Two weeks ago, when Beth O'Connell ordered several books from Amazon.com, she received a distressing surprise: She had hit the limit on her credit card. Sorry, no books.

"This is my first maxing out," explains Ms. O'Connell, a publicist in Watertown, Mass., who graduated from Boston University three years ago. "I think I'm making decent money, but it's just not enough with all the bills I pay. It's not like I'm going out shopping and doing crazy things. I'm just trying to get by."

Trying to get by. Those four little words echo plaintively around the country as young adults struggle to get established and stay afloat. Saddled with record-high college loans and credit-card debts at a time when wages are stagnant and the job market is tight, they may be the most indebted generation of young Americans ever.

"These young adults are doing everything society tells them to do," says Tamara Draut, coauthor of a new study, "Generation Broke: The Growth of Debt Among Young Americans," published by Demos, a public-policy group in New York. "They're going to college, taking on tremendous student-loan debt, and working longer hours than ever before while in college. When they get in the real world, they can't get ahead because of the debt they went into to get the degree to get the good job."

Two trends are fueling the rise in debt: dramatic increases in college costs and the aggressive marketing of credit cards to college students.

"This is the first generation to shoulder the costs of college primarily through interest-bearing loans rather than federal grants that don't have to be repaid," Ms. Draut says. During the 1990s, college costs soared by an average of 38 percent. By the end of that decade, almost two-thirds of students had borrowed money. The average graduate in 2002 owed $18,900 in student loans.

To compound the challenge, rents and housing prices have increased faster than inflation during the past decade. Young adults are more likely to hold temporary positions and jobs that don't offer healthcare benefits.

O'Connell owes $20,000 in student loans and about $6,000 on credit cards. She must pay $175 in student loans every month for 20 years. "I have 17 years left," she says. She and a friend split the $900 rent for an apartment 20 miles north of Boston. Add to that a $250 monthly car payment, $200 a month for car insurance, and the cost of food, gas, and cable TV.

"It's very, very overwhelming at times," O'Connell says. "It's a never-ending cycle. I'm literally living paycheck to paycheck."

Many indebted young adults trace the beginning of their slippery economic slope to the first day of college. When they registered for classes, credit-card companies gave free T-shirts to applicants. Enticing offers - "0% interest!" - turned out to be no interest for the first month only.

"I signed right up," says Brandi Dobbins of Washington, D.C. "It gets a lot of people off on the wrong foot. Interest rates are about 21 percent. You start racking up interest, and pretty soon the interest is as bad as the bill is."

Although Ms. Dobbins remained debt-free in college, her $5,000 savings melted away as she established an apartment and bought a professional wardrobe for her job with a nonprofit group. Now, she moonlights three nights a week in a restaurant to pay off debts.

Unemployment also adds to the debts of Generation Broke. When Sarah Thurston graduated from college in 2000, she had $20,000 in student loans. After starting a job with an Internet company in New York that paid "an exorbitant amount of money," she assumed she would pay off her loans quickly. Six months later, she was laid off. After four months of unemployment, she took a job with another Internet company. Seven months later, she was laid off again.

"My unemployment check covered my rent, but I had to put groceries and the daily necessities on my credit card," says Ms. Thurston, who works for a publishing firm in North Adams, Mass. Today she has $10,000 in credit-card debt and $13,000 in student loans. To speed the repayment, she works as a waitress on weekends. Last month she reluctantly accepted a loan from her parents to pay off her credit card. That saves $100 a month in interest.

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