Nearly 60% Say They Fear Not Being Able to Repay Their Student Loans

Paying for College
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<p>"Only 1-in-5 American adults is carrying some sort of student loan debt, and yet that relatively small group of consumers accounts for more than $1 trillion owed to lenders, more than either auto loans or credit card debt. And a new survey finds that nearly 60% of these borrowers are worried that they won’t be able to pay off their student loans." ...</p>

<p>More</a> Than Half Of People With Student Loans Are Worried They Can?t Repay ? Consumerist</p>

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<p>No sympathy at all. No one put a gun to their head making them take out a loan. Go to a cheaper school. Work and save $. Etc, etc. </p>

<p>You signed the docs, you pay it back.</p>

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<p>The survey didn’t ask respondents if they wanted sympathy. It asked about whether they were concerned about their own ability to pay back their student loans. A responsible person in a challenging economy might well be concerned, even with a small amount of student debt. </p>

<p>It’s a complex picture: tuition is high, IMO, even at many formerly inexpensive state publics. Wages have been stagnant and the job market hasn’t been healthy. So, it is not surprising that people “worry”—many responsible loan holders are probably rightfully concerned. </p>

<p>A number of reasonable and debt-averse people today are also concerned about saving for retirement, paying for medical insurance, or about the costs of raising their children. This is not the same thing as asking for sympathy or pity.</p>

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<p>@Iron Maiden, nobody put a gun to the borrowers’ head either when they signed on the home mortgage under the predatory lending practice before the financial crisis. What happened? The gov still holds all the banks and mortgage companies accountable.</p>

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<p>

It’s amazing how fast the numbers grow when you use the aggregate. There are 221M adults over the age of 21 in the US (2010 US census). 1 in 5 is 44M. $1T/44M people is $22.7K. Is that too much? I don’t think so. Note the use of the word Only at the beginning of the sentence. Makes it more ominous, doesn’t it?</p>

<p>BTW, I found it interesting in the actual report that 60+% of those who had NO COLLEGE CREDITS were worried. About what? Presumably they don’t have any education debt.</p>

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<p><<“The group with the most worried members (61%) are those borrowers with only a high-school education, who likely took out student loans to pay for non-college training or certification programs.”>></p>

<p>This group may also include students who dropped out and never finished an AA or bachelors degree.</p>