As family and friends take on more of the responsibility of caring for the nation’s growing senior population, their own personal and professional lives often pay the price, according to a new study from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. For about one-quarter of America’s informal caregivers, the amount of time they spend providing care each week is the equivalent of a full-time job. Beyond the hours they spend caregiving, 8 in 10 pay for caregiving costs out of their own pockets, with 13 percent spending $500 or more a month. For the majority of caregivers with incomes of less than $50,000, these costs impose a significant burden. Forty-three percent of these caregivers have dipped into their personal savings, and 23 percent have reduced how much they save for their own retirement, suggesting that the financial impacts of informal caregiving are significant and long lasting.