Two-thirds of the nation's $900 billion in student debt is held by Americans under 40, the Fed estimates. But borrowers over 40 are having a particularly tough time with student debt for several reasons, consumer and higher-education experts say.
Many debtors over 40 are still paying balances from college years ago, while their home values and savings have declined sharply in recent years. Some have stopped payments after losing jobs.
Since 2005, the number of Americans in their 50s with student loans has doubled to 4.6 million, and borrowers in their 60s and older more than tripled to 2.2 million.
Francine Crusan-Garcia, 50 years old, owes roughly $75,000 in federal and private student loans from attending Regis University, a Catholic university in Denver, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in organizational development in 2008.
The married mother of five children from Commerce City, Colo., said she recently missed a payment on her mortgage to make her $415 monthly student-debt payment. Her husband is unemployed, and the family struggles to get by on her five-figure salary.
"It's 'Do I feed my kids, do I pay my car payment, do I pay my car insurance?' " Mr. Crusan-Garcia said.
Ms. Crusan-Garcia says her daughter, 29, just lost a job and is struggling to keep up with student-loan payments as well. "I just wish there was a way to get out from under it."
Everyone stop paying! What can they do, put you all prison? If this is the situation for the middle aged now, what will it be like for those going to university now, in years to come. No one will get out of this debt, and what is the debt for? For improving your life, for getting an education, to get a job and pay taxes, so stop paying for your loan. If everyone did this they would have to lower the price of said education. There is no way on earth anyone should be saddled with this much debt for trying to help the system that is screwing them.
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