New research shows rising college loan debt is impacting the economy in alarming ways.
It typically involves young adults seeking the American dream by going to college in hopes of landing a good job. It's what their parents, teachers and prospective employers urged them to do throughout high school.
Instead of landing high-paying jobs, more graduates are now experiencing delays in seeing the financial benefit from their diplomas.
Austin resident Liz Rackowski is one of those graduates. She said she makes good money working at Facebook, but her credit is destroyed.
When she graduated from Northwestern University in Boston with an English degree seven years ago, she had about $63,000 in student loan debt.
"I have about 84,000 in debt," said Rackowski.
The debt exploded because she defaulted on her student loans. She couldn't afford to pay her $1,100 monthly payments, which was more than her rent at the time.
Her pleas for help to her lender went nowhere. "I remember specifically being in a hallway for a company I was working for at the time, crying on the phone with someone saying, 'I want to pay you money, I'm telling you that, I can only pay you this much,'" said Rackowski.
While she sees friends and family getting married and buying homes scrolling through Facebook, those dreams are now put on hold. She said her student loan debt has significantly contributed to those delays.
Lindsey Garza is another graduate putting off major life decisions. She landed an advertising job in Austin after graduating from the University of Missouri last year.
She and her parents owe about $160,000 in student loan debt for her journalism degree. For now, Garza can only afford to pay the interest on her loans. The 25-year-old wants to buy her first home in five years.
"That's something that I'm concerned that I probably won't be able to make at that time," said Garza.
Garza and Rackowski's debt contributes to be an increasing problem facing graduates. It's so big, student loan debt surpassed $1 trillion in 2009 – eclipsing total credit card debt.
All that debt impacts the economy. According to a 2015 report by Student Loan Hero, one in seven college graduates are delaying marriage due to student loan debt; and 47 percent of them have put off purchasing a new car.
According to the Federal Reserve Bank last year, "mortgage borrowing has fallen for all 30-year-olds, but has fallen more for student borrowers."
"A student loan debt that you come away with that prevents you from being able to start a family, or buy a house, or move into the job you want to move into, the question is, is that really worth it?" said Dr. Thomas Lindsay, director of the Center for Higher Education at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Student debt impacts job growth too. Small businesses create 60 percent of the job growth in the U.S. A 2015 study shows student loan debt responsible for a 14 percent drop in new businesses from 2000 to 2010.
"So, for the last 40 years, we've been on this very well-intentioned program, that everybody should go to college, but the consequence of that has been disastrous," said Lindsay.
"It's not just about the major life decisions. It's about how you feel about yourself too. I work at a company where people are buying houses and getting married and you don't want people to know that there's this thing that happened to you where you don't have the option to do that," said Rackowski.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said both federal and private student lenders are not doing enough to help students repay their loans.
Garza didn't know she qualified for income-based repayments until a friend at work told her. Her monthly payments dropped from $650 to just $65.
Her lender never explained that option to her when she complained.
