Terri Petz, who is 57, plans to keep working for another few decades, in part because she doesn't think she'll ever pay off her student debt. After borrowing around $80,000 to get a bachelor's degree and an MBA, Petz now makes $12 an hour as a temporary data-entry worker, and her student debt has ballooned to about $130,000. She has no retirement savings and worries she'll fall behind on her federal student loans; defaulting on them could lead the government to seize her Social Security benefits.

From 2003 to 2015, the average 65-year-old's student debt rose more than five times as much as the average 30-year-old's, after adjusting for inflation, according to the New York Fed. And in 2013, at least 105,000 Americans in default on federal student loans saw so much of their benefits garnished that their take-home pay was below federal poverty thresholds, according to the Government Accountability Office. More than half of federal student loans held by borrowers 75 or older were in default.

"I stay awake at night and worry thinking about that debt -- a couple nights a week, at least," Petz said. "It's terrifying at my age. The older I get, the more I think about it. I can't retire like my father did. I'll be working the rest of my life."
 

First « 1 2 » Next