In addition, 35% of respondents said they found it difficult to buy daily necessities because of their student loans; 52% said their debt affected their ability to make larger purchases such as a car; and 55% indicated that student loan debt affected their decision or ability to purchase a home — a life on hold indeed.

One might think that those who attend expensive private colleges would predominate among those putting their lives on hold to repay student debt, but not so, said the survey.

Community college students faced the biggest challenge, it pointed out, with 49% finding it difficult or very difficult to make student loan payments; after that came private institution borrowers, 48% of whom said they too found it tough.

Forty percent of public school borrowers were in the same boat and 43% of grad school borrowers have a tough time paying their student loans every month.

But the point is that, no matter where they went, young people are having a tough time that will likely come back to mess up their retirement years from now.

A majority or near-majority of undergraduate borrowers said their student debt has impacted their ability to put savings aside for an emergency fund or for retirement, while 41% of graduate borrowers said they have no emergency savings.

Sixty-one percent of grad school borrowers blame student debt for their inability to save for retirement as they know they should.

And in the “hindsight-is-always-20–20″ department, the majority of borrowers, both undergraduate and graduate, said that if they knew then what they know now about loan repayment, they either definitely would not or might not have chosen to attend the school they did.