A new lengthy feature in The Wall Street Journal tells the cautionary tale of taking on mountains of student loan debt.
Headlined “Student-Loan Debt Is Strangling Gen X,” the Sept. 30 article states “Gen X is barreling toward retirement with an excruciating student-loan burden.”
“The six million-plus borrowers aged 50 to 61 have the highest average balance of any age group, at $47,857, according to Federal Student Aid data,” the Journal reported, noting these stats come at a time when the Trump administration is cracking down on outstanding student loan debt.
One former student told the newspaper “he regrets going to graduate school and taking out student loans. He has nothing saved for retirement and doesn’t think he will be able to afford to buy a house.”
“I’m going to be working until the day I die,” he told the Journal. “…I have nonstop fear, worry and anxiety over these loans. It’s just been a big strain mentally on a daily basis.”
Complicating matters is Gen X’s other debts, such as their mortgages, car payments, and credit card bills.
“Gen X had a median nonmortgage debt of $26,207 as of this year, higher than all other generations, according to a LendingTree analysis of people in the largest 100 metro areas,” the Journal reported. “They also held the highest average credit-card debt last year, at $9,557, according to Experian.”
All this has taken a toll.
“Now, as parents and grandparents, they are passing along a skepticism toward higher education and its hefty price tag, part of the broader unraveling of America’s ‘college for all’ ideology,” according to the newspaper.
