Joy and her husband just welcomed a niece. The arrival of the child, born to Joy’s 33-year-old sister-in-law, reminded the couple how much they want kids of their own. The couple, who met in college and live in eastern Michigan, always hoped for two or three kids, and their new niece—“She is just so cute!” Joy gushed—has put it front of mind. “Now I really want one.” But one major barrier standing between them and the family they’d imagined is $60,000 in combined student loan debt. With minimum monthly loan payments of $800, they can’t fathom how they’d afford the cost of childbirth, let alone years of childcare. “It's just not financially feasible,” she said.
Joy, who’s 26 and asked to go by only her first name for privacy reasons, was meticulous about planning her education to ensure she got a job right out of college without too much debt. Her parents had saved up a $24,000 nest egg. She and her father had built spreadsheets to map out the costs. But “stupid hidden fees" and the additional 30 credits she needed to become a Certified Public Accountant threw a wrench in her plans. The couple had $74,000 in debt when they graduated, and slightly more than half was hers.
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