Student loan debt is destroying parents’ retirement funds & credit.
Student loan debt isn’t just hurting a generation of college grads. It’s also crushing the financial futures of the parents who cosigned for their kids.
Susan Zambo, a 50-something mother of three from Ohio, had an excellent credit score in the 780s in 2010. Then she cosigned her son’s $9,000 Sallie Mae loans for college. He became addicted to painkillers and had to leave before earning his degree, but he’s still on the hook for that $9,000 — which is now more than $11,000 with interest and fees.
“We paid for a few years, but it didn’t make a dent,” Zambo told Moneyish. Now her credit score has plummeted to the 400s, but she’s got her own bills to pay before she can pick up her son’s.
