Welcome to the fray, my friend. It's a delightful organization. You know how we feel about them already.

Michael Reynolds:

All right.

Allissa Haines:

So Michael's doing the heavy lifting today. I think it was a reader or listener suggested question, but Michael, how do you back up your computer?

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah. This topic idea did come from one of our Blueprint Mastermind members. I thought it was a good one. It's short and sweet. It's kind of a wake up call edition here, but we're going to talk about backing up your computer.

Before we move on, andrew also popped in to say ABMPFam hashtag there. So, Andrew's also an ABMP member, it sounds like. Woo hoo.

All right, so backing up your computer. All right, so this is one of those things that is fairly simple and straightforward, but a lot of us probably don't get around to doing it.

So if nothing else, I want this to be a, hey, you should back up your computer. That'd be great. That would be helpful to you. So let's unpack some of the details behind it though.

So many of us, most of us probably, use a computer in our massage practice. We have a computer for things like managing our website and managing bookkeeping and payments and social media and general stuff.

We probably use a computer in our emails, to scheduling stuff. So, these computers are pretty significant to our practice. If the computer disappeared, we'd probably have to scramble to figure things out. It's very convenient. It's very useful. It's probably central to running your business.

So why is it important to back up your computer? Well, because computers break. They get stolen. They get lost. Fire, flood can damage them. Disk drives fail. The drives inside your computer can fail.

Not so much anymore because they're a solid state, for the most part now. But still, things happen. Computers can either break, get damaged, get lost, stolen. Things like that can happen. So, this is why we back up your computer and all the files on it, so that you can retrieve things if something happens. You can continue to operate your business without much interruption.

Backing up your computer is really a... this term is very jargon-y, it's very business-y, a best practice as a business owner. But it really is.

I mean, it's something that every business owner, in my opinion, should be doing. It's something that's just a default thing that should be as part of our processes and our business operations.

Backing up does not have to be expensive. This is not a big deal. This is not expensive. So we're going to talk about a couple methods.

I also like to show that redundancy is good. I am a little extreme about this, maybe, but I think it's good to have more than one backup method. I'll tell you why here, as we go on. So think about redundancy, think about having even more than one backup method.

Two of the main ways to back up your computer are either on-premise or in the cloud. On-premise just means an external drive. That's what I'm talking about. So on-premise means you have your computer in your office or your home or wherever it is.

Then you have an external drive that you plug into it, that is on your premises, so to speak. It's in your location. It's next to your computer.

That involves getting a really good external backup drive. There's tons of options available out there. You want to get one that is, obviously at least as much space as your computer has on it, probably more, if possible. Get a pretty hefty size there, so you can back up multiple snapshots. You plug it in, and that backs up your computer.

Now, when it comes to backing up with an external drive, ideally you want to keep that external drive in a separate location. You want to plug it in for backups, and then you want to remove it from that location every day, if possible.

So that, if something happens to your computer in that location, the drive is stored somewhere else or maybe in a safe somewhere, like a fireproof safe.

So if it's at your office, you get water damage or flooding or fire or electrical issue or something happens and your computer is destroyed, if your drive is sitting there right next to it, that's probably also going to be damaged or destroyed. So, you might want to get in the habit of taking the drive home with you every day, for example. Or again, at least storing it in a protected safe of some sort, that protects it a bit.

Both Mac and Windows have built-in backup tools. On Mac it's called Time Machine. You plug in your drive, you set up Time Machine. It'll automatically back up every hour, to Time Machine, and it's pretty much automatic.

The only thing you have to worry about is unplugging the drive and moving it or taking you with you.

Windows has a backup tool as well. I think it's called Backup and Restore. I don't use Windows, but I did look into it. I think the tool's called Backup and Restore. I think it functions similar to Time Machine. So, both Mac and Windows have built-in backup tools, that kind of automate this for you.

The pro of an on-premise system, like a backup, drive is that it's very convenient if you need to restore.

It's typically easy to plug in your drive and restore a whole snapshot into a new computer. It's fast because it's right there. The drive is just hooked up directly to your computer. It's typically the most convenient way to restore a computer.

Another pro is, it's more of a one-time fee. You basically buy a drive one time and there's no monthly subscription. You just have the hardware right there.

The biggest con or the biggest downside I see to an external drive on-premise solution is, you have to remember to plug in your external drive.

It's a hassle. Assuming you're taking it with you, you have to remember to pull it out of your bag and plug it in and then unplug it and take it with you.

You could just leave it plugged in there all the time, if your computer stays in one place. But again, that defeats the purpose of having a backup that is away from your computer. So, there is a little bit of a logistical inconvenience there, to moving the drive around. That's the rundown on the on-premise solution.

The other option is cloud. Cloud, it typically takes the form of a subscription to an online service. That means backups are stored in the cloud, which is really just a fancy way of saying it's some other computer in a fancy, data center.

That's all the cloud is. You're subscribing to a company that stores your data in a computer in their big, fancy data centers, that are protected and fireproof and biometric scanners and everything. So, that's all it really means.

So when you hear the cloud, it's just a computer somewhere else, that is designed to be used for that purpose. That is how cloud works.

The pros of a cloud solution are, it's automatic. You don't really have to worry about it. You just set up the software on your computer and it just runs automatically. You never have to really do anything. It just runs in the background. There's no drive to worry about unplugging or anything. It just kind of happens, which is nice.

The con or the downside is, there is going to be a monthly subscription fee. I haven't really found any great free backup services I would trust. Typically, you're going to be paying around five to $10 a month.

Carbonite is one good option, that's very popular. I personally use Backblaze, which is also very popular.

I think Backblaze is $5 a month. Carbonite is between five and 10, depending on various things. I think it's around that price range. So, it's not very expensive and again, it lets you just automatically back up. No real intervention required. So, that's the cloud solution.

Having both is not a bad idea. I do recommend having both. The reason for that is, it's kind of a backup to your backup.

Let's say something happens to your computer. It just gets completely destroyed or damaged or something, and you can't use it anymore. Well, you've got two options. You've got your external drive that you can restore from, and you've got your cloud backup.

The cloud backup is more for just downloading all the files you have and then putting them on the new computer. It doesn't necessarily recreate the entire experience of your old computer. It's more about keeping the files safe.

Your external drive will typically mirror the entire setup of your computer, and then just restore the whole thing.

Let's say you have both in place, and you forget to take your drive with you one night. Your office burns down and everything's lost.

Well, your backup is your cloud. Then you can't restore an entire snapshot of your computer, but you can get the files you lost and recreate it and you're fine.

So, the redundancy of the cloud is helpful, I think in that instance, where maybe the external drive doesn't work out.

Let's say you don't have your external drive with you and you're in the office day. "Oh crap, I deleted that file." I need it back. Well, go onto your cloud system, download the file you need and you're good to go. So the redundancy is nice. I like having that in place.

What about things like your cloud files, like Google Drive, for example? Okay, this is getting a little more extreme. Allissa made fun of me because this is like, whoa, this is an extra step.

But I want you to be aware that it exists. I think it's a good idea to consider backing up your Google Drive files as well.

Now, is something likely to happen to your Google Drive files? Are Google's data centers likely to get hit by a meteor? Probably not. I don't know. I mean, it's probably fine, but there are services that will back up your Google Drive and Dropbox and things like that.

Now, one could argue you don't need that if you're syncing up to your local computer. So for example, if you have the Drive app on your computer, that then syncs up your drive files with your computer, that's a good level of redundancy, because then those are getting backed up to your external drive, in theory.

But I use a service called AFI, AFI.ai. I think the minimum is $15 a month. So it's not cheap, but it's not expensive either, because you have to buy a minimum of three licenses or something, and each one's $5 a month.

What that does is, three times a day actually, it backs up your Google Drive into their system. Which means if something happens to your Google Drive or you can't get to it, you can go to AFI and download your drive files, like your DOCSIS Word documents or your Sheets as Excel files. I think it'll make a downloadable version of them.

So, if you want to make sure your Google Drive is backed up, for example, if you're storing a lot of client information there, that is pretty important, sensitive stuff, you might want to make sure that you back that up. It could be worthwhile to consider that. That is a cloud option as well.

So bottom line, the two options really to consider are on-premise, which is at your location, with an external drive, cloud backup service, which is very inexpensive. Maybe consider Google Drive backup, if you use that. Possibly not, but maybe.

But the bottom line is, to me backup is like insurance. You hate paying for it until you need it and then when you need it, you'll regret if you didn't pay for it. So, it's not that expensive. It's worth paying for, in my opinion.

It's worth doing something, in terms of buying a drive or buying a subscription service or both, because if you do ever need, it's pretty much a disaster. You're going to want to have it in place.

That's a rundown on backing up your computer in your massage practice. I'll pause there, for any questions or comments.

Allissa Haines:

Yeah. Andrew just noted that external hard drives can be password protected as well. You can use them as a key to access your desktop computer, laptop, as an extra security measure. Truth?

Michael Reynolds:

I like that

Allissa Haines:

Good to do. Hardcore. I'm so overwhelmed, Michael. I actually do have an external. I have a big, sizable, fancy external hard drive. So, whenever I come out to my little backyard office, which is three, four or five times a week, it automatically plugs... when I push my computer into the port, it automatically runs a Time Machine backup.

The Time Machine is the Mac program for backup. I don't have my Google Drive backed up and stuff, but I feel like if somehow my Google Drive gets wiped, everybody else's in the world is going to as well, and then I'm just going to not care.

It's kind of why I feel good about using Gmail. Even though I don't really feel great about Google as a company, you got to sell your soul to some devil or another, to be working on the internet.

So, I feel like if my Gmail goes down, everyone's is going to go down. That's happened before, where I don't know, a third of Google users across the country couldn't access Google or Gmail or whatever, for a couple hours. Everybody was just like, cool, let's take a nap.

If mine goes down, it's likely thousands and thousands and billions of other people's is going to go down too. And at that point, we don't care.

We might care when nobody can do anything about it or get mad at you, because it ain't your fault. So, that's my classy feeling on that.

Michael Reynolds:

I think it depends on your business. Obviously, if you're pretty much using all cloud software and you really don't store anything important on your computer, then yeah, your need is going to be less for backup.

But sometimes you might have files in your computer that are pretty important to your business. That means there's more of a need for it. So, it all depends on your situation, obviously. Yeah.

Allissa Haines:

Yeah, I know. I have definitely gotten screwed by not having any kind of backup protocols and losing a lot of stuff. I had a friend who had to recreate eight years of QuickBooks in her business.

It was back in the QuickBooks desktop days. Yeah. Her computer just crashed suddenly. She hadn't been doing backups. She had to go back and recreate so much stuff.

Just seeing that is enough to be like, ooh yeah. So yeah, I got external hard drives all over the place.

I have one at my house. I used to have one at my office. I need to do that. It's pretty rare that my computer's ever left in this office with the hard drive. So, I feel like I could lose one, but not the other.

Back in the day, I had a hard drive at the office and a hard drive at home. They would automatically get plugged into the computer whenever I went to that place. So, I had multiple backups, but I'm not that good at it now.

So, thank you Michael, for that warning and information, about really needing to insure your information, essentially.

Michael Reynolds:

Right on.

Allissa Haines:

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I'm sorry. I was just reading Andrew's comments. So Andrew just had comment said, "I wonder if the BPP," which is the Business Personal Property add-on from ABMP, "would cover a computer if it crashed?"

No. Well no, it doesn't cover a broken computer. It would cover computer replacement, I believe, if your office burned down, but I don't think it covers just a broken, crashed computer.

Oh, that would be great though, if there was insurance for that. Huh? I guess there kind of is, if you buy the extended warranty, but I'm not an extended warranty person. I'm a gambler.

Michael Reynolds:

They're usually not worth it. All right, you got a quick tip? Looks like you do.

Allissa Haines:

I'm sorry?

Michael Reynolds:

Oh, sorry. It looks like you have a quick tip.

Allissa Haines:

Okay, sorry. It cut out for me for a little second. I do have a quick tip. I guess you're telling me to go first.

My little philosophical quick tip today, is a reminder that you can go back to a habit that you dropped. It's okay if certain techniques only work in spurts.

For me, the Pomodoro method of productivity... or not productivity necessarily, but work, of focus, is really effective for me when I am in stages where I have a lot of writing to do.

Meal planning works really well for me during the school year. It does not work for me in the summer. Budgeting, it works for me probably 11 out of 12 months a year. Then, sometimes things just go off the rails.

The bulk of my life went off the rails for the last eight to 12 weeks, and then we got a dog. So, I have been just disheveled, untethered and disheveled. All of my typical routines that keep me and the flow and ease of my life, just went berserk. It needed to happen. There was just a lot changing.I rolled with it, and feel really good about my flexibility.

However, the kids started school last week. My work schedule's a little changed still because of the dog, and I'm finding myself a hot mess.

I found that in August I, one, spent way too much money and a lot of it was on the dog. But also in just, I wasn't meal planning, so I was getting too much, buying too much food, out on the way to and from work. It was just all that.

I purposely lightened my workload for the summer, but even still, I'm not behind, I'm just not ahead or where I want to be. So, anything that didn't have a hard deadline didn't get done.

It must've been Monday. It was a holiday, Labor Day. I spent the day getting my crap together, with meal planning and scheduling and budgeting.

That included scheduling time, blocking out time to write and to write specific things, which is really helpful for me, to make a note.

I have found, if I don't loosely outline the thing I'm going to write before that time I have set to write it, then I will go off the rails, because I'll sit down and it's just a blank page. It won't work.

So, I got my meal planned together. I picked up my groceries from the grocery store. I did my budgeting for September. I wrote down in my schedule, when I was going to do certain tasks. And then I took the extra step of loosely outlining the things, the four pieces that I have to write.

It felt so good yesterday, to cook my meals for the next four days. I say cook. A lot of them are just assembling little snack bento boxes, which is pretty much how I eat nowadays. It just felt really, really good.

I did my budget and read the email or two from my accountant. That was a few things I have to do. I did all the things and feel great about it and feel really good about September.

So it would have been easy for me to say, "Oh, I stopped doing all these things, therefore they didn't work for me." No, it's okay for things and habits to work for you in different times.

I'm coming back into a time where I need that structure. So, I did it. That is my little feel good or feel bad, however you look at it, session of the day. Michael.

Michael Reynolds:

I love it. I think it's feel good.

Allissa Haines:

What's your quick tip?

Michael Reynolds:

My quick tip is also student loan related, from the beginning of the episode. This is a lesser known fact, but according to the Federal Student Aid website, you can request a refund for any payment made during the pandemic pause of student loans, beginning March 13th, 2020.

What this means is, if you paid off the remainder of your student loans just before the forgiveness announcement, you could get what you paid, back and then get the forgiveness. So, be aware that you have the option to request a refund on payments you've made after that date.

Allissa Haines:

I heard that as well, yesterday. That's exciting. I don't know if you've been listening to the Farnoosh, So Money Podcast. I only listened to the Friday episodes, the Ask Farnoosh questions.

Michael Reynolds:

Not so much lately.

Allissa Haines:

She did a financial aid relief episode the other day. They had a really neat conversation about people who, for one reason or another, rolled their loans into private loans and now will get none of that relief.

I'm someone who, I rolled my massage school, and then my old college loans all into one private loan, with Navient, or it might've been Sallie Mae at the time. I don't know. So, I would not have been eligible for any of this relief anyway.

But yeah, I got all excited when I heard this that, because I paid off my loans in May of 2020. I heard this and I went, that's so exciting. I could get a couple of grand back.

Then I went, Oh no, my loans are private. So, I had a little sadness about that, but I'm so delighted that this relief is coming. It's not nearly enough, but I'm so delighted for the people that this does help. I'm grateful that I was able to pay mine off, without ever being hungry or homeless. So, yay.

Michael Reynolds:

Indeed.

Allissa Haines:

Yeah, okay. Waxing philosophical, my apologies.

Michael Reynolds:

No worries. You want to take us home?

Allissa Haines:

Thanks for joining us, everyone. If you love this podcast or if you hate this podcast and you're still listening, you can go to Apple Podcasts and give us a little review. Tell us what you think. We appreciate that. It helps other listeners find us.

We are, in fact, the longest running massage podcast that I have ever found on Apple Podcasts. I'm a little bit proud of that, quite frankly.

That's all the things I have to say. You can go to MassageBusinessBlueprint.com to get a whole bunch of free resources, info about running your business, the entire archive of podcasts and some great looking head shots of Michael and I. Thanks so much for joining us.