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U.S. student loan debt has climbed to $1.5 trillion, saddling 44 million Americans with some form of college debt, 29% of the working population, according to a new report from Guardian Life Insurance Co.
Sixty-nine percent of working adults with college debt said their finances were the main source of their stress, compared with 43% of those without college debt.
Fewer study participants than two years ago reported that they were making good progress toward paying off their student loans or saving for their children's higher education. Thirty-one percent felt they were falling behind in meeting these and other financial goals: replacing income if sick or injured and saving for retirement.
As a consequence, seven in 10 parents said they planned to use some retirement savings and investments to pay for their children's college education, putting their own financial wellness at risk.
It has been widely noted that millennials are the generation most widely affected by college debt, with 75% carrying some form of loan debt. However, the Guardian study found that baby boomers 60 or older were the fastest-growing category of student-loan debtors, and were most likely to feel that college-related debt significantly impeded them in meeting their financial goals.
Boomers' loan balances surged by more than 70% in the past five years — the largest increase of any demographic group, Guardian reported, citing AARP research. It said more retirees were seeing their Social Security payments garnished, chiefly to pay for student loans they had taken out for their children.
According to the report, U.S. Department of Education data indicated that at the end of September, 1.8 million borrowers age 62 and older owed $62.5 billion in federal student loan debt and those in the 50-61 age group owed $213.6 billion.
