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Our Debt Culture

February 12th, 2020 at 02:23 pm

I know the media makes more money when they sensationalize, but I still get concerned when I see articles like this one posted yesterday on Yahoo Finance: U.S. Household Debt Exceeds $14 Trillion for the First Time

This chart of household debt from the article is interesting. It looks like CC debt is actually declining but student loan debt is multiplying. And auto loans haven’t wavered in popularity.



Link to article: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-household-debt-exceeds-14-160303784.html

3 Responses to “Our Debt Culture”

  1. creditcardfree Says:
    1581541933

    I wonder if the housing crisis of 2008 had an impact on credit card use? I think some laws were changed in that regard too? I can't quite remember what that was in this moment. We are definitely a debt culture.

  2. Lots of Ideas Says:
    1581542421

    One law that changed after 2008 was that the credit card company had to show you on the bill how late no it would take to pay off if you made minimum payments, and what the interest cost would be. I don’t know how effective it was - in a paperless society, people might not even look at their bill!

    When people talk about how ‘great’ our ecuno y is, i try to tell them we are living on borrowed money. But I don’t think most get it.
    I was always scared of debt - I grew up poor, but my mother understood that and told us no a lot.

    At one time I worked with a woman who. Knew made around what I did. She always had new clothes, hair professionally done, expensive makeup, went on trips. I wondered how she did it. Until one day she was crying because the cash advance she tried to take on her MasterCard to pay her American Express bill was declined. Light dawned.

    I feel like that is America today...looking good, while fully broke.

  3. creditcardfree Says:
    1581548245

    Oh, yes, LOI that's right. I remember a friend of mine being in shock! I had told her for many years to pay off debt. She just saw that payment. It took until 2018 for her to start attacking debt and then only because she wanted a bigger house. Ugh.

    Most also don't realize that those that maybe don't look that well off based on clothes, cars and houses might actually be the millionaires! Not all the time, but sometimes!

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