Alex Lykos doesn't like to think about what his life would be like if he only had to deal with $27,000 in student loans.

The 23-year-old is making good money as a software engineer in Boston and, at least on paper, is faring better than the average college graduate who is $35,000 in the red.

Yet, Lykos has also assumed responsibility for another $92,000 in Parent PLUS loans that his mom and dad took out to pay for his college education. He has no legal responsibility for them and there would be no financial repercussions to him if he decided to turn a blind eye.

"I simply pay their loans month by month out of kindness," says Lykos, who agreed to pay them as a teenager before he fully understood what that meant.