Americans Cope With Financial Pain

The financial crisis hasn't directly affected the family. But its consequences still trickle down.

"It hasn't changed my daily life," Colleen Brognano said. "What it does do is it keeps the thought in the back of my mind as to what's going to affect interest rates for us when we do have to get another loan for college."

And the company that the family borrowed from the first two years has stopped doing student loans because of the credit crunch. Now they need to find another lender.

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Planning for Retirement

Colleen, 48, and Guy, 58, both have a 401(k) retirement plan through their employers, and Guy also has a pension. But they still worry about retirement.

"He was planning on retiring in three years," Colleen Brognano said of her husband. "That's not going to happen. He's going to have to go into his late 60s because we have one more year [of college].

"You just try to save as much as you can," she added. "What we worry about" are the college loan payments -- $480 a month total for both sons now. Next year, the payments will almost double.

Like most parents, they are trying to do everything they can for their kids.

Jason Brognano is a junior at Penn State College and understands the sacrifices his parents are making to put him and his brother, Brian, through college.

"They're putting the money upfront now," he said, "but it's my job to pay it back and give them a better life later."

He is also well aware of the debt that he personally will have after school. He's in a five-year architectural engineering program, and his brother plans to go to dental school, hoping to be an orthodontist.

"I don't want to graduate with so much debt that if I don't get a good job out of college, that I'm not going to be able to get any loans paid back," Jason Brognano said.

With the nation shedding 159,000 jobs just last month and 750,000 so far this year, that is a concern for many college students.

"My major is architectural engineering, which right now is very bad if you're going into that profession because the housing market is so far below par where it should be. It's not looking good for my major," he said.