Page 10 - A Guide To Financial Health v2
P. 10
Chapter 01: Americans are stuck
This is especially true for students who never finished: Between 2014 and
2016 alone, 3.9 million college students with federal student loan debt
dropped out. Those who take out loans, but never finish their degree, are
three times more likely to default on their loan than students who graduate.
And this type of default precludes people from getting more financial aid to
resume classes later in life.
As of 2018, Americans are carrying $13.5 trillion in debt. Student loans
account for $1.4 trillion of that debt, an increase of $64 billion from 2017.
Mortgage debt is at $9.1 trillion, and the average household has $8,284 in
credit card debt. Total consumer debt has been increasing for 17
consecutive quarters.
"As higher education gets more expensive, the actual
economic returns to a university degree are about flat.
People who are more educated make more money than
people with less education, but overall, most
educational groups are just treading water.”
– THE ATLANTIC
