patrick.net

Read the fine print--the figure isn't adjusted for inflation or population growth.

I'll have my 160K debt paid off to coincide with Trumps second November win. His 2020 victory will be the perfect House Pay off party celebration all happening within the same month.
I would have paid it off earlier had I known the Insurance companies in Florida were going to turn into such vicious fucks hell bent on driving homeowners out of their houses by making insurance affordable for them. But they are easing draconian rules for landlords but not single family home owners.

I figured if I can't afford a rate hike to $5K now like the ins keeps trying to do, unless I spend at least 5K on my house in petty needless repairs.
I damn sure wont be able to afford the $10K premiums 20 years from now when I was trying to make the final payments in my senior years.

I plan on going insurance free. And fully expect some of that FEMA money populist presidents like to throw around after every disaster if a hurricane does hit.
I'll be one of them hot button Seniors that gets everything during an election year.

AllTruth says

Americans Now Have Record High Debt, Breaking Prior Record! Congrats, Debt Serfs!

So what. We have record incomes too.

Tenpoundbass says

I'll have my 160K debt paid off to coincide with Trumps second November win. His 2020 victory will be the perfect House Pay off party celebration all happening within the same month.

It's fun to be debt-free. My only vice now is my morning coffee and treat at Starbucks.

Debtors! Live forever!
You enjoy having owners & paying more than purchase price.

Bumper sticker: " If you are so damn smart why aren't you rich?"

The State of the American Debt Slaves, Q4 2018 - Consumers are doing their job only in a lackadaisical manner. But the student-loan scheme is hot.

It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it: Propping up the massive US economy. And consumers are doing it, but in a somewhat lackadaisical manner when it comes to spending money they don’t have. Consumer debt – more enticingly, “consumer credit” similar to “extra credit” – rose 4.7% in the fourth quarter 2018 compared to the fourth quarter last year. In the year 2018, Americans added $179 billion to their balances on their credit cards, auto loans, and student loans. Every dime was spent and added to GDP. It amounted to nearly 1% of GDP. If GDP grew 3.1% in 2018, just under one third of the growth was generated by that additional consumer debt.

Without this additional consumer borrowing, if consumers had just maintained their debt levels, GDP growth might only have been 2.2% in 2018, instead of 3.1%. So, a huge round of applause is due our debt slaves that now owe over $4 trillion for the first time ever, according to the Federal Reserve Thursday afternoon:



Consumer debt includes auto loans, student loans, credit-card debt, and personal loans, but it excludes housing related debt, such as mortgages and HELOCs.

The $4.01 trillion in consumer debt is up 52% from the peak early in the Financial Crisis in Q3 2008. This is not adjusted for inflation. Over the same period, the Consumer Price Index rose 16% and nominal GDP rose 39%. Thus, Americans are sticking to their time-honored plan of out-borrowing both inflation (by a big margin) and economic growth.

Over the past 12 months, consumer debt rose by 4.7% while nominal GDP likely rose just over 5% (due to the government shutdown, Q4 GDP data has not been released yet, so I’m guessing). But nominal GDP outgrowing consumer credit growth is a rare phenomenon. The last time it occurred, and the only time since the Great Recession, was from Q1 through Q3 2015.

Auto loans and leases

Total auto loans and leases outstanding for new and used vehicles in Q4 jumped by $41 billion from a year ago, or by 3.7%, to a record of $1.155 trillion, despite stagnant vehicle sales.

Revolving credit

Credit card debt and other revolving credit, such as personal lines of credit, in Q4 rose 2.0% year-over-year to $1.045 trillion (not seasonally adjusted). Given that nominal GDP rose around 5% over the same period, consumers clearly fell short of the job they’re expected to do.

The student-loan economy

Student loans jumped by 5.3% year-over-year in Q4, or by $80 billion, to a new record of $1.57 trillion (not seasonally adjusted), having doubled since the beginning of 2010, even as higher-education enrollment declined 7% from 2010 through 2016, according to the latest data from the National Center for Education Statistics. Fewer students, but they each borrow more, to fatten entire industries from Apple and concert-ticket sellers to investors in the hot category of commercial real estate called student housing

Just to see what consumer debt would look like without the student-loan scheme, here are auto loans and credit card loans combined – and it shows how lackadaisical consumers are in doing their job by borrowing money they don’t have, with the total having increased by 2.9% year-over-year. Since the peak in 2008, the total has risen 22%, while the Consumer Price Index has risen 16% and the US population 7%:



But averages hide where the difficulties are – and they’re always at the margin where people are struggling to make ends meet. Many of these folks have sub-prime rated credit, but there are also plenty of folks with high incomes and excellent credit scores, but who spend too much and borrow too much, and they’re living from paycheck to paycheck. Any shift in the labor market that would cause them to lose their jobs could push them into default in no time. And the averages don’t show the risks buried at the margins.

More to read, more charts: https://wolfstreet.com/2019/02/08/the-state-of-the-american-debt-slaves-q4-2018/

Last debt was 14 years ago (mortgage) and I only ever had one car loan when I HAD to have a car in L.A. in the day. Paid that off in six months. If I couldn't easily pay cash for a car with spare change, it didn't get bought.

HEYYOU says

I very interested to see how much debt an economic system can handle.

Just like with evaluating a stock, you want to look at household debt as a proportion of that houeshold's income, cash reserves, and future income prospects.

if a household has $50k in credit card debt and has a total annual income of $150k, that's much scarier than $50k debt on an annual combined household income of $300k.

Also, if the household is getting something useful for the leverage, it might make the debt service cost worthwhile. Paying debt service costs on a family cottage to reduce lifetime vacation costs might actually be smart. Paying debt service overhead for TV sets, jewelry, or sending the kiddos to uni for worthless degrees is just spinning your wheels.

I know some folks who smartly work the opposite side of this equation: buying low risk consumer loans. Be the recipient of interest rather than having it drained. It did mean they had to live frugally for a decade to build up the capital. But I guess... you get what you save for.