Survey: 40 percent of millennials call their debt 'overwhelming'

Survey: 40 percent of millennials call their debt 'overwhelming'
(Image credit: Peter MacDiarmid/Getty News)

A new Wells Fargo report, which surveyed 1,600 Americans between the ages of 22 and 33, painted an alarming picture of the state of millennials' finances.

More than half of those surveyed said they are living "paycheck to paycheck," and 29 percent cite paying back student loans as their top concern.

But even with the average student loan debt hovering around $30,000 per person, 76 percent of millennials said attending college was worth the enormous cost.

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Despite these depressing stats, millennials feel optimistic about their future. Nearly 70 percent of respondents said they "feel better off financially than others in their own generation."

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Jordan Valinsky is the lead writer for Speed Reads. Before joining The Week, he wrote for New York Observer's tech blog, Betabeat, and tracked the intersection between popular culture and the internet for The Daily Dot. He graduated with a degree in online journalism from Ohio University.