With student-debt loan being at an all time high, millennials have found a new life milestone that sets them apart from other generations and clearly reflects on the national student debt crisis.
Paying off student-debt loans is the most significant life milestone according to 35% of Millennials surveyed by personal finance company SoFi.
The survey polled more than 1,000 Americans between the ages 22 to 35, according to Business Insider and found that paying off student-debt loans have become the biggest concern among Millennials.
Paying off student-debt loans overrode other classic life milestones such as buying a home, with only a quarter of those polled saying that it is the most significant milestone they can achieve. Other milestones like, saving for retirement, starting a family and investing, that ranked high in other generations ranked at 17%, 15% and 4% respectively in the survey, Business Insider reports.
According to Student Loan Hero, the national student debt is almost $2 million, and the average student-loan debt per graduate in 2018 was almost $30 thousand.
The willingness of millennials to be debt-free have made them delay home ownership and starting a family, shaping a new meaning to what it means to be a young adult right now.
A study published early this year by Merril Lynch Wealth Management found that 60% of Americans ages 18 to 34 defined financial success as being debt free.
The report adds that “four-hundred-thousand early adults who would have purchased a house a decade ago have not been able to afford one due to student debt.”
The same was said about starting a family, with many millennials delaying having kids because of financial constraints.
Paying off student debt has become the topic and reason to go out and celebrate with parties and planned vacations, according to Business Insider.
“It’s our like our generation’s milestone — to get rid of the debt we incurred to go to school and try to get good jobs,” told Chelsea McDonnough to Business Insider. She helped pay off her husband $125 thousand student loan and celebrated by traveling to New Orleans afterwards.