Members of the graduating class of 2012 will have an average of over $25,000 in student loan debt totaling over a trillion dollars.  It’s not going to get any easier for their little brothers and sisters following behind them.  There are hundreds of thousands of children today who will be faced with even more difficult issues. It’s not just the increasing cost of college education that will be harder for them.  Retirement planning will be too.  This next generation of children will need to be the most money savvy of any in recent history since they will have it tougher.  With anticipated changes in Social Security looming they likely won’t be able to take their full Social Security until after the current normal retirement age of 67 for people born after 1960.  They are less likely than their parents to have pension plans.  They are truly going to have to make it on their own.