03.08.07

Maxed Out

Posted in Debt Reduction, Finance, Musings, Soapbox at 12:45 pm by trueepicure

I’m really happy to see that in this age of massive credit card debt, that the topic is being brought out of the closet more and more. I read recently in Michelle Singletary’s “The Color of Money” column in the Washington Post, that:

The Commerce Department reported that the U.S. personal savings rate for all of 2006 was negative 1 percent, the worst since the Great Depression.

From July 1, 2005, to June 30, 2006 there were almost 1.5 million personal bankruptcy filings.

Credit card issuers have increased the number of mailed credit card offerings sixfold since 1990, from just over 1.1 billion to a record 6 billion in 2005. [The Census Bureau's 2006 estimate of the total population of the U.S. is just under 300 million.]

Revolving credit card debt, the amount you don’t pay off every month, increased 6 percent from $827 billion to $876 billion in 2006.

Low- and middle-income households have, on average, $8,650 in credit card debt. [I'd be interested to know what the actual range is. My guess is that there are some pretty high numbers at the top end.]

There is a movie opening this week, called Maxed Out, that has a lot of people talking. My impression is that it is Debt a la Supersize Me. I think it’s great that people are talking about what has been a taboo topic for so long. I mean, check out all of the blogs that talk about personal finance and debt!

I wish someone had started me thinking about budgets and personal finance when I was in high school… or even earlier. If I had thought about what credit cards could do to my financial life a little bit more, I would be in MUCH better shape now. It makes me think that I should put together a presentation and start knocking on school doors. I’m serious!

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