[learc83]

>You could get living expenses close to zero by living with your parents for a while, but student loan payments require you to have some cash coming from somewhere each month.

Not with federal student loans. They have income based repayment plans. If you have no income, you don't pay. After 20 years the debt is forgiven.

[eastbayjake]

Unfortunately the cap on maximum borrowing with federal student loans is quite low compared to the total cost of many colleges, so there's lots of private loans that come due six months after graduation and don't really care what your income level is -- they just want to be paid.

[learc83]

That's true. But of the total student loan debt of $1.2 trillion, and $1 trillion is federal student loan debt. Private loans are a comparatively small problem.

[eastbayjake]

WOW, thank you for posting this. That is astounding and I had no idea it was that magnitude when I wrote my previous post. If anyone wants a source, the $1 trillion number is from the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau[1] and CFPB has even made available a detailed breakdown of the federal government's student loan portfolios[2]

[1] http://www.consumerfinance.gov/newsroom/student-debt-swells-...

[2] https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/about/data-center/student/portf...