Posted on 12/14/2014 4:43:16 AM PST by Citizen Zed
The golden years are going to feel a bit tarnished for almost one in five Americans.
In a personal finance survey published today, 18 percent of the respondents said they expect to be in debt for the rest of their lives. That is double the percentage who expected that in May 2013, the last time the survey was conducted.
Credit card indebtedness has increased moderately since the 2013 CreditCards.com survey, said Matt Schulz, senior analyst at CreditCards.com.
In contrast, student loan debt rose from an aggregate of $390 billion at the end of 2005 to $966 billion at the end of 2012, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Average student loan debt topped $30,000 in six states, according to the Project on Student Debt.
"We've all seen the student loan debt numbers, and credit card debt is increasing, and even though the job market is improving it's certainly not humming along, and there is data about people's salaries not growing quite as quickly as people had hoped," said Schulz. "You just wonder if it has all come together to create this unease."
Survey respondents who expect to pay off their debts anticipate doing so at an average age of 53. But in addition to the 18 percent who expect to owe money forever, another 25 percent expect to be in debt until at least age 61.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
I am not one of those. I don’t have much savings but I don’t owe anything, either. House is paid. Debts long ago paid. I don’t buy stuff on time.
Well they have such an excellent example in the WH to follow its just a natural progression...
Obama voters! Lazy, stupid, selfish, obnoxious, devoid of morals and values, etc.. I could go on and on...
The only things I buy with debt are guns and ammo.
Same here - house paid and both cars clear. Only "debt" is monthly credit card bill because we use it as a convenience instead of a way to buy stuff we can't afford. Retirement looks a lot nicer when you have a little saved up and your retirement/SS take care of necessary bills with a little left over. I don't know why a lot of folks I know don't have nervous breakdowns with their debt and no real retirement to rely on - I would be a wreck. of course, knowing that about myself helped me be able to deny myself of some things to plan and prepare...
I don't get the student debt thing. It's a bad idea, selling ones future to a bank. But having credit card debt or more than a minimal car loan before it's paid off? That's economic suicide.
I use my CC like cash and pay it off several times a month on line. When I started to do that 9 years ago it was hard because I didn’t think of it then as paying something that I “owed” but rather as paying something someone else was making me pay. It is easy to think well I need that money for something else right now so I’ll just put it off. That way lies debt slavery. I eventually got to where it is a game to keep that balance number at zero. I even pay cash for my cars so I drive a ratty reliable 18 year old car. It helps that I don’t smoke or drink any sodas. Those two items used to keep me with no spending cash. I didn’t realize just how expensive those two habits are until I stopped.
I know quite a few millennials that have a LOT of college (inc. post graduate) debt (like $100 - 200K). To make it worse, there aren’t as many well paying jobs in their fields as there used to be so they’re underemployed and not really able to save much money.
They have basically given up on ever paying it back, so they’re just going to pay interest for 20 years until they can default, then take the tax hit that will occur then.
I hope they send a note of thanks to the U.S. taxpayers.
That about describes it. That's a good phrase and says it succinctly.
Taking this as an axiom, there are several important considerations.
1) The grossly inflated higher education bubble is sooner or later going to burst. It likely won’t happen because of the feds, but because the states are no longer willing to spend most of their budgets to pay for it.
2) Even though many students might be willing to put themselves in indentured servitude for the rest of their lives with student loans, this is going to have to collapse as well.
3) Universities will be slashed until they provide only very limited professional majors, and pretty much cash on the barrel head, with states willing to pay partial tuition for critical needs graduates. But still a fraction of what it costs today.
4) Degrees acquired before the collapse will be seen as inflated and worthless for most jobs, so independent testing and certification will be used to select new hires.
5) Student loans may have to be erased as part of the national debt restructuring. That is, the national debt will need to be renounced, along with any obligations to pay the debts of “too large to fail” financial institutions.
(Note, part of this new finance bill again gives FDIC backing to banks that engage in derivatives gambling, thus making the US responsible for tens or hundreds of trillions of imaginary dollars lost in their gambling.)
I hope that’s sarcasm. Debt is an obligation; a stupid one, but an obligation none the less.
So 4 out of 5 Americans have better ethics than the government.
I am of the belief the reason college loans got so far out of hand was because they took the risk from the colleges.
They have no incentive to make sure that the borrower can ever pay the money back. Also there is no incentive to keep cost under control.
Student loans should not be guaranteed by the government. Student loans should be able to be cleared in bankruptcy.
Let the free market work it self out.
I have a sister and a brother who have never held down enough jobs to get ss. Of course, sister says my father OWES it to them to support them- which he doesn’t, of course.
Typical loser dems. Oh, and they skip on paying bills, along with my mother, have crappie credit, but it is everyone else’s fault.
And, no, I am not in contact with the lot of them.
After reading your post, so am I.
They have no incentive to make sure that the borrower can ever pay the money back. Also there is no incentive to keep cost under control.
IOW, colleges wouldn't be offering BS degrees in womyn's and homosexual studies because there would be little chance of the student actually finding work in that field and paying off the tuition.
” Degrees acquired before the collapse will be seen as inflated and worthless for most jobs...”
I already see it that way, at least in the hiring that I do.
My understanding, however, is that as you get older the credit card companies are starting to lower credit limits to prevent this sort of fraud.
This will most likely come as a shock to those who live for today.
Wait. Are you saying that PhD in Womyns Transgendered Studies might not provide a good long term career path?
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