35% of millennials say paying off their student debt is a more significant life milestone than buying a home or starting a family, new study shows
- Thirty-five percent of millennials say paying off student-loan debt would be their most significant life milestone, according to a SoFi survey.
- That's more than the percentage of respondents who thought buying a home or starting a family, respectively, was the most important milestone.
- Millennials are going to extremes to celebrate the occasion, from throwing parties to booking vacations.
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Millennials are creating a new kind of life milestone: paying off their student-loan debt.
And it's currently the most significant life milestone they think they can achieve, according to 35% of millennials in a new survey by personal finance company SoFi. The survey polled more than 1,000 Americans ages 22 to 35.
That overrides other traditional life milestones. A quarter of respondents said buying a home is the most important milestone. Meanwhile, 17% said it's saving for retirement, 15% said starting a family, and 4% said starting to invest.
Student-loan debt is at an all-time high. The national total student debt is over $1.5 trillion, and the average student loan debt per graduating student in 2018 who took out loans is $29,800, according to Student Loan Hero.
It's such a burden that it's causing millennials to delay markers of adulthood, like homeownership and starting a family.
Millennials just want to be debt-free
The SoFi survey underscores findings from a Merrill Lynch Wealth Management study published earlier this year, which surveyed more than 2,700 Americans ages 18 to 34. That study found that 60% of respondents define financial success as being debt-free.
"Student debt is having major ripple effects on early adults' futures, financially and personally," the report said. "Four-hundred-thousand early adults who would have purchased a home a decade ago have not been able to afford one due to student debt, and today's early adults take finances into greater consideration in deciding whether and when to have a child than those in past generations."
Paying off student-loan debt is so significant that people are celebrating with parties, music videos, and vacations, Business Insider's Allana Akhtar previously reported.
"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," Chelsea McDonnough, who helped pay off her husband's $125,000 student-loan debt, told Akhtar. She celebrated by taking a trip to New Orleans.