Student Loan Debt: What you need to know

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     As a student in the United States, the question of college comes up constantly, especially now that I'm in high school. This idea of going to college is an important choice for me in determining what path I am going take in life. About 65.9% of students choose this path of college and pursue a degree. Besides worrying about which college they're going to or how they will get accepted, many students are worried about how they are going to pay for the next few years of their education. A lot of people have no idea how to approach this and some people just don't understand the significance of debt. Student debt is a leading issue in the United States and you're about to learn about it through some mind-blowing graphs and statistics.
     First off, what is student loan debt?! When people can't afford to pay for college immediately they will have to borrow money. Whether it be from a private(bank) or public(government) institution they have to pay it back eventually. Many people don't actually have to start paying off the loans until after college and often the payments plan lasts 10 years or more. This allows people to go to college but they are often stuck paying for it often until about the time they retire.
     How much student debt is there actually? The total stands at a whopping $1.5 Trillion with 44.7 million people borrowing, which is $500 Billion more than the total credit card debt. To put that in perspective that's 450 billion fresh pairs of yeezys, 12 million Tesla Model Xs, or about 77 Ford-Class Aircraft Carriers. That is more than double the U.S Military budget which is really saying something. 
     We know what student loan debt is and that we have a lot of it. Why should you care? Well, take a look at this graph below.

Graph by Ticas.org

   Although varying by ethnicity, on average about 16% of all people who have taken out loans have defaulted on them. That means they couldn't afford payments and are having to pay more due to fees and additional interest in addition to not even paying off the debt. 63% of people who took out loans still haven't paid them off either. That's a huge percentage of people that are still dealing with college debt even though they may have graduated 30-40 years ago. The amount of people getting into debt is rising. Many more people are pursuing a bachelors degree than ever seen before meaning that this epidemic will only get bigger. 

    What effect does student loan debt have on someone? Well, the median monthly payment for people paying off student loan debt is $222 or $2664 a year. On average people with a bachelor's degree make $35,615. The means that people are making $33,000 when you subtract student loans. That's not mentioning, car loans, house mortgages, car insurance, health insurance, and groceries. Which yearly on average(based on a 1-2 person budget) costs $31,000. That means your extremely average Joe has $2000 left for whatever non-essential spending needs he has. Some people can work with that, others splurge and then go into more debt by overcharging their credit cards. 

     Besides having a monetary effect on your life, being in debt can wreak emotional havoc on you. According to an APA study, 72% of Americans felt stressed over being in debt and 22% felt extreme stress. Some more emotional effects are that overall production and functionality of someone's brain goes down when they're worried about paying a bill. This problem can be so bad that it ruins relationships, leads people to depression, and overall causes earlier deaths due to their health being affected by stress.

      Alright, you've heard the facts! Student debt is an issue in the United States and the number of people getting into debt is only increasing. Remember: avoid student debt as much as possible. If you're interested in figuring out strategies and want to learn tips on how to avoid debt in the first place check this article out.