Student loans are crucial for making credit unions relevant to young people

by Shared iDiz

Student loans continue to plague our youngest generations. This debt is keeping us from buying cars, buying houses, having kids, and generally moving on with our lives. Need proof? When the U.S. Department of Education offered to freeze student loan payments during the COVID-19 pandemic borrowers collectively agreed wholeheartedly. So much so that more than 88% stopped making payments entirely.

Which, let me mention, doesn’t make a lot of financial sense, long term. The federal government also put a freeze on interest, meaning this has been the best chance many of us have ever had to make solid progress on paying off those student loan balances. So why aren’t more people taking this golden opportunity?

Student loan debt is overwhelming.

I wasn’t kidding about how this debt has affected multiple generations of young people. The numbers around student loan debt are truly astonishing.

As of last year there was $1.58 trillion of outstanding student loan debt nationwide. Around 30% of college students are relying on loans to attend college and the average amount of student loans per borrower is sitting at just under $40k. I don’t think it’s overstating to say that student loans are the financial anchor weighing down at least two generations.

 

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