As living costs continue to rise and the federal student loan system is being fundamentally restructured, millions of borrowers are caught between increasing household expenses and a repayment system that is becoming harder to navigate. Understanding the financial condition of the borrower population before these changes take full effect matters because policy changes interact with the financial circumstances of the people they affect. Drawing on data from the Julian Bond Institute’s 2050 Survey, which was administered by NORC at the University of Chicago, this analysis examines how federal student loan borrowers are faring as those changes take effect. The survey is a nationally representative effort designed to examine financial experiences at the intersection of race and generation, and it captures a broader range of financial indicators than most existing data sources. The findings reported here draw on the subset of respondents who currently hold federal student loan debt. The data show that many borrowers are already financially strained. For a population already managing multiple debt obligations, with little savings and limited cash flow, policy changes that increase payment obligations, narrow repayment options, or resume aggressive collections could not be coming at a worse time.