Brianna McGurranQ: I want to get married, buy a house and hit other adult milestones in my 20s and 30s, but my student loan debt is holding me back. Should I put off other goals while I repay my student loans?
A: Feeling stymied by student loans is becoming a defining part of being a 20- or 30-something. The numbers are stacked against us: College is more expensive, we’re taking on more debt to afford it, and it’s harder for us to repay the money we borrow.
According to the College Board, the average public four-year college’s net price – the amount you pay for tuition, fees, room and board after accounting for scholarships, grants and tax benefits – jumped from $9,940 a year to $13,320 from 2003-04 to 2013-14. Not surprisingly, the average amount of student loan debt at graduation went up 56 percent between 2004 and 2014, the Institute for College Access & Success reports. Meanwhile, the median household income fell 6.5 percent between 2007, the year before the recession hit, and 2014, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Your concerns are real, and don’t let anybody tell you that you just shouldn’t have taken out student loans, or that you should have chosen a more lucrative major when you were 18 and couldn’t plan past your next meal.
But there are ways to make your student loan payments more manageable so you can afford a wedding, a down payment and other trappings of adulthood. You can also recast your expectations of what you’re supposed to achieve in your 20s and 30s to lessen that feeling of falling behind.