Student loans are getting in the way of a lot of things for millennials.

Those pesky loans are also causing millennials to postpone lots of other major life milestones, such as getting married or buying their first home.

Read: Student loan help as valuable to employees as 401(k) plan

That’s according to a survey from the Investor Protection Institute titled “Investor Protection Institute College Debt/Retirement Savings Bind,” which found that 49 percent of millennials said they’re dragging around college debt obligations.

The amounts aren’t trivial, either:

20 percent are lucky enough to owe the least, from $1,000–$20,000
16 percent owe between $20,000–$50,000
13 percent are truly in the soup with student debt topping $50,000

While 36 percent claim that student loans haven’t had any effect on them, the rest have cited several major areas in which those loans have held them back:

29 percent have delayed the purchase of a home
26 percent have postponed a major purchase, such as a car
22 percent have cancelled plans for additional education
19 percent have had to return home to live with their parents
17 percent (included married individuals) have put off starting a family
12 percent have postponed getting married

Fewer than two out of five (38 percent) have managed to get started saving and investing for retirement, while 34 percent say that, because of the college loans they owe, “I have either delayed starting to save/invest for retirement or been able to save/invest much less than I had hoped.”

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Forty percent are “concerned” that they’ve been sidetracked from retirement saving, with just 7 percent shrugging it off.

More than half (56 percent) say they’re worried “about having to work longer as a result of having a late start on saving/investing for retirement.”

Instant Insights /

Student loans cripple millennials&rsquo; retirement savings efforts

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Student loans cripple millennials’ retirement savings efforts