Does Student Loan Debt Put a Damper on Your Relationship?

Add this to the list of awkward questions you reserve for potential dates and mates:

So, how about those student loans?

About 37 million Americans are weighed down by college debt, according to a recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Twenty-seven percent of those students and ex-students also have past-due balances.

The loans, whether they are his, hers or collectively his-and-hers, can be toxic for budding romances or new marriages.

When Allison Marek, 26, finishes the graduate school of social work at the University of Houston next spring, she will be roughly $ 60,000 in debt.

“I was brought up believing that you have to have your own stuff together — you have to be stable financially and emotionally — before you can engage in a serious relationship and get married,” says Marek, who is single. “Student loans are one reason women are so focused on their careers today. They have to be to pay off their debt.”

Timothy Hanna, 25, owes $ 24,000 in student loan debt, and he expects to pay it down at a rate of $ 400 a month for the next five years.

Today Hanna works for a valve-distributing company and lives……………. continues on HispanicBusiness.com