For many millennials, the rising cost of college and the need to have an undergraduate degree has pushed more and more of us to take out massive student loans. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York:

• As 2016 there was $1.3 trillion in total student loan debt
• There are 44.2 million Americans with student loan debt
• The average monthly student loan payment for someone 25-30 years old is $351

Today, more people than ever are attending college. In fact, there are 1 million more African American and Latino students attending college now than there were over a decade ago. Pair that with the lack of state funding for colleges, which began to decline during the 2007 recession, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Student Loans and Life Milestones

If you think that student loan debt is just “something you need to have in order to get ahead” you’re wrong. Student loan debt is having a major impact on the lives of millennials. In fact, according to a 2015 YouGov survey:

• 1 in 7 Americans with student loans has delayed getting married because of student loan debt
• 41% of Americans have postponed buying a house or apartment
• 21% of young Americans have delayed moving out of their parent’s house

Big decisions are being put off because young Americans owe so much money. Young 18 year-olds don’t have the mental capacity to realize the implications of signing up for student loans. When I was going to college, I would have done anything to attend my dream school. For me, like many of my fellow millennials, that meant taking out student loans. In my mind, it didn’t matter how much student loan debt I was going to have to take out. I had a dream to attend a fancy private university and I was determined to do so. Paying off my student loans was just going to be something that I was going to do once I graduated and had a job.

Student Loan Default

If you have student loan debt, it’s imperative that you do everything in your power to avoid defaulting. Being in default means you’ve missed more than 9 months of payment in a row. And that means student loan companies can come at your for the full balance of the loan and charge you massive fines and late penalties. Defaulting on your student loans is one of the worst financial mistakes you can ever make.

The federal government will do everything in its power to make ensure you pay it back. The government has been known to take money out of your paychecks, take your tax refund, and most recently in 2015, nearly 200,000 people had money withheld from their Social Security checks because they hadn’t paid their student loans.

The Best Student Loan Options

If you have to take out student loans to pay for college, I get it. I had to take out student loan debt to pay for college, too. Keep in mind, federal student loans are almost always cheaper and less risky than private student loans. Federal student loans have many consumer protections that private student loans do not. In order to even qualify for federal student loans, you need to fill out FAFSA (Free Application For Federal Student Aid). Try to keep the cost of college as low as possible and avoid private student loans.

If you must take out private student loans, do your research. Private student loan companies are notorious for being inflexible, not lowering payments or allowing income-based repayments. Often private student loan companies aren’t willing to work with you. In general, they aren’t very consumer friendly.

If you are attending college soon or know someone who will be attending college soon, check out my ebook, Richer than Your Roommate, available on Amazon. In it, I give you tips and tricks to pay for college without going into massive debt.