Thirty And Broke

That's the title of a great special report in this week's issue of BusinessWeek (pg. 76 in print - it's online but you need to register). The report profiles the college debt status of several 30-year olds. Some of the numbers are staggering. One person owes a combined debt of $111,000 for an undergrad and MBA degree. In addition, many of these individuals have significant credit cart debt. On the plus side most of them do have good paying jobs, but even so they typically are postponing buying homes, having children, or many other things previous generations have taken for granted as adults. The problem? College tuition has increased about 50% since 1990 while the median family income rose 5.8% (adjusted for inflation) during the same period. Try to get hold of the November 14 issue of BusinessWeek for this special report.

Comments

[Kris]

It's appalling, and I wish it were not so common. I'm sitting at a level of debt that I don't like to think about on a daily basis. At this point, I've resigned myself to paying for student loans for the next 15-20 years, and have put it out of my mind.