Featuring Chelsee Spencer, Financial Wellness Expert

More and more college grads are starting to understand that adult life is far different than their college years. Finding a job can be tough at times, and those new grown-up paychecks don’t look as great when the first student loan bill comes in the mail.

Discover Student Loans recently conducted a national online survey of 2,015 students, former students, and parents in the US to determine their perceptions on repaying student loans and the impact of repayment on finances and lifestyle choices.

Despite the availability of tools to increase preparedness, more than 1.1 million borrowers defaulted on their student loans in 2016. That equals approximately 3,000 defaults each day. According to Chelsee Spencer, Financial Wellness Expert at GreenPath, a financial counseling firm, the results of the survey aren’t different from what she sees every day.

“As debt counselors, when we talk to people, it’s usually in the post-loan stage when they’re trying to figure out a plan for repayment. It’s not necessarily when a parent is prepping for their kid to go to school or things like that,” Spencer said. But it’s at this stage that a lack of preparation can become most obvious. “It’s not a surprise that people are coming into their loans unprepared.”

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