Time – Martha C. White
“Conventional wisdom holds that borrowing for higher education is a debt that’s worth the investment, since people with college degrees earn about a million dollars more over the course of their careers than people who have just a high school diploma. While this is still true, a new study looks at an overlooked side effect of student debt that can haunt borrowers all the way into retirement. The “Calculated Choices: Examining Debt and Retirement Savings Decisions” report from research company LIMRA’s Secure Retirement Institute found that millennials—characterized as young adults between 21 and 34 years old who enter the workforce with student debt—are less likely to take full advantage of an employer-provided 401(k) match, even though this benefit is cited by financial advisers as one of the easiest ways for young people to start saving for retirement. “Millennials without student loans are 60 percent more likely to maximize their employer match compared with those who are paying education loans,” LIMRA reported in a recent blog post about the findings.”(more)