It's never too early to start learning about student loans. The average college senior graduated with $29,400 in student debt last year, and the number is projected to rise by a staggering 6% per year. On a starting salary faced with real-world expenses, it can take years to make that debt disappear. KWHS talks with two young personal-finance bloggers who share insights and reflections about their determined journeys to be debt-free.

Two Young Women Share their Struggles and Successes with Student Loan Debt

Shoppers with a mobile wallet app can start using their smartphones to make payments at any store that uses a near-field communication reader available at checkout. Lots of companies, from Google to startup Venmo have entered the mobile wallet market, and yet consumers are slow to adopt this new payment method. What’s behind the lack of popularity? Will mobile wallets ever become the norm? This Knowledge@Wharton article – with KWHS commentary from young Silicon Valley tech whiz Daniel Brusilovsky – explores these questions and more.

Understanding the Mobile Wallet Market

More and more students are graduating from college strapped with student loan debt that takes many years to pay off. The good news is that taking out loans does not have to be your only option to pay for college. Abby Parnell earned 24 credits before she even got to campus, and Ahmed Raza explored entrepreneurship to offset college costs. Read more about how these teens and others found ways to deal with the high cost of an undergrad degree.

Dual Enrollment, Scholarships and Creative Ways to Cut Your College Tuition Bill

Lots of people laughed through the 2013 comedy Identity Thief, in which Melissa McCarthy plays a character who steals Jason Bateman’s identity and proceeds to go on a spending spree, buying everything from jewelry to a jet ski. All joking aside, identity theft is on the rise, especially targeting young people who tend to overshare when using technology and on social media. KWHS explores identity theft – it’s definition, increase, and even one young entrepreneur’s app to help prevent your personal information from falling into the wrong hands.

Digital-age Danger: Learning to Protect Your Identity