Someone thought this was a profound survey result and wrote a news article about it:

About one-fifth (21%) of millennials say that student debt is holding them back from saving for their future. This is a much more common answer among young people: Only 12% of Gen Xers and 5% of boomers feel this way.

Source: The No. 1 reason millennials are struggling to save for retirement

• Most people over age 55 attended college more than 30 years ago and presumably have paid off most such debts
• +38% more millennials have a college degree than the baby boom generation …

Source: Pew Research

What could possibly explain why there is more student debt among a younger group, 40% more of whom have college degrees, than people over 55 who’ve mostly been out of college for 30+ years?

This is a head scratcher! Hah hah.

This is am example of why it is important to ask: What do these numbers actually mean?

When the survey results are unpacked and placed in real world context, the findings are not very meaningful. The survey tells us  that people just out of college are more likely to have student debt than those who did not go to college or who did so decades ago. And this is a surprise?