Student loans now top credit card debt

New research reveals some startling, uncomfortable truths about student loans: The amount we as a nation owe for our education has now officially topped what we owe on our credit cards.

According to the Federal Reserve, Americans owed $826.5 billion on their credit cards in June. (The government agency calls the category "revolving credit," but that pretty much boils down to credit card debt.) And according to the publisher of FinAid.org, Americans currently owe $829.8 billion in student loan debt. The bulk of this staggering amount -- more than $600 billion -- is for federal student loans, and a whopping $300 billion of that has been taken on in only the past four years.