If Thelma Richards continues to pay $317 a month, every month, for the foreseeable future, she'll pay off her student loans by the year 2038. The problem is, by then she'll be 87 years old. "I don't think I'm going to live that long," she says, laughing. "I'm not joking!"
Richards, 65, who lives in Little Falls, N.Y., fits the profile of a growing number of older Americans, who are now more likely than ever to hold student debt well into retirement age. According to a January report from the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal watchdog agency, the number of Americans age 60 and older carrying student debt quadrupled in the past decade. They are now the fastest-growing group of student borrowers and owe, on average, $23,500,…
