It's not so depressing if you think of it as 200,000 fewer purchases from The Dollar Tree over the course of forever. Currently, the average student debt balance for a household headed by two college graduates is $53,000, and according to a new study by research organization Demos, those households could end up $208,000 poorer over the course of a lifetime than a household with zero student debt. The study mapped out the finances of two theoretical households, identical in every aspect except the presence of student debt, to calculate this atrocious number, and in case you haven't already decided that you're too depressed to read on, here's some more. The study estimated that the nation's $1 trillion in student debt could spell $4 trillion in total wealth loss over borrowers' lifetime.
