The time when you can borrow the money is a limited window, usually, around 17-23. If you don't understand that this is important and possible, the window vanis

The time when you can borrow the money is a limited window, usually, around 17-23. If you don't understand that this is important and possible, the window vanishes. You are right that there is a limited window, but it is not so tied to age. My wife was a "nontraditional student" and they were more than happy to give her student loans. A better threshold is kids and mortgage. If you have real dependents that need money now for things like food/diapers/clothes then it becomes much more challenging, perhaps insurmountable.