The hard truth about living with student loan debt

There really aren’t any cheerful numbers out there regarding student loans. In fact, they’re all pretty depressing. Consider: Student loan debt now exceeds credit card debt in the U.S., according to recent Federal Reserve numbers. Roughly two-thirds of college students are borrowing cash, graduating with an average debt of about $24,000, according to the Project on Student Debt. And nearly two out of five student loan borrowers fell behind on payments at some point in the first five years of repayment, according to the Institute for Higher Education Policy.

“A lot of families sign whatever piece of paper is put in front of them, thinking they’ll just figure out how to pay it back,” says Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org and FastWeb.com. “They’re often surprised by the interest rates when they graduate.”

But don’t worry. Student loans are “good” debt, right?

Not necessarily. Students and their parents who are contemplating big loans for college need to think seriously what life will be like after the diploma is in hand. College grads who exit school with $10,000, $50,000 or $100,000 in student loans quickly find all that debt doesn’t feel so good after all. I spoke to a few borrowers to see what life is like on the flip side of a student loan.

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