Tens of millions of Americans have to go into debt in order to afford a college education. As if that weren't bad enough, the amount of debt is so high that it can take a lot longer to pay off than you'd ever imagine.

It'd be natural to think that students fresh out of college would owe the most in student loan debt, given that they haven't had any time to pay it off. Yet surprisingly, that's not the case, and it only goes to support the idea of just how long student loans hang over those who need them.

Those aged 35 to 49 have $636.2 billion in federal student loan debt outstanding, according to the latest research on student loans from The Motley Fool. That amount is spread out across 14.7 million borrowers.

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Source Fool.com