Acting without considering the consequences is generally not a wise thing to do. And among student loan borrowers, more than half are sorry they buried themselves in debt, admitting that they didn't understand what they were getting into.
According to a study by the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center (GFLEC) at the George Washington University School of Business, not only are many borrowers struggling to make student loan payments, they also regret their borrowing.
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The study, which used data from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation's 2015 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS), released in July of 2016, said that 43 million Americans are burdened with student loans—nearly double what the number was 10 years ago—and nearly half of young workers start their careers while carrying such loans.
In 2003, student loan debt amounted to $240 billion; now it stands at $1.3 trillion. The study pointed out that "the ubiquity of student loan debt could impede financial stability for both individuals and the economy."
Not only did most borrowers say they didn't understand the ramifications of their student loans, 54 percent said they hadn't tried to figure out what their monthly payments would be before taking the loans and 53 percent said that if they could do it over again, they'd handle the situation differently.
And it shouldn't be too surprising that 37 percent of respondents with payments due said that they'd been late with a student loan payment at least once in the last 12 months.
In addition, the nearly 30 percent of student loan holders who do not complete their degrees report serious problems repaying their debt. Some 53 percent said they had been late with a payment at least once in the previous year.
And while most student loan debt is carried on the shoulders of the young, older people are by no means exempt; 45 percent of respondents aged 18–34 have a student loan, but 27 percent of respondents aged 35–54 and 9 percent of respondents age 55 and older carry student loan debt either for themselves or for family members.
That's cutting into their ability to maximize savings and prepare for retirement.
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