$1 trillion student loan debt widens US wealth gap
Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Every month that Gregory Zbylut pays $1,300 toward his law school loans is another month of not qualifying for a decent mortgage.
Every payment toward their student loans is $900 Dr. Nida Degesys and her husband aren’t putting in their retirement savings account.
They believe they’ll eventually climb from debt and begin using their earnings to build assets rather than fill holes. But, like the roughly 37 million others in the U.S. saddled with $1 trillion in student debt, they may never catch up with wealthy peers who began life after college free from the burden.
The disparity, experts say, is contributing to the widening of the gap between rich and everyone else in the country.
Read more: http://www.salon.com/2014/03/27/1_trillion_student_loan_debt_widens_us_wealth_gap/
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I'm glad to know that some people have managed to do ok despite our looming troubles. Good on ya. 
...every little bit helps, I guess.
I'm worried about how much college is going to cost for my kids (ages 13 and 11).
my student loan debt dies with me and my kids won't be responsible ...(they are still paying on their own) 
Not so much anymore, as expressed in this statement from the article: “If you graduate with a B.A. or doctorate and you get the same job at the same place, you make the same amount of money,” said William Elliott III, director of the Assets and Education Initiative at the University of Kansas. “But that money will actually mean less to you in the sense of accumulating assets in the long term.”
However, Dr. Nida Degesys can look forward to an average salary of $187,200 for "physicians and surgeons."
Occupational Outlook Handbook
And Gregory Zbylut, Esq., can expect to make $113,530 for "lawyers."
Occupational Outlook Handbook
So they're in a better position than most with promising, successful careers that will (eventually) pay off their student loans.
However, this comment caught my eye: "...they may never catch up with wealthy peers who began life after college free from the burden." Yeah! How many of you debt-laden "professionals" have graduated with school chums who went on to very successful careers? And do you still keep in contact with them? When you get together every so often are you able to keep up with stories of Alaskan cruises or trips to Europe or South America? Are you able to share in the joys of owning a new BMW or Lexus? And when you do get together, do you go to their four-bedroom, three-bath house with den, deck and three-car garage, or do they come to your two-bedroom, one-bath residence with back-door and carport? (or are you still in an apartment?)
Not much leeway if you "invested" a ton of borrowed money in a college degree only to find yourself working crap-ass jobs that has nothing to do with your field of study and barely covers expenses.
On a related note: A fun movie to watch is Friends with Money If you have enough in the bank this weekend, grab a pizza and a six-pack and enjoy!
less than 4 years on the other daughter's private loan and less than 3 years on her smaller federal loan.
I feel so frustrated because neither daughter finished college -- in fact they both dropped out of several colleges. Neither one has the qualifications to earn her own living. Both developed mental health problems in their early 20s, although not severe ones, fortunately.
We've been paying the loans off, one after another, for about 9 years. If we had known that we would get stuck with all the payments by co-signing the loans, we would have insisted they attend community college and earn the money to pay for it themselves.
I'm 62 and my husband is 57. This would have been our savings for retirement.
...should join together and form a bank. That way they won't have to pay any of it back.
- They can let the ''taxpayers'' (great-grandchildren) do it like we always do......
K&R
