Average Student Loan Debt is $25,760
Every generation has had to scimp and save in order to afford to go to college, but none has faced the severe challenges that this generation is facing. According to the Washington Post, today's college graduates are plagued by money-related issues more "than any generation before them." Todd Romer of Young Money magazine adds that if today's college graduates "were not able to save and be frugal during college, they'll still need to attempt to be frugal in those first few years after college."
The reason is that college graduates traditionally face low starting salaries and minimal savings but this generation also faces the challenges of far higher educational and credit card debt than did previous generations. New Jersey research firm Student Monitor pegs that average student loan debt at a staggering $25,760, which takes the average student nearly eight years to pay off. Compounding this student loan debt load is credit card debt, which for the 40 percent who do not pay off their cards in full each month amounts to an additional average unpaid balance or debt of $617.
What impact does all of this debt have? One problem is that today's graduates aren't able to become financially independent from their parents. More than half move back into their parents' homes and almost one third live there for more than a year after graduation.
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