For people who have multiple bachelors, masters and PHDs… How do you afford it? Do you go to school full time? Do you work full time? Do you only take a few classes at a time? Are the degrees from a junior college, online school, etc?
I was recently reading about Michael Griffin former NASA head and he had 7 degrees and I just don’t see how that is affordable in this day and age.
AP credit, taking full loads and going summers and working…jobs. In the sciences, almost everyone had full support.
Decades ago, it was much less expensive to attend college.
Sometimes, more than one bachelor’s degree may be earned concurrently, depending on how the school handles multiple majors.
Research-oriented graduate study (meaning PhD programs, and master’s degrees earned along the way to a PhD) is generally fully funded.
Part time master’s degree programs are often paid for by employers.
I got three bachelors, almost four in 5 years. 
How to afford ‘it’. Most people will have BS/MS/PhD sequence and have no need for anything else. Sometimes someone will get another degree if they are switching fields. Sometimes someone will add an MBA to the mix if they are going to be a CEO.
Usually PHDs are funded degrees. If you get into one straight out of undergrad you aren’t paying for an MS. Often the MS is awarded along the way but it isn’t necessary to have an MS once you have a PhD.
Michael Griffin is a real anomaly and I don’t know why he got some of those degrees. However I expect he had funded positions for the most part, and tuition waivers along with employment-- he was working at JHU in APL when he got that MS.
1971 BA Physics, JHU
1974 MS Engineering, Aerospace, Catholic University
1977 PhD Aerospace Engineering, UMD
1979 MS EE, USC
1983 MS Applied Physics, JHU
1990 MBA Loyola Univ, MD
1998 MS Civil Engineering, GWU
Work (roughly)
1980 Applied Physics Lab at JHU (defense contractor)
1986 Strategic Defense Initiative Org
19xx NASA Cheif Engineer, Deputy for Technology
19zz JPL
19zz COO Q-Tel, VA
2004 Head of Space Dept, Applied Physics Lab, JHU
2005 NASA Chief
^^^ The only non-research degree on that list is the MBA. Even that one might have bee paid for (at least in part) by an employer.
Also, without looking at the transcripts, we have no way of knowing the pace of the studies (one course at a time can be really cheap), or how many previous credits were applied to the various grad programs.