Survey reveals regret among students over loans

A recent survey by Wells Fargo Bank showed a surprising amount of regret among college graduates, many of whom said that they would be in a better financial situation today if they had chosen to go right to work instead of attending college and taking out student loans.

The total amount of outstanding student loans in the United States has exceeded $1 trillion. This incredibly high amount of debt makes it harder for people with student loans to obtain favorable credit card rates, mortgages, and car loans. The high payment amounts and interest rates also cause long-term financial hardship as many people are unable to maintain timely payments on all of their various types of debt. While student loans cannot typically be discharged during a bankruptcy proceeding, some people are finding relief by filing for bankruptcy and discharging or refinancing credit card debt and mortgage debt.

The survey asked people between the ages of 22 and 32 (the millennial generation) what they would do if they were given $10,000 suddenly and a majority said that the first thing they would do is pay off student debt and credit card debt.

Often bankruptcy is seen from the outside as a way to shirk responsibiltiy from previously undertaken obgliations. However, the above fact points out something important that many people overlook when they consider bankruptcy filing – people in general wish that they were able to afford to pay off their debt but they simply cannot, no matter how you do the math. 

54 percent of millennials surveyed said that their debt in general is their more serious financial concern. Just under half told surveyors that their debt was “overwhelming.”

Source: Forbes, “Student Loan Problems: One Third of Millennials Regret Going to College,” Halal Touryalai, May 22, 2013