Of course it is. Thats how our country is set up. Its how the schools teach us.
Without debt you cant build credit. Without credit you’re screwed in a lot of ways.
And why did this happen? And why does it continue to happen?
I often feel like the only member of my family that actually wants to get out of debt. Saving is a crazy thought.
My sister lives paycheck to paycheck. But she has a $500 car payment. As she put it “You have to have a car payment”. Every time she goes to the stealership to get her free oil change, she drives out with a newer car.
I don’t have a car payment but that is irrelevant to her.
I can see having a 30 year mortgage and working to pay it off sooner.
Woah, not me..
“Have you noticed that most doctors and most hospitals will never tell you how much something is going to cost in advance?”
Yeah, I noticed that when I had an abdominal aortic aneurysm, and no insurance. $100K one time, $300K the next time I asked. Finally got insurance and took care of it (when it was 6.5 cm!!!) The actual (highly qualified) surgeon was cheap, considering. Saw a lot of high charges by the anesthesiologists that got slapped down. Never did figure out what it cost the insurance company. Too much confusion.
Some debt is good, other debt is bad.
If you are a middle class person you can’t save enough quickly enough to buy a home without a mortgage in most markets. And you’re paying rent to someone else. With the tax allowances it makes financing a home good thing for most people.
On the other hand, putting your beer and pizza on plastic (Unless it’s paid off each month without interest accruing and provides you with frequent flier miles) is generally NOT good debt.
The bread-and-butter of the credit card industry is that there is a solid segment of society that is “comfortable” with a certain amount of debt at 24% APR. If you were to give them the money to pay their cards off, they would just spend it.
Thank you Federal Reserve!
Foundation of the progressive nanny-state.
Makes me feel good - zero debt as we went into retirement. Use credit card as a convenience and write a check for the whole amount each month. Of course, my wife and I are the “paranoid” types who worried about retiring and actually being able to live w/o a menu of Alpo so we denied ourselves some luxuries and saved while working - strange concept among so many who are stressed because they just can’t make it on their income because of all the “nice stuff the absolutely need”.....
Most of us will spend our entire lives paying off debt.
That is why we are called debt slaves – our hard work makes others extremely wealthy
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If greedy lenders are taking the place of “personal responsibility”, then perhaps they deserve to get rich.
When you’re young and have no money or credit, you can’t avoid loans. No excuse later in life though for most people not being debt free.
Never had any debt. I pay my bills every month and if I want something, I save up until I can pay for it.
Of course, that means I don’t have much in the way of a credit score either, which I find completely backwards, but still, better than being a debt slave.
I have NO problem with a farm mortgage, or a mortgage on additional land - IF you can afford it on your wage.
Credit Cards, HELOCs, car loans, store credit cards? Nope.
But, that’s just me. Guess I’m, Un-American, LOL!
"In other words, you will pay for two houses by the time you are done."
Well, no. This is treating all dollars as if they were equal, but they aren't. It ignores the future value of money. A dollar you have now is worth more than a dollar you get in the future. When you take out a mortgage you are getting all the dollars now and paying back with future dollars, which are worth less. Hence the interest. In 30 years just trying buying a second house with the same money the first one went for.
Debt is a useful tool. It can be abused. That doesn't mean it's bad. My only debt is my mortgage, which rate is so low that it would make no sense to pay it off early.
And who set the table for this mess? Our lying, corrupt, greedy, incompetent, selfish, self-serving, ignorant, parasitic, spendthrift and hypocritical government politicians.
IMHO, the first and third are investments and do not necessarily constitute "debt". Sure you owe, but in the end you should profit.
The fourth is the real issue, better defined later as this:
It has been estimated that 43 percent of all American households spend more money than they make each month,
That is the real issue, again IMHO
Ask them if the Federal Government should do something to help them with their debt.
Be sure you are sitting down before reading the results.
Perhaps have a couple of belts first.
I have no debt at this time but I intend to borrow every last cent I can when the USD starts to fail...