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The Cost Of Student Debt

NPR

Getting a higher education degree — whether it's an Associate's, a Bachelor's, or something else — increases your earning potential over your life. But going to school is expensive, and Americans have more than $1.5 trillion worth of outstanding student debt. That debt isn't exclusively held by the students: people over 60 are the fastest-growing segment of student loan borrowers, as parents and grandparents are increasingly taking out loans to help their kids and grandkids go to college.

Jill Schlesinger, CFP and author of "The Dumb Things Smart People Do With Their Money," joins to talk student debt and look at how parents and grandparents can talk to their kids about college without sacrificing their own financial futures.

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Stacey Vanek Smith is the co-host of NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money. She's also a correspondent for Planet Money, where she covers business and economics. In this role, Smith has followed economic stories down the muddy back roads of Oklahoma to buy 100 barrels of oil; she's traveled to Pune, India, to track down the man who pitched the country's dramatic currency devaluation to the prime minister; and she's spoken with a North Korean woman who made a small fortune smuggling artificial sweetener in from China.