I'm Nicole Lapin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand.

It's time for some money rehab.

Alright, here's your weekly roundup of the biggest headlines on Wall Street and how they affect your wallet.

Let's start with some good news, shall we? The federal government managed to avoid a shutdown, yay!

That means a whole lot of government employees like TSA workers will get their paycheck for their work and a bunch of key programs will continue to be funded like the National Flood Insurance Program.

Personally, I could not get over the threat of Congress shutting down the very same week that the student loan repayments came to.

This is your urgent reminder that yes, student loan payments, it is actually happening this time.

I've covered best practices for student loans a bunch of times on the show, but here's a quick to do list if you've been putting this off in hopes that it would just go away.

First, log on to the federal government's student loan portal.

Answer the secret question, do a little interpretive dance, whatever it takes to get your old log in and go back.

From there, identify the company servicing your student loan. It might be with a brand new company.

During the pause, a lot of borrowers got shuffled around.

Next, figure out a repayment plan that works for you. Student loan forgiveness is still out there and the federal government has new income-driven repayment plans that can save you a ton of money if you're eligible.

If you've already enrolled in a payment plan or if you've used the pause to pay off your loans interest-free, then give yourself a pat on the back.

If you've been procrastinating, don't freak out, of course. Currently, the federal government isn't reporting late payments to the credit bureaus, but this isn't a get out of jail-free card.

They are still charging you interest, so the longer you let this debt just sit unattended, the more it's going to cost you in the long run.

There has been a lot of coverage about the restart of the student loan repayment program last weekend, but one federal program ended and it hasn't gotten nearly the same amount of coverage, yet it impacts millions of families in the United States.

On September 30, pandemic era funding for early education and child care programs ran out.

The most immediate result will be that some 70,000 daycare and preschool programs will close.

Others will have to reduce the number of children they can serve. Overall, some 3.2 million children will lose their educational spot.

We could talk all day long about the benefits of federal investment in early childhood education and how in the long term had start programs pay for themselves since every dollar invested, resulted about a $2 increase in the earnings for the child.

But that's the future benefit of educating and caring for children. The most immediate impact for providing low-cost child care is that more parents can work.

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