# Mom's $156,000 student debt blocks retirement

> Nansi Lynch, 60, borrowed federal parent PLUS loans for her children's education and now cannot retire because of the debt burden.
- Title: Mom's $156,000 student debt blocks retirement | Shortify
- Summary: Nansi Lynch, 60, borrowed federal parent PLUS loans for her children's education and now cannot retire because of the debt burden. A school bus driver who…
- Keywords: nansi lynch, parent plus loans, student debt, retirement, federal student loans, education debt, income-driven repayment, business, technology, Mom's, 156, 000
- Source: Business Insider — https://businessinsider.com/mom-postponing-retirement-student-loan-debt-parent-plus-save-repayment-2026-9
- Author: Ayelet Sheffey
- Published: 2026-09-20T10:00:01.3+00:00
- Read time: 2 min
- Topics: nansi lynch, parent plus loans, student debt, retirement, federal student loans, education debt, income-driven repayment, business, technology
## A bus driver's college debt
Nansi Lynch, sixty, never attended college but carries one hundred fifty-six thousand dollars in federal parent PLUS student loans she took out for her two children's education.

> I don't get rid of it until I turn 75 years old.
## The highest federal interest rate
Parent PLUS loans carry the highest federal interest rate of nine point zero seven percent. Lynch's monthly payments under her income-driven repayment plan are two hundred thirty-eight dollars.
## How the debt accumulated
Lynch, a school bus driver for nearly thirty years, borrowed for her daughter's education at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island. She borrowed again in two thousand twelve for her son's education at Rhode Island College and a local community college.
## Interest piles up during deferment
Lynch put her loans on deferment during school year periods when she wasn't working. Interest continued accumulating on her balance, making repayment harder and pushing her retirement goals further away.
## Retirement blocked by payments
Lynch wants to retire within five years but says it is impossible while managing her student loan payments. She earns around forty-five thousand dollars annually from bus driving and cannot afford payments without steady income.

> I'm still going to have to stay working because how am I going to afford to pay $238 a month if I don't have any steady stream of income coming in?
## Parent PLUS debt surges nationally
Outstanding debt from parent PLUS loans increased from sixty-two billion dollars in two thousand fourteen to nearly one hundred ten billion dollars in two thousand twenty-four, according to the Institute of Education Sciences.
## New caps may not help the poorest
In July, the Trump administration imposed a lifetime borrowing cap of sixty-five thousand dollars per dependent for new parent PLUS loans. A Brookings Institution analysis warns that lower-income families face significantly higher debt-to-income ratios and borrowing limits might not prevent them from taking on unmanageable debt.
## Lynch's warning on broken system
Lynch was denied an SBA loan to relocate her gym because of her student debt and mortgage. She wishes young Americans had better guidance on alternatives to college and says the system is broken when graduates cannot find jobs to pay their bills.

> The whole thing is broken.
## Key takeaway

A school bus driver who borrowed one hundred fifty-six thousand dollars in parent PLUS loans for her children's college cannot retire at sixty because monthly payments and accumulating interest make it impossible to leave the workforce.