Personal Finance
College freshmen could take on $37,000 in student loans, report finds
Every year, millions of new students are pumped into the student loan system while current borrowers struggle to exit it.
This year, the Biden administration’s new student loan forgiveness plan could start clearing debt for millions of borrowers as soon as this fall — just as incoming college freshmen start racking up new balances on their path to a degree.
In fact, graduating high schoolers who are going on to a four-year school will rely on loans even more, a new report shows.
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These college hopefuls could take on as much as $37,000, on average, in student debt to earn a bachelor’s degree, according to a NerdWallet analysis of data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Once families hit their federal student loan limits, they often turn to parent student loans and private financing to be able to send their children off to college, the report also found.
How student loan debt became a crisis
Tuition and fees have more than doubled over the past 20 years, reaching $11,260 at four-year, in-state public colleges, on average, for the 2023-24 academic year. At four-year private colleges, it now costs $41,540 annually, according to the College Board, which tracks trends in college pricing and student aid.
“Tuition has been going up faster than inflation for decades and incomes have not kept up,” said Sandy Baum, senior fellow at the Urban Institute’s Center on Education Data and Policy. “It’s a serious problem.”
Without financial aid, the price tag at some four-year colleges and universities — after factoring in tuition, fees, room and board, books, transportation and other expenses — is now nearing $100,000 a year.
Because so few families can shoulder the rising cost, they increasingly turn to federal and private aid to help foot the bills.
“Tuition and fees is less than half of the total cost of college,” said Ellie Bruecker, interim director of research at The Institute for College Access and Success. “Students will still need financial aid to pay for other needs.”
How families pay for college
As of last year, the amount families actually spent on education costs was $28,026, on average, according to Sallie Mae’s annual How America Pays for College report — up more than 10% from a year earlier.
While parent income and savings cover nearly half of college costs, free money from scholarships and grants accounts for more than a quarter of the costs, with student loans making up most of the rest, the education lender found.
Scholarships are a key source of funding for college, yet only about 60% of families use them, Sallie Mae found. Those that did, received $8,149, on average.
The vast majority of families who didn’t use scholarships said it was because they didn’t even apply.
Why fewer students are filling out a FAFSA
As of April 12, only 29% of the 2024 high school class had completed the FAFSA, according to the National College Attainment Network, a 36% decline compared with a year ago.
With enrollment deadlines approaching, fewer students have figured out how they will pay for college next year.
“Even if all of this had gone perfectly, the financial aid system doesn’t have the same buying power it had years ago,” Bruecker said.
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Millions of older workers lost their jobs during the Covid-19 recession.
Between March and April 2020, 5.7 million workers ages 55 and up lost their jobs, according to the Economic Policy Institute’s analysis of federal data.
Now, five years since the onset of the pandemic, some older workers may be benefitting from policies that help them extend their careers.
“We’re seeing more and more employers putting in benefits and programs that help retain some of that older workforce,” said Carly Roszkowski, vice president of financial resilience programming at AARP.
These programs include phased retirement plans, part-time schedules and remote or hybrid work options, Roszkowski said.
Money is still the main reason why people want to stay in the workforce longer, particularly as inflation has pushed prices higher, according to Roszkowski. But there are also other motivators, including social connections, a sense of purpose or meaningful work that may help inspire individuals to continue to work.
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Working remotely may help extend careers
One lasting impact of the pandemic — increased flexibility to work remotely — may be helping some older workers delay retirement, according to new research from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
The research finds that an individual who is working remotely is 1.4 percentage points less likely to retire than a worker in an otherwise comparable situation.
Based on those results, that could enable workers to extend their careers by almost a full year.
“If they delay claiming Social Security for that year, or delay digging into their 401(k) for that year, or contribute to their 401(k) for that year, that’s all going to be good for their finances,” said Geoffrey Sanzenbacher, a research fellow at the Center for Retirement Research and professor of the practice of economics at Boston College.
Whether or not individuals can work remotely comes down to employer preference. For example, some companies — JPMorgan, AT&T, Amazon and Dell — have moved to five-day in-office policies. The federal government, which has a workforce that skews older, has also moved to enforce in-person work policies under President Donald Trump.
Research suggests older workers benefit from remote work. In particular, the employment rate of older workers who have a disability increased by 10% following the pandemic, according to the Center for Retirement Research.
To be sure, not all careers may allow for remote work.
What career experts say to do now
Career experts say there are certain ways older workers can help extend the longevity of their working years.
Older workers should focus on upscaling — gaining new skills or boosting their current skill set — to help show off their skills to employers, said Vicki Salemi, career expert at Monster. That may be through a certification, online class or volunteering, she said.
Having a foundational, basic understanding of technology tools used in the workplace is also essential, said Kyle M.K., a talent strategy advisor at Indeed.com.
Older workers may also want to show off their relationship building skills, which can set them apart from younger generations that are more digitally inclined, according to Salemi.
Mentoring, conflict resolution or other interpersonal skills are highly sought after skills that should be highlighted, where possible, M.K. said.
By keeping digital profiles up to date on job search sites, older workers can emphasize their skills and experience, he said.
“Digital presence is sometimes the very first introduction that the employer will have with you,” M.K. said.
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If you’re eager to increase your retirement savings, a lesser-known 401(k) feature could significantly boost your nest egg, financial advisors say.
For 2025, you can defer up to $23,500 into your 401(k), plus an extra $7,500 in “catch-up contributions” if you’re age 50 and older. That catch-up contribution jumps to $11,250 for investors age 60 to 63.
Some plans offer after-tax 401(k) contributions on top of those caps. For 2025, the max 401(k) limit is $70,000, which includes employee deferrals, after-tax contributions, company matches, profit sharing and other deposits.
If you can afford to do this, “it’s an amazing outcome,” said certified financial planner Dan Galli, owner of Daniel J. Galli & Associates in Norwell, Massachusetts.
“Sometimes, people don’t believe it’s real,” he said, because you can automatically contribute and then convert the funds to “turn it into tax-free income.”
However, many plans still don’t offer the feature. In 2023, only 22% of employer plans offered after-tax 401(k) contributions, according to the latest data from Vanguard’s How America Saves report. It’s most common in larger plans.
Even when it’s available, employee participation remains low. Only 9% of investors with access leveraged the feature in 2023, the same Vanguard report found. That’s down slightly from 10% in 2022.
How to start tax-free growth
After-tax and Roth contributions both begin with after-tax 401(k) deposits. But there’s a key difference: The taxes on future growth.
Roth money grows tax-free, which means future withdrawals aren’t subject to taxes. To compare, after-tax deposits grow tax-deferred, meaning your returns incur regular income taxes when withdrawn.
That’s why it’s important to convert after-tax funds to Roth periodically, experts say.
“The longer you leave those after-tax dollars in there, the more tax liability there will be,” Galli said. But the conversion process is “unique to each plan.”
Often, you’ll need to request the transfer, which could be limited to monthly or quarterly transactions, whereas the best plans convert to Roth automatically, he said.
Focus on regular 401(k) deferrals first
Before making after-tax 401(k) contributions, you should focus on maxing out regular pre-tax or Roth 401(k) deferrals to capture your employer match, said CFP Ashton Lawrence at Mariner Wealth Advisors in Greenville, South Carolina.
After that, cash flow permitting, you could “start filling up the after-tax bucket,” depending on your goals, he said. “In my opinion, every dollar needs to find a home.”
In 2023, only 14% of employees maxed out their 401(k) plan, according to the Vanguard report. For plans offering catch-up contributions, only 15% of employees participated.
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