That's also Dave Ramsey's roadmap for financial success!
My thoughts on the subject:
Posted on 10/11/2025 8:26:08 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
The alarms aren’t just blinking anymore. They’re blaring. America’s debt-fueled consumer economy is starting to crack. Families who used to keep the stores and car dealers busy are now falling behind on payments. This isn’t some slow leak. It looks and feels like the early days of 2008, only deeper and faster. Car loans are a disaster. Credit cards are choking people. Home loans are sliding into trouble. Even those Buy Now Pay Later apps, sold as a way to “manage money,” are pulling people into digital debt traps. The question isn’t if the hit is coming. It’s how long the people in charge can pretend it isn’t happening.
Auto loan debt just blew past $1.66 trillion. The Consumer Federation of America says defaults, delinquencies and repossessions are “approaching levels not seen since just before the Great Recession.” https://www.carscoops.com/2025/09/auto-loan-delinquencies-are-off-the-dial-and-even-prime-borrowers-are-struggling/
“Auto finance is at a breaking point… Subprime delinquency is worse than in the 2008 financial crisis.”
Even good-credit borrowers are slipping. Cox Automotive says people with above-average scores are now twice as likely to miss payments as before the pandemic. Repossession rates jumped 43% from 2022 to 2024. One in four trade-ins is now underwater.
Credit card debt is on the same path. The New York Fed says balances hit $1.21 trillion in Q2 2025. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/05/ny-fed-credit-card-debt-second-quarter-2025.html
“We are still seeing elevated delinquency rates for credit cards,” with 6.93% moving into delinquency over the last year.
The St. Louis Fed backs it up with a 3.05% delinquency rate across all commercial banks. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DRCCLACBS
Continues at link.
Retired 17 years ago. No debt. I am blessed.
How did you invest in precious metals?
Buying from dealers. And at one point we got a lot of junk silver by buying boxes of half dollars and quarters from the bank and going through it to pick out all the ones that were pre 1965. Then we turned the rest back in to the bank and got reimbursed for the ones we didn’t want. You probably couldn’t do that now because many other folks had the same idea and there’s likely not much left in circulation.
That's also Dave Ramsey's roadmap for financial success!
My thoughts on the subject:
“When I was very much younger and a smoker, cigarettes were .30 a pack and I could not afford that so I “rolled my own” for about .10 a pack.”
Reminds me of my ‘broker than broke’ days when we could afford a case of bottled beer (whatever was cheapest) and had to make that last for the whole month. If a bottle broke, it was a tragedy because we couldn’t get our full deposit back. $2 was big money some months! Beer was our ONLY indulgence. I no longer drink beer; that’s for poor folk, same way my Mom won’t touch a stewed tomato after surviving on ‘Stewed Tomatoes on Toast’ one winter on her family’s rural homestead.
Also feeding my crew of teen boys was always a challenge. Shopping at Aldi saved the day, as did food pantries, growing our own, hunting, fishing, etc.
Seems like all of these frugal activities HORRIFY the youth of today. ;)
Thanks for the tips. I did that with the first Escape I bought. Had $10K in CASH to flash them and I financed the rest for about 30 days. I got $3K off the sticker price and saved untold thousands on interest.
I’m no stranger to Blue book values, etc.
I loved that car. She’s still on the road - I gave her to a local family we know who was just squeaking by. They had to put a new muffler on her, but other than that, she’s well over 150K right now and aside from a little rust (this IS Wisconsin!) she’s solid.
My F-150 is my winter truck, but it’s just a tiny bit too big for me. I bought it so Beau and I could show up at family gatherings and evens not looking like a couple of Hillbillies in one of his cr@ptastic trucks, LOL!
Got it for $30K from a friend. Well, she’s an EX-FRIEND now, since she lied to me and tried to rip me off - but I’ve got the vehicle title and she does not. Loser!
I remember you stating that on other threads. We’re both blessed! I retired in 2016, debt free. Ya-Hooo!
Wow. Ten years, already! It’s gone by quickly - and I hear the rest of my life is going to go by even FASTER! I’d better get busy on my (Things to Do For Free) Bucket List. ;)
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