Close To Half Of Americans Have More Credit Card Debt Than Savings

[PGreen]

The number of Americans who can afford to pay off their credit cards continues to drop, according to a new survey.

The survey by Bankrate.com found that only 51 percent of Americans have enough cash in their emergency accounts to clear themselves of credit card debt. That’s the lowest percentage since the firm began tracking the number in 2011.

Close to half of Americans have more credit card debt than savings - CBS News

 

[BlackSand]

Bet America would have hard time clearing it's debt ... What kind of example does that set?

The Americans who cannot afford what they are spending and cannot pay off their debt are just a bunch of little "Americas". The only difference is that America can get someone else to pay her debt for her.

.

 

[Contumacious]

The number of Americans who can afford to pay off their credit cards continues to drop, according to a new survey.

The survey by Bankrate.com found that only 51 percent of Americans have enough cash in their emergency accounts to clear themselves of credit card debt. That’s the lowest percentage since the firm began tracking the number in 2011.

Close to half of Americans have more credit card debt than savings - CBS News

The federal government has been bankrupt since 1935.

But they are allowed to print money until their hearts are content.

Americans can not print money .

.

 

[SteadyMercury]

While point is taken the title of that article isn't accurate, since assets in other savings vehicles outside of a designated emergency fund is still savings.

If I have saved up two million for retirement in a combination of 401k, Roth IRA, and taxable investment accounts I might feel I don't need an emergency fund because of size of portfolio, especially if my asset allocation included something like a stable value fund or short term bond fund.

Yet if I had $500 in credit card debt this article would label as someone with more credit card debt than savings.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Pretty irresponsible to blame the government for your own choices as a couple of posters above apparently do.

In my 20s, I had credit card debt. Woke to the fact that I was enslaving myself, paid them off and have never let it happen again. Pay cash for everything, except real estate and pay that off as quickly as you can. We're retired, our homes are paid for, we paid cash for our cars and the result is, we have the money to travel and a secure future. Its a choice.

 

[BlackSand]

Pretty irresponsible to blame the government for your own choices as a couple of posters above apparently do.

In my 20s, I had credit card debt. Woke to the fact that I was enslaving myself, paid them off and have never let it happen again. Pay cash for everything, except real estate and pay that off as quickly as you can. We're retired, our homes are paid for, we paid cash for our cars and the result is, we have the money to travel and a secure future. Its a choice.

It is pretty irresponsible to blame others for anything you could have handled better yourself ... And to think that the government can help you when it cannot help itself.

.

 

[SteadyMercury]

Pay cash for everything, except real estate and pay that off as quickly as you can.

Pay credit card for everything, and pay off the balance every month.

Better consumer protection, better record keeping, and cash back rewards.

 

[Papageorgio]

There is good debt and bad debt, and once you distinguish the difference then you can work with it.

The other idea is that a house is an asset, if you are putting in more money than taking out, the house is a liability. The lender considers you house an asset. If you flat out own the house and pay taxes on it every year, it's a liability.

A house is a debt, and can be a good debt or a bad debt, depending on how you use it.

 

[Iceweasel]

There is good debt and bad debt, and once you distinguish the difference then you can work with it.

The other idea is that a house is an asset, if you are putting in more money than taking out, the house is a liability. The lender considers you house an asset. If you flat out own the house and pay taxes on it every year, it's a liability.

A house is a debt, and can be a good debt or a bad debt, depending on how you use it.

I paid mine off 22 years ahead of schedule and consider it a good debt since it's cheaper to pay property tax than to rent.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Pay cash for everything, except real estate and pay that off as quickly as you can.

Pay credit card for everything, and pay off the balance every month.

Better consumer protection, better record keeping, and cash back rewards.

We actually use one credit card for everything, pay the entire balance every month and for the exact reason you wrote - record keeping.

The card we use is Amazon Visa because it gives us points to spend at Amazon.

 

[NYcarbineer]

And ironically we keep running up government debt by not taxing enough to pay our bills,

often justified by the argument that the American people know better how to spend their money than the government does.

 

[SteadyMercury]

If you flat out own the house and pay taxes on it every year, it's a liability.

If you flat out own your house the value of the house far outweighs the annual tax liability, so overall the house would be an asset. Then you can get all funky with imputed value of shelter etc.

A house is a debt, and can be a good debt or a bad debt, depending on how you use it.

A house is an asset, a mortgage is a debt.

 

[R.D.]

Pretty irresponsible to blame the government for your own choices as a couple of posters above apparently do.

Who did that?

 

[kiwiman127]

In relationship to the OP, I think it's a result of our hyper-capitalistic environment, poor judgement and long-term flat wage growth.
When I say "hyper-capitalistic environment", I'm referring to the constant "$0-down, "Zero interest for ? months" and the constant mail deluge of credit card offers. The constant inviting sales pitches particularly on TV and that includes even the kids channels. Then the unrealistic portrayal of a typical American family by the entertainment media. It seems in Hollywood's mind, everyone has a beautiful home in the suburbs with two new cars and has no financial issues. Also, most TV shows focus on the well-to-do's as their characters/settings. All of this repetitiveness is like brainwashing. Whatever happened to TV shows like "The Honeymooners" who's characters and settings were about the working class and their issues?
Then there's the final point and that's the fact that a huge percentage of working Americans have suffer flat wage growth for decades, who's lifestyle is to watch TV constantly because that's about all they can afford. They end up being a biggest target of this fantasy world and hyper-capitalist promotion. They use poor judgement as the result of all this promotion. They think this is what their life is supposed to be like.

 

[Dad2three]

The number of Americans who can afford to pay off their credit cards continues to drop, according to a new survey.

The survey by Bankrate.com found that only 51 percent of Americans have enough cash in their emergency accounts to clear themselves of credit card debt. That’s the lowest percentage since the firm began tracking the number in 2011.

Close to half of Americans have more credit card debt than savings - CBS News

Bottom half of US make almost half of what the top 1% (job creators' do today


In 1980 the top 1% earned 8.5% of total income. In 2007 they earned 23%.

In 1980 the bottom 90% earned 68% of total income. In 2007 they earned 53%.

Summary of Latest Federal Income Tax Data Tax Foundation

GOV'T POLICY MATTERS !!!

How Reagan Sowed the Seeds of America's Demise

The reality is that the economic policies of the "Reagan Revolution" have been in effect for the past three decades, and it is these very policies that have caused the economic situation that America finds itself in today.

During his first presidential campaign Ronald Reagan campaigned against government spending, he campaigned on reducing the national debt, he campaigned for individual responsibility, and he campaigned for broader American capital ownership.

The effects of his policies, however, had all of the exact opposite effects, and yet amazingly even today the vast majority of all Americans, especially conservatives, still believe Reagan's rhetoric and not the real effects of his policies.


...Not only did Reagan's policies lead to massive increases in the federal debt, but household debt grew as well while personal savings declined.

How Reagan Sowed the Seeds of America s Demise


Reagan's Real Legacy

Why not let Reagan rest in peace? Because many of the most serious problems facing America today began on his watch

During his two terms in the White House (1981–89), Reagan presided over a widening gap between the rich and everyone else, declining wages and living standards for working families, an assault on labor unions as a vehicle to lift Americans into the middle class, a dramatic increase in poverty and homelessness, and the consolidation and deregulation of the financial industry that led to the current mortgage meltdown, foreclosure epidemic and lingering recession.

These trends were not caused by inevitable social and economic forces. They resulted from Reagan’s policy and political choices based on an underlying “you’re on your own” ideology.


Reagan s Real Legacy The Nation

 

[Dad2three]

Pretty irresponsible to blame the government for your own choices as a couple of posters above apparently do.

In my 20s, I had credit card debt. Woke to the fact that I was enslaving myself, paid them off and have never let it happen again. Pay cash for everything, except real estate and pay that off as quickly as you can. We're retired, our homes are paid for, we paid cash for our cars and the result is, we have the money to travel and a secure future. Its a choice.

It is pretty irresponsible to blame others for anything you could have handled better yourself ... And to think that the government can help you when it cannot help itself.

.

Keynes wrote "The End of Laissez Faire" in 1926. He was correct then, and his insight remains more valid than any economics that conservative Libertarians propound ad infinitum and ad nauseum. Laissez Faire is nothing more than a childish Christmas wish of no substance; just hope and myth, and smoke and mirrors. Fails every time we try even the tiniest bit.


The way things worked before the US essentially invented the middle class by implementing the progressive tax structure and the New Deal in the wake of the Great Depression, was a series of booms & busts. These sucked for the ordinary people, but were a fantastic way for the obscenely wealthy to garner more wealth.

Here's how it worked:

Choose a market segment and start investing heavily.

Create a bunch of noise around how that segment is growing.

Create investment tools that even the little guy can buy.

Whip the public into a buying frenzy. No one wants to be left behind in a market that has no place to go but "up."

When the bubble inflates to a point of your choosing, it's time to start the next bubble, strip your profits out via a massive sell off.

This happens to crash the market, reaming the little investors - but you don't care, because you just took all the money they'd invested.

Sock a bunch of your ill-gotten gains into an inheritance trust to be passed on to your children, then start investing the rest in another market segment. Pump that bubble, pop it, move on to the next.

To these avaricious slime-balls, "the economy" is a toy, not something on which they rely for survival. We're the only ones who get hurt when they crush it.

 

[SwimExpert]

And ironically we keep running up government debt by not taxing enough to pay our bills,

No, we keep running up government debt by spending more than we can afford.

 

[Dad2three]

In relationship to the OP, I think it's a result of our hyper-capitalistic environment, poor judgement and long-term flat wage growth.
When I say "hyper-capitalistic environment", I'm referring to the constant "$0-down, "Zero interest for ? months" and the constant mail deluge of credit card offers. The constant inviting sales pitches particularly on TV and that includes even the kids channels. Then the unrealistic portrayal of a typical American family by the entertainment media. It seems in Hollywood's mind, everyone has a beautiful home in the suburbs with two new cars and has no financial issues. Also, most TV shows focus on the well-to-do's as their characters/settings. All of this repetitiveness is like brainwashing. Whatever happened to TV shows like "The Honeymooners" who's characters and settings were about the working class and their issues?
Then there's the final point and that's the fact that a huge percentage of working Americans have suffer flat wage growth for decades, who's lifestyle is to watch TV constantly because that's about all they can afford. They end up being a biggest target of this fantasy world and hyper-capitalist promotion. They use poor judgement as the result of all this promotion. They think this is what their life is supposed to be like.

The US corporate business model has changed: It used to be based on sharing profits with workers to incentivize them and generate loyalty. Now, the model has shifted to rewarding not workers, but shareholders and upper management.. So, as corporate profits soar, the rich get richer and workers are told they are lucky to even have a job so stop whining about income disparity.

 

[NYcarbineer]

And ironically we keep running up government debt by not taxing enough to pay our bills,

No, we keep running up government debt by spending more than we can afford.

No. We keep running up debt because the government has a credit card. Just like the individual as referred to in the OP.

 

[Papageorgio]

If you flat out own the house and pay taxes on it every year, it's a liability.

If you flat out own your house the value of the house far outweighs the annual tax liability, so overall the house would be an asset. Then you can get all funky with imputed value of shelter etc.

A house is a debt, and can be a good debt or a bad debt, depending on how you use it.

A house is an asset, a mortgage is a debt.

I didn't say owning a house was a bad thing, it is called good debt if you are paying on it. Unless the house is bringing me income, it is not an asset, it is a liability. That is my opinion, it is the way I look at any property.